Council Member Narcisse testifies on Canarsie Pier ferry bill

Councilmember Narciso, you make your opening.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Chair, for giving me the opportunity.

I am here.

I just heard about $30 million for Canarsie Park, but I did not hear how much, you know, each specific other area.

I don't know how Canarsie already have the numbers, I guess because we've been fighting.

On the fast track now for building, we are at the bottom 12, so there is plan to actually have more development in that area, right?

But right now, as we speak, it takes about an hour and some minutes to get here from that side of town to here.

I want to speak about my bill N274, which would require the city to establish regular ferry service at Canarsie Pier.

Canarsie is my hometown, and it is a transit desert.

We have one subway line at the very end of the L train, which is not inside the inlet of the community.

The buses are packed.

I have a fellow that was traveling and never seen anything like that.

You have to squeeze yourself to get in any transportation, whether the train or the buses.

People in my district can spend an hour and a half, like I said, to even from here to there.

And when the train goes down, there is nowhere else to turn.

I raised four children.

And to get to Manhattan, to get to LaGuardia, to get to Bronx Science,

It was not easy.

And I know what I'm talking about.

I'm talking about years, right?

So right now, it's going to be much more difficult, right?

There's nowhere.

L residents are thirsty for options.

We've been fighting for decades.

Canarsie had ferry service in the early 1900s.

And then now we're fighting for it to come back.

My community has waited long enough for this return.

Now the city has put Community Board 18, like I said, on the fast track list.

If we are bringing more housing to our area, we need infrastructure to match.

We have infrastructure problems in all aspects, and we're not having them addressed, but we're having more development.

More homes mean more people who need to get to work, to school, and to doctors, and our transit is already stretched.

If the city can fast-track housing in Canarsie, I am also asking it to fast-track this ferry too.

A stop at Canarsie Pier would not only offer relief to commuters, but also bring visitors to Jamaica Bay.

I don't know if you heard about Churchillism and all the things that we have to offer, but there is no transportation to bring people in.

So we need that.

It means customer.

I was training from small businesses.

We need business opportunity.

We're talking about economics, right?

So if you bring development, you have to bring everything that come with it.

You have to assess the school and the transit.

You know it's already dead.

So we need to address that.

A ferry would bring life back to the waterfront and open the door to economic development our community has been asking for for decades.

Canarsie Pier is a city asset sitting right there, ready to be used.

We used to have a restaurant at the Canarsie Pier.

We used to have activities.

Now we have more people, less activities because we're not offering anything.

And it's an asset that we can use.

I am asking my colleagues to support this intro, 704.

I look forward to hearing not only from you to say what we're going to do.

I heard about the money part, but in the long run, if you have planned for development, you have to have that planned too because there is no transportation.

So that's all.

I rest my case, and I want to say thank you to my colleagues.

I got to run to my own hearing.

I apologize.

Thank you, Councilmember, and thank you for that testimony.