Cruise Ships to Start Docking in Brooklyn

[icymist]

By RICHARD PYLE
Associated Press Writer

April 14, 2006, 2:04 PM EDT


NEW YORK -- For nearly a century, great ocean liners ended their trans-Atlantic crossings with a grand finale -- a nautical promenade past the Statue of Liberty and skyscrapers of Manhattan.

That will change beginning Saturday, when the world's biggest passenger ship edges into a remote Brooklyn pier once known for coffee, corruption and crime.

What happens when the nearly 2,200 passengers step off the 1,132-foot Queen Mary 2 will also be different. Instead of being in midtown Manhattan, where hotels are a quick cab ride away, they will be in Red Hook, facing a convoluted trip through the traffic-clogged streets of Brooklyn.

The arrival of the Queen Mary 2, on the first of 11 scheduled visits to New York this year, marks the formal opening of the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal. Other visiting cruise ships over the next few months will include the Queen Elizabeth 2.
Read more here.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

1. Having grown up in the area

this headline is hilarious.

Where are you sailing to, Herman? Oh? Brooklyn? Lovely at this time of year!

[acmejack]

2. I almost strangled.

Having once been at Brooklyn Navy Yard, where I assume this is.

Some true Boone & Crockett specimens of the family wharf rat roaming the area. Big, mean, hungry...

[TallahasseeGrannie]

4. If you survive the rats

you gotta deal with the Crips and Bloods. Or whatever they have in Brooklyn. Used to be the Espositos and Greenburgs. No more.

[jwcomer]

7. That's the most ignorant thing I've read in a while.

Where do you get off making comments like that?
I'm guessing you have never even been to Brooklyn, much less Red Hook?

[Lance_Boyle]

11. Well, let's not pretend that Red Hook didn't have its share

of organized (and less-than-organized) criminal activity. It did. It likely still does. But that doesn't mean it's not a decent place for the cruise ships to dock. Hell, show me a port city in any of the tropical carribean destinations that doesn't have some "wink-wink" activities going on. I can only hope this move brings some more of the NYC tourist $$$ into Brooklyn. It's a nice place. It is, after all, the only NYC borough where you can encounter an actual natural waterfall on a stroll about town.

[BrklynLiberal]

13. Organized crime in Red Hook was prevalent when it was a busy shipping

area, in the 50's. Like the article said..as in "On The Waterfront".
It has been totally residential since the closing of the docks.
I believe the point of this movement was to bring back some of the business to this area.
They are talking about opening an IKEA and a big movie complex not too far from this dock area.

[BrklynLiberal]

14. I believe that there are natural waterfalls in the Bronx Botanical Gardens

as well.

[Lance_Boyle]

16. Silly BrklynLiberal...

there's no nature in the Bronx! That's where hot snow falls up.

[BrklynLiberal]

17. You'd be surprised.

http://www.nybg.org/gardens/index_garden.php

and here is that waterfall

[saigon68]

22. an actual natural waterfall on a stroll about town.

As in hey, ---- zip it up buddy

[TallahasseeGrannie]

18. Well, I will admit I haven't been back to

the old neighborhood in a few years. My grandparents lived there for years, in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge, and so did their parents and their parents' parents. The other side of the family lived in Jersey City, and JC won hands down. And that's saying something. We lived 30 minutes away. And perhaps urban renewal or whatever has cleared up the blight. But it was a mess when I left and every time I've been back it hasn't looked much better. Perhaps in the last ten years or so there's been a renaissance. But in general, I'm glad I left. My grandparents were robbed about a dozen times in their last few years there. My grandfather was severely beaten once getting off the subway in the 60's. He was 80 years old at the time.

So there's where I get off making comments like that. My apologies if I have offended you.

[adriennui]

12. you obviously haven't been to brooklyn recently

the waterfront areas have been gentrified, million dollare condos and houses renovated. it's everything the west village used to be....from williamsburg, vinegar hill, dumbo, the heights into red hook and eventually sunset park.

do a little research before you make ignorant statements.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

19. You say that like it's a good thing?

LOL

I left and have no regrets. But populations ebb and flow and what once were slums become the new chic as people move in. The last time I went there was for my last uncle's funeral in '95. The gentrification had not yet begun. It was urban blight. Therefore, I felt no need, in my happy ignorance, to do any research.

But if you say it is now yuppie heaven, then I say how lovely for them. We certainly need more gentrified, million dollar condos. Keeps that tax base up!

[adriennui]

21. whall i'm saying is that passengers on ships have nothing to fear

and should consider themselves lucky to be able to see some of the most interesting sections of NYC. those condos are mixed in with a few housing projects and oldtimers who've lived in their brownstones for decades. these areas are still diverse.

[BrklynLiberal]

6. The Brooklyn Navy Yard is in Fort Greene.

These docks are in Red Hook which is a bit to the West and South. Not as far into the East River.
There is already some yuppification starting in Red Hook.

[eleny]

8. The Bklyn Navy Yard is closer to Williamsburg

Between the Manhattan Bridge and Williamsburg, actually.
http://www.google.com/maps?hl=en&lr=&q=navy+yard&near=Brooklyn,+NY&radius=0.0&cid=40650000,-73950000,11076363903205392390&li=lmd&z=14&t=m

Red Hook is southwest of the Navy Yard. If you zoom out on that map a few notches, you'll see the hook-like piece of land down and to the left.

[foo_bar]

3. "If you like Pina Coladas, and getting caught in the rain..."

[BrklynLiberal]

5. What this will do is that eventually all the people who live there now

will no longer be able to afford to live there.
This will eventually bring "gentrification" or "yuppification" to the neighborhood, raise rents and property values, and everyone who lives there now and has lived there for decades will be priced out of the neighborhood.

At one time these were very busy docks with ships coming and going every day. There are still descendants of the sailors that worked there, living in some of the older homes.

The only ones who will benefit from this are the Real Estate Agents and the Real Estate Speculators.

[foo_bar]

9. does that mean the rents in Manhattan will go down?

[BrklynLiberal]

10. I am afraid that will never happen. Sorry

;-)

[Gman]

15. Hope they don't get their hubcaps stolen

[TallahasseeGrannie]

20. I don't think I'll be signing up for that

cruise! But folks are saying it's now Club Med on the Hudson!