Readers Write: Town ignores ferry service opportunity

The Island Now

Four years ago, I proposed to the Town of North Hempstead that we have ferry service to New York City and LaGuardia Airports from Hempstead Harbor Beach.
This would create hundreds of well paying jobs, take thousands of cars off the road, lower our taxes, create revenue for the town (as opposed to all of the losing financial ventures we have today) and make commuting infinitely better than the LIE or LIRR.  
Good idea right?
For reasons I do not yet understand, after writing a study, sending dozens of letters and making many times more phone calls, the Town of North Hempstead has not responded.
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, Metropolitan New York and Long Island have one of the worst transportation hubs in the country with the worst problem spots at LaGuardia Airport.
Our country’s infrastructure is in the worst shape as it has ever been with an estimated $3.1 trillion to bring it back into shape and decades of time needed to get it done.
Gov. Cuomo has initiated $22 billion to bring back the crumbling infrastructure on the highways, which as we all know is already clogging the roadways and railways, and it is a safe bet, it will take twice as long as promised and cost twice as much before it is done.
As recent facts show from a New York City Economic Development Corporation study, ferries are a viable alternative to railroads, subways and highways for the New York metropolitan region, as they are less costly, easier to implement and faster.
More than any other city in the U.S., New York has an abundance of accessible waterways.
Communities all along the east river have seen a renaissance with ferry access and their property values have skyrocketed.
In fact, ferries could bring the Town of North Hempstead a revenue stream in excess of over $100 million a year or more and become its largest revenue source.
Ferries would be twice as fast in getting to the destinations while they would also lesson the overload of the other transportations systems today.
Furthermore, unlike trains and roadways, which cost billions and take dozens (East Side tunnel 3.5 miles long is on its 40th year) of years to build, we can implement ferries quickly.
No one in Long Island is farther than five miles from the water.
So here we are, the state wants to do this, New York City is doing this, the U.S. Department of Transportation wants to do this, the ferry companies want to do this, the people want to do this and the markets are making money available, so what or who is holding us up?
One name: Judi Bosworth, the Town of North Hempstead supervisor.
Over the years I have called and written repeatedly to get an answer, but she has not responded.
Please call her office and ask why she is holding up jobs, the environment, revenue, lower taxes, keeping property values down, and most of all, denying commuters a better way to go.
James Warwick
Port Washington

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