Outgoing Port Authority chief Chris Ward isn't taking his impending ouster out on his bosses, exactly: instead, he's using what remains of his public platform to mobilize the city with some pretty bold ideas. At yesterday's MASNYC conference, Ward lit into urban planning failures on the Brooklyn waterfront, saying specifically that shipping containers have no place in Red Hook and on Governors Island. Container shipping in Red Hook, according to Ward, is inefficient and a roadblock to development plans, like the possibility of new transportation infrastructure connecting the two. Them's fightin' words: “You will not be able to get the needed amount of people, whatever the use is, to Governor’s Island as long as you have a container terminal there.” And according to Crain's, he likened the waterfront situation to Vietnam, "a place where no one has been able to declare a victory."
He also proposed the construction of a cross-harbor freight tunnel to help manage the "economic and environmental crisis” of truck traffic in the city, as well as a rail freight distribution system. Taxpayers, are you listening?
· Chris Ward: NYC Truck Traffic “an Economic and Environmental Crisis” [Streetsblog]
· Brooklyn waterfront seen as top priority [Crain's]
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