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February 3, 2015– At the December, 2014 CB1 meeting, Tom Berton, the man who operates a couple of “tall ship” boat tours under the name of Manhattan by Sail presented to the board wanting permission to dock his ship called Clipper at Pier-A. His presentation seemed poorly thought out, and he was unaware of state-funded studies that concluded Pier-A was structurally unsound to serve as a docking station.
Tonight, a different maritime tour company was once again appealing to the CB1 for permission to dock at Pier-A. The NY Water Taxi company, represented by Brian McCabe, explained that they did not intend to use Pier-A as a slip for their yellow ferry boats that are required to honk three times before landing, and three times again when leaving, causing a noise nuisance for the people near the Vesey Street skip. He said that they only want to dock their large tour boat, the Zephyr. However, it is a double-decker large taxi boat, painted white instead of yellow, that would indeed have to honk before landing and departing at Pier-A.
When asked by BatteryPark.TV about the state-funded studies concluding that commercial boats cannot dock on the wooden piles holding up Pier-A, Mr. McCabe dodged the question. He only said that they would use “due diligence” (see video).
Who is allowing these tour boat companies to present before the CB1 with such Hail Mary plans?
Mr. McCabe let it slip that he had given CB1 Chairwoman Catherine McVay Hughes a tour of his boat lobbying for her support. Anthony Notaro, the lapdog of so many people, then acquiesced and allowed NY Water Taxi to pitch their case.
Once again, the CB1 is representing the special interests and not the community. In the wake of the arrest of Sheldon Silver, it is time for the members of CB1 to be swept aside and replaced by new faces.