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March 17, 2006

Red Hook Prepares for Cruise Shipapalooza

ship
According to one of our favorite publications, Travel Weekly, alerts us to the fact that there will be a ceremonial ribbon cutting ceremony at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal on April 15th as the Queen Mary 2 anchors off Pier 12. The ceremony celebrates the $150 million the city has sunk into the terminal facilities (including the West Side terminal). The big question is will the Red Hook terminal be ready in time? “I realize it looks like we have a long way to go,” said the project manager for Turner Construction, the company doing the renovation, who didn’t want his name used. “But we’re ahead of schedule.” Not everyone is optimistic about the terminal's impact on the neighborhood. “It won’t bring me much business,” said Arnaud Erhart, co-owner of 360, a French restaurant blocks from the terminal’s entrance. “I’ve been looking at the terminal through a chain-link fence. They would need to open it up so there’s actual contact with the neighborhood. I don’t know that they’re ready to do that.”
April Ribbon Cutting for Red Hook [Travel Weekly]




Posted by Brownstoner at 9:15 AM | Comments (16)
Categories: Neighborhoods

Comments

the terminal is a good 10 blocks from 360. there's no way some 60-year-old spandex-ed couple from alabama is trekking down van brunt to go to 360.

plus 360 is only open for dinner and don't most cruise ships dock in the early morning and let the ppl out to shop, etc?

Posted by: ltjbukem at March 17, 2006 9:48 AM

Travel Weekly is one of your favorite publications? I've written a lot of special projects for them - funny. I didn't think any non-travel-agents even know what it was.

Posted by: lesterhead at March 17, 2006 10:55 AM

Sorry if our sarcasm wasn't obvious. We were heretofore unaware of the magazine's existence until we found this article through Google.

Posted by: Brownstoner at March 17, 2006 11:18 AM

I figured.

Posted by: lesterhead at March 17, 2006 11:23 AM

Granted I don't know that much about the cruise industry, but the QE2 doesn't appear to be the type of ship that services 'some 60-year-old spandex-ed couple from alabama'. No?

Posted by: sandra at March 17, 2006 11:37 AM

From going to CB6 meetings, I can tell you that if there's any economic impact at all on Red Hook it's expected not from passangers but from the crew, who they envision coming into the neighborhood for some R&R and sundries that will be cheaper for them to buy off ship. NY is almost never a port of call for cruise passengers. It's an embarkation point. The other expected local revenue that is anticipated, I believe, is from the ships' need to restock. I want to say they're going to be working with the Fairway on that front, but I'm not 100% sure if that information is correct. It would be cool if they could buy produce from the Red Hook farm, the way other local restaurants like 360 do, but I don't think the farm is big enough to handle that kind of supply.

Posted by: combustiblegirl at March 17, 2006 12:27 PM

Did anyone else catch the article in one the free local papers last week about the on-going search for a car service company with enough capacity to handle the anticipated 800-1,000 rides into Manhattan that disembarking passengers will need? Apparently 1/3 of the 2,500-3,000 passengers will be taking that route. The piece quoted a Brooklyn car company saying that no one in the borough is big enough to handle the new business. How could this not have been planned for at the earliest stages? What will Cunard tell their passengers as they cool their heels in a 2-hr line for cabs? How will the congested streets around the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges cope with this new traffic volume? Why isn't there a ferry to take people over to Lower Manhattan? The picture this paints can't be complete otherwise the incompetency of both Cunard and the city agencies involved (including Marty and Brooklyn Borough Hall) is greater than even a cynic like me could have imagined.

Posted by: Anon at March 17, 2006 12:43 PM

Wouldn't they just use buses?

Posted by: Anonymous at March 17, 2006 2:08 PM

Anon - 800-1000 more cars will have zero impact on traffic at the bridges (unless they all reached the bridge at exactly the same instant)

Posted by: David at March 17, 2006 2:49 PM

maybe i should quit my job and open up a taxi service. i was thinking that a pedicab business would be fun for red hook to take folks to the subway and bklyn heights.

there's opportunity here!
as long as they don't try to squeeze 5000 people on the B61 bus!

Posted by: Anonymous at March 17, 2006 3:37 PM

David, Presumably they'll all be disembarking at roughly the same time so I'd assume they'd be looking for cabs at roughly the same time. Correct me if I'm mistaken about the logistics -- not that you really need an invitation to correct a fellow poster.
:)

Posted by: Anon at March 17, 2006 5:57 PM

Re the traffic from cabs, keep in mind also that the cruise ship terminals are right by the Battery Tunnel, I'm sure that a good majority of cars will be heading that way as well, or to the Verrazano and Jersey or Long Island for that matter. I don't think we can assume that everyone getting off the boats will be going straight to Manhattan. A good many might also be heading to LaGuardia.

Posted by: combustiblegirl at March 18, 2006 10:44 AM

Sorry, posted too soon. Obviously I misread the part where this refers to only 1/3 of the traffic.

Posted by: combustiblegirl at March 18, 2006 10:46 AM

Oh, please, the crew on a cruise ship is little different from the crew of a Merchant Marine ship. They come off the boat looking for the classics. Maybe I should quit my job and open up a bar/brothel in Sunset Park - only minutes away!

Posted by: CancelMoose at March 18, 2006 6:02 PM

Wow, all you people who are quitting your jobs and opening taxi services and bars are very funny, and clever as well. Maybe you should quit your jobs and become stand up comedians.

Posted by: Anonymous at March 19, 2006 11:14 AM

If they are going to Manhattan, why do they have to take individual cars? Can't they take busses (like the airport busses) to major hotels and drop off points. Or have Supper Shuttle do share ride service to/from there?

Or just put in a Water taxi over to Pier 11 in Lower Manhattan and they could have shuttle busses or just pick up a yellow cab from there.

Mass and shared transport should always be considered first and individual cars/cabs as last resort.

I don't drive and use mass transport to get around NYC as well as any place I travel.

Posted by: Anonymous at March 20, 2006 10:42 AM

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