By James Woodman
Community Board 1 seems to be warming up at least a little to the idea of adding a public beach on a neglected sandbank beneath the Brooklyn Bridge’s Manhattan terminus.
If Robert Buchanan, the proposal’s main advocate, gets his way, the 250-foot long and 70-foot wide shoal will be transformed into one of Lower Manhattan’s few gateways into the East River for water sports and aquatic studies — not to mention the area’s only accessible beach.
Though Community Board 1’s Waterfront Committee did not vote on the issue Monday, several committee members praised the proposal. Seeing the beach as a possible asset to the development of the East River waterfront, a number of members have thrown their support behind the proposal. A board vote would only be advisory but it could be influential with city officials.
“I actually see something happening here,” said Julie Nadel, chairperson of the Waterfront Committee. “For 29 years I have seen a slow evolution in peoples’ perspectives toward the waterfront. In five or ten years, our residents will be clamoring for more waterfront access.”
Yet most board members at the meeting, including Nadel, reiterated their strong concerns about the beach’s potential liabilities.
The main contention was the strong tidal current in the East River’s center, which committee co-chairperson Una Perkins believes could well spoil the plan.
“You can’t just ignore the current,” she said. “It is very, very dangerous for swimmers.”
“Yes, where there is recreational boating, people will die — and people have died” Buchanan replied. “But that is no justification for shutting off the harbor.”
Committee member Marc Ameruso noted that a precedent for beach access in the East River had already been set directly across the river — in Brooklyn. A section of DUMBO’s Brooklyn Bridge Park, completed in 2006, offers the public unfettered access to the water, via a pebbly beach.
“If they can do it there, we can do it here,” Ameruso said, displaying an aerial photograph of DUMBO’s riverfront park.
“To be honest, Brooklyn is kicking our [butt], in terms of water,” Buchanan added. “If this waterfront is going to succeed, you’re going to need to engage the water.”
Ultimately concluding that Buchanan must present a wider range of expert analysis on the East River’s tidal currents, the Waterfront Committee decided to revisit the issue at their next meeting in June.
To get the project approved, Buchanan must persuade the New York City Economic Development Commission, which oversees the riverfront development effort. According to Buchanan, the E.D.C. also has reservations about liability, but may soon invite him to present his beach plan in person.
Buchanan, an assistant journalism professor at the New School, became interested in the Brooklyn Bridge Beach when police hassled him for landing his kayak on the sandbank to take a rest.
“This beach is the chief natural feature — the only natural feature — of Lower Manhattan’s shoreline.” Buchanan said. “And Community Board 1 should be the guardians of our nautical heritage.”
