Friends of Coney Island Creek Ferry Landing + Park

The Project is to advocate for and install a recreational ferry route and the requisite improved ferry landings to run from The Battery at the tip of Manhattan, to a proposed Ferry Landing on Coney Island Creek.

Once in place the route and landing will provide ferry access to Coney Island and introduce New Yorkers to the wonders of Coney Island Creek, Kaiser Park and the Peninsula community, one of our city's great waterfront treasures.

Once improved, the landing site, currently owned by the City, will be opened to the public as a park with places to rent and launch small boats and kayaks. The park will also complement existing open space north and south of the Creek, including Kaiser Park and the Coney Island amusement area.

Once begun, the Coney Island ferry will peak with two ferry trips in the morning and two in the afternoon, with four hours of short rides mid-day exploring the Creek, the beach and Gravesend Bay. A jitney would be provided to bring visitors from the amusement area to the landing that would also serve as a tour of Peninsula attractions including the Stadium, the new music venue, the beach and the boardwalk. 

We are presently engaged in a trial run to publicise the project.  The trial run is intended to not only raise awareness but to convince those still skeptical that the project will work.

We will then work with our collaborators and friends to raise funding for the temporary improvements of the "pier" at the Creek end of W 21st Street in Coney Island.  Once fenced and paved, the pier will allow landing of a ferry running when major attractions occur.

To use the landing continually we will seek approvals and support from the City Council, the Borough Presidents Office, the Department of Transportation and the Economic Development Corporation of the City.

To scale up the running of a ferry from an empty beginning to a viable operation will require funding subsidies. Additionally, we will raise funds for the further improvements of the landing, creation of the park surrounding it and, as a mature organization, the Friends of Coney Island Creek Landing + Park will be prepared to manage the park, invite public programs and support the continued preservation and development of the waterfront.

Although a route from Pier 11 at Wall Street will be used initially, the Manhattan end of the route will ultimately be Piers 1&2, to connect The Battery Conservancy's "SeaGlas Carousel" with Coney Island's Amusement Park.  Here too, investments will be needed to upgrade teh landing.

The ferry run itself will raise needed awareness of an underappreciate Coney Island Creek by bringing visitors to a popular recreational area through it, - but more importantly, it will highlight and provide increased economic opportunity and development to the the wonderful diverse Peninsula community.

And it will set an example of how public interest can be brought to focus on environmental needs along the City's waterfront.