Irony Alert: City Honors Longshoreman at Cruise Terminal

Remember when the city Economic Development Corporation was trying to evict American Stevedoring and its hundreds of longshoremen employees from the Red Hook Piers? Neither do we. Well, now that everything is cool at the piers and the longshoremen won a 10-year lease, it makes total sense that the city hold a ceremony there this Tuesday “to pay tribute to the workers who made the waterfront great and to those who are working today to revitalize the great Port of New York,” said a city press release. They city, elected officials and “supporters of the working waterfront” are celebrating the rededication of The Working Brooklyn Waterfront, a mural made in 1963 by noted artist Bernard Seaman. The mural was first installed in the Brooklyn Longshoremen’s Medical Center in Cobble Hill. It was reinstalled at the cruise terminal when that building was scheduled for demolition “due largely to the efforts of the members of the ILA Local 1814 and funded by NY Container Terminal.” Although never addressed by name, we’re going to guess “NY Container Terminal” is American Stevedoring, the EDC’s old nemesis. Glad to see everyone’s put that whole mess behind them.
Lease Ends Uncertainty for Red Hook Cargo Docks [NY Times]
City Releases Vision for Container Port [NY Post]
EDC Plan for Container Port [Brownstoner]
Photo by Seth Holladay.