New York City's Changing Waterfront

The story of NYC's waterfront over the last few decades can be told as a reorientation towards its harbor and waterways.

 

Centuries of land development, growth in maritime transport, and proliferation of industry along the waterfront effectively closed off recreational access to the waterfront. The subsequent slow decline of industry’s prominence — first within NYC, and then throughout the region, led to steady public and private disinvestment from the wharves, piers, and waterfront infrastructure that supported maritime industry. The economic fallout exacerbated by the City’s fiscal crisis of the 1970s and 1980s quickly spread to the neighboring communities that relied on jobs and city services. By the early 1990s, much of the immediate waterfront was underutilized, polluted and inaccessible for productive use or public enjoyment. Many of the adjacent waterfront communities were left in an economic and public health crisis and without much safe access to their shoreline.

Many of the changes that have occurred on NYC’s 520 miles of waterfront are the result of ideas embedded within the previous Comprehensive Waterfront Plans. These transformations are the result of significant planning efforts involving extensive collaboration between government agencies and the many New Yorkers who have expressed their passion for making NYC’s waterfront and waterways better places to live, learn, work and play. Several significant changes are highlighted below. These examples show the progress the City and waterfront communities have made to increase use of the waterfront for open space, housing and jobs, and to improve waterways for transportation, recreation and natural habitats.

 

Adapting to Climate Change

This past decade, practitioners, elected officials, public agencies, advocates, residents, and community leaders have come together to redefine the way work on climate resiliency and adaptation issues occurs citywide and at the neighborhood level. Zoning for Coastal Flood Resiliency (ZCFR), an update to citywide zoning text approved in 2021, improved the ability of homeowners' and business owners' to withstand and recover from future storms and other disaster events by providing them with greater flexibility and better guidance on flood-resilient design.

Adapting to Climate Change

NYC parks, which are important spaces that connect communities to the waterfront, are being adapted to address the threat of rising sea levels. After Hurricane Sandy, the City invested more than $140 million to repair and restore the Rockaway Beach Boardwalk. Sections of the boardwalk reopened in 2015 and 2016. The entire boardwalk opened on time and under budget for the 2017 Memorial Day, signaling the beginning of beach season.

Adapting to Climate Change

In 2015, New York City Housing Preservation and Development (NYCHPD) launched the Resilient Edgemere Community Planning Initiative as a collaboration among City agencies, community members, elected officials, and local organizations. Moving from comprehensive planning towards implementation, the plan lays out clearly defined goals, strategies, and 60 concrete projects, representing millions of dollars in planned investment over the next 10 years and beyond.

Photo Credit: NYCHPD

Adapting to Climate Change

New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) employed resilient design principles to retrofit the structures and critical infrastructure at 33 campuses across the city to protect buildings from the impacts of future storm surges. Some examples include the Coney Island Houses in Brooklyn and the Ocean Bay Houses in Queens.

Photo Credit: NYCHA

Adapting to Climate Change

The City has introduced a new class of infrastructure and is breaking ground on generational coastal flood protection projects that will protect New Yorkers from storm surge and other coastal flooding. Projects include the USACE South Shore Staten Island Levee and the Raised Shorelines project in Travis Avenue, Staten Island are advancing through final design and construction, respectively.

Photo Credit: NYCEDC

A System-wide Approach to Restoring the Natural Environment

The implementation of ecosystem-scale wetland restoration initiatives reflects a shift in how NYC tackles wetland restoration. For example, by setting up New York's first-ever mitigation credit bank at the Saw Mill Creek Wetland in Staten Island, NYCEDC and the City are helping to streamline the mitigation process, while also funding an important wetland restoration work. The City has also led over 35 salt marsh restorations, including the Salt Marsh Restoration at Soundview Park in the Bronx, totaling over 150 acres, across all five boroughs.

Photo Credit: WSP

A System-wide Approach to Restoring the Natural Environment

The City has spent nearly $2.7 billion in grey infrastructure projects to reduce CSOs and is implementing a $1.6 billion green infrastructure program.

Photo Credit: NYCDEP

A System-wide Approach to Restoring the Natural Environment

A $110 million upgrade to the Coney Island Wastewater Resource Recovery Facility is underway. Once completed, the upgrades will provide reliable sewage pumping capacity for the next 30-plus years, improve public health and wastewater treatment reliability to the surrounding community, and improve the facility's energy efficiency by 20 percent through engineering design improvements.

Photo Credit: NYCDEP

A System-wide Approach to Restoring the Natural Environment

In 2019, NYS announced $1.5 million in capital funding to help create approximately four acres of enhanced habitat for 5 to 10 million oysters in the Hudson River Park's Estuarine Sanctuary.

Photo Credit: Billion Oyster Project

A System-wide Approach to Restoring the Natural Environment

The Billion Oyster Project, in collaboration with scientists, maintains monitoring stations and community oyster reefs throughout all five boroughs. The Wallabout Oyster Nursery in Brooklyn is an example of a spawning sanctuary, where oysters spawned on Governors Island grow and breed, adding to the larvae in Upper New York Harbor and increasing the diversity of life at the Brooklyn Navy Yard's edge.

Photo Credit: Billion Oyster Project

Expanding Public Access to the Waterfront

Over the last decade, the design of waterfront parks has embraced NYC's unique native marine ecology, diverse landscapes and the desire to connect land and water. Hunters Point South in Queens is a great example of a vibrant and sustainable community. NYCEDC completed the park in summer 2018, transforming 11 acres of an abandoned post-industrial landscape into a vibrant and resilient waterfront park.

Expanding Public Access to the Waterfront

NYC's parks such as Sunset Cove and Bayswater Park in Queens are increasingly being adapted to respond to climate resilience challenges, since they can serve as important buffers between rising sea levels and communities.

Expanding Public Access to the Waterfront

New strategies to integrate pedestrian and bicycle access within shoreline transportation infrastructure have led to safer connections and access for communities previously severed from their waterfront. Projects like Sheridan Blvd in the Bronx or the Canarsie Connector in Brooklyn are great examples of these strategies.

Photo Credit: NYCDOT

Expanding Public Access to the Waterfront

In recent years, new community boathouses, get-downs, and built or proposed pier infrastructure have improved New Yorkers' in-water access for human-powered boating and other watercraft. Bayswater Park Boathouse in Queens and Starlight Park HPB floating piers showcase this type of spaces.

Photo Credit: NYC Parks

Expanding Public Access to the Waterfront

Sustained efforts to align Interagency coordination with community partnerships, such as on Randall's island, have demonstrated strategies for reconnecting communities to waterfronts. Construction of the Randall's Island Connector and improvements to the South Bronx Greenway have made Randall's Island directly accessible to Bronx residents, joining other enhancements to the island such as establishment of the Parks as Lab educational facility, tidal wetland restoration and major improvements to active open space amenities.

Diversifying the City's Economy on the Waterfront

Key investments in NYC's waterfront industrial campuses, such as the Sustainable South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, have strengthened the maritime industry and helped connect New Yorkers to quality jobs.

Photo Credit: South Brooklyn Marine Terminal

Diversifying the City's Economy on the Waterfront

Educational partnerships and workforce development initiatives have connected job seekers and incumbent workers to careers in urban manufacturing and innovation. Brooklyn STEAM at the Brooklyn Navy Yard is a great example of these collaborations.

Photo Credit: SCAPE

Diversifying the City's Economy on the Waterfront

Raising the Bayonne Bridge opened the East Coast's largest seaport to the world's largest ships.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

Using NYC's Waterways as Connectors

The 2017 launch of NYC Ferry brought much-needed transit service to connect waterfront job centers and waterfront communities previously underserved by other forms of mass transit.

Photo Credit: NYCEDC


-- -- -- --