Hundreds of millions of dollars could be spent over the next decade on planning and constructing transformative projects along Manhattan’s West Side waterfront. But there is a big “if” at play: the willingness of city and state governments to work together.
The pedestrian-hostile Route 9A is getting a makeover. Thanks to a starter fund of roughly $2 million from the Legislature and Gov. Hochul, the state Department of Transportation kicked off a study to redesign Route 9A from 59th St. to the Battery. Community planning is underway for the waterfront roadway to redesign it: potentially adding transit connections, expanding the bike path, improving safety, and fortifying against flooding.
For almost 30 years, the Hudson River Park Trust has been turning derelict piers into emeralds along the Hudson with a well-designed riverfront esplanade. The four mile park has a few gaps in it, and the busy commercial stretch from W. 29th to W. 46th Street is one of the last. Last month, the Trust launched its planning process to transform a 15-block stretch of the park that has never been comprehensively designed.
To the north, the Manhattan Cruise Terminal is also slated for remodeling. A master planning process by the city’s Economic Development Corp. has begun, with the goal to extend the terminals’ useful life for another 50 to 75 years.
While the esplanade from 29th to 46th Sts. is an ugly gap in Hudson River Park, it doesn’t compare to the environment around the terminal. A product of a very different waterfront — a “working waterfront” — the terminal was born before there was even a suggestion of a park and is divorced from the city. Even cruise passengers with money to spend are treated poorly: there’s terrible wayfinding and an embarrassing lack of connectivity via public transit to the city’s center. When you finally exit the terminal, you’re thrust onto a highway with taxi stands across eight lanes of traffic. Welcome to New York.
The terminal should interface with its host community, and be welcoming and exciting for passengers as they disembark. It should also serve as a corridor and destination for New Yorkers seeking waterfront access, as it once provided.
Nearby, the Intrepid Museum, a popular attraction, barely connects to northern parts of the park, as there is no esplanade to the forthcoming film studio at Pier 94, Clinton Cove at Pier 95, and the newly opened Pier 97, which is a magnet for people of all ages with its extensive active and passive features.
That these projects are in motion is a sign that the city and state know lack of access and connectivity are not acceptable for a world class city. But they must be planned together for a unified waterfront that is accessible, open, and inviting at every part of the shoreline.
In the Meatpacking District, our Western Gateway Vision Plan is taking shape with reimagined streets and pedestrian-first, community-driven spaces. A new 7,000 square foot plaza, Gansevoort Landing, connects from the commercial core and the Whitney Museum to Hudson River Park with a new crosswalk across Route 9A.
This spring, we’re installing a significant streetscape project on 14th St. between Ninth and Tenth Aves. that will create a promenade and improve the experience of W. 14th St. Coordination between city and state agencies has been the key to unlocking these improvements and demonstrates what’s possible for pedestrian and community oriented planning.
Thankfully, the governor and Mayor Adams have demonstrated a collaborative approach to leadership and that esprit de corps must trickle down to boots-on-the-ground agencies to break the siloed approach to projects.
We need to double down with state and city agencies, including the highly regarded Hudson River Park Trust, to develop coordinated, transformational, and comprehensive plans for the park, 9A, and the terminal. And the ideas need to be big: light rail and multimodal transit corridors, actual public transit connections along the waterfront, resiliency initiatives, connections to the park by expanding “greening” into the street grid, shore power at the terminal, and a pedestrian-centric approach guiding it all. And that’s just for starters.
Overlapping projects often trigger reticent reactions and give agency bureaucrats a headache. But big moments like this confluence of extraordinary infrastructure projects demand leadership. The governor and mayor have an opportunity to pull these currently disconnected projects together to maximize the benefits to New Yorkers and visitors alike, if we dive in and think big. It’s what New York does best.
LeFrancois is executive director of the Meatpacking District Management Association. He is a governor’s appointee on the Hudson River Park Trust Board and former chair of Manhattan Community Board 4.