Most people who’ve been following this are aware of the playing fields – but did you know that Pier 40 has also been one of the all-too-scarce points of river access for recreational human-powered boating? I’ve listed the organizations today on Frogma.

The Trust shut down another such hub, Chelsea’s Pier 63 Maritime, for nearly a full year, with extremely short notice. The situation there was different as Pier 63 was a subtenant of a Trust interim tenant (and a difficult one who stretched “interim” to the breaking point) but a lot of boaters found oourselves in a real scramble to find places to store our sixteen-foot-plus most prized possessions (can’t just park it in your NYC apt) before the construction fences went up.

The first page of the Hudson River Park Act includes the phrase: “The creation of the Hudson River Park will encourage, promote and expand public access to the Hudson River, promote water based recreation…”

I just hope that whatever happens at Pier 40, the boaters there aren’t treated quite as DIScouragingly as the Pier 63 paddlers were.

They ARE building boathouses, but at least back when I was there, it sometimes seemed like they don’t see the boaters who have been operating reasonably well through non-Park groups or facilities.

Of course I haven’t had a boat in the Hudson River Park since Sept. 11, 2006 (the day they closed Pier 63). I keep my boats in Brooklyn now. Got too tired of the politics.