Nadler joins Mayor Bloomberg for the development of Brooklyn’s waterfront

Written by jrood

Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), the senior Northeastern Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, joined Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Congressman Jose Serrano and Councilman Michael Nelson for the City's unveiling of the its new comprehensive waterfront plan.

"This comprehensive
waterfront plan will be an excellent framework for the continued discussion and
advancement of New York City’s maritime issues, which are of the utmost
importance to the economic well-being of our city and region," said Nadler. "This
blueprint will reaffirm the City’s commitment to preserving, protecting and
investing in our precious maritime and industrial infrastructure, and will
build upon the Mayor’s support of the development of a major container port in
Sunset Park as envisioned in the City’s ‘1999 Strategic Plan for the
Redevelopment for the Port of New York.’ The full realization of Brooklyn’s
container capacity is essential for our region’s growth and economic
development, and for ensuring that New York remains the preeminent shipping hub
on the eastern seaboard."

Nadler delivered the
following statement:

"Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for
your important and timely leadership on this vital issue. This comprehensive
waterfront plan that you are announcing will be an essential framework for the
discussion and advancement of New York City’s maritime issues, issues which are
of the utmost importance to the economic well-being of our city and region. This
blueprint will reaffirm the City’s commitment to preserving, protecting and
investing in our precious maritime and industrial infrastructure, and will
build upon the Mayor’s support of the development of a major container port in
Sunset Park.

"As we all know, this
industrial waterfront is more than just an archaic fossil of New York’s past
maritime glory, but a living, breathing resource for New York City and for the
region beyond. I thank you, Mr. Mayor, for your understanding of the necessity
of preserving and developing this unique piece of New York infrastructure in
the furtherance of our shared goals, which are: creating jobs and economic
development, reducing pollution and congestion on our roads, and increasing the
efficiency of goods movement throughout the region.

"The movement of goods,
while not a topic that captures the imagination of most New Yorkers, is an
issue of phenomenal and immediate importance. Our roads cannot handle the truck
traffic that exists today, let alone the projected increases of the coming
years. For that reason, the trucking of freight is not now and has never been a
sustainable or long-term solution. This is why I have, for more than 30 years,
spoken so frequently on the necessity of expanding and improving our rail
freight and container shipping infrastructure in order to remove trucks from
our roads.

"Removing trucks from our
major arteries will simultaneously reduce automobile traffic and the
accompanying air pollution, increase efficiency in the delivery of goods,
reduce the cost of those goods for businesses and consumers, and make New York
a more productive and central hub for the delivery and distribution of freight
in general. The linchpin of our efforts to rationalize the way we move goods
throughout the region is a project that is supported by the Mayor, the Cross
Harbor Rail Tunnel, a project which would finally connect Brooklyn, Queens and
Long Island to the national rail freight network which begins in New Jersey. Thank
you, Mayor Bloomberg, for your support of this critical project.

"In order to make real
progress, the City’s comprehensive waterfront plan must now build upon the
Sunset Park Vision Plan, which was announced last summer, and the 1999
Strategic Port Plan. Among other important goals, these key plans reaffirm the
City’s intentions to develop a major Container Terminal in Sunset Park. The
full realization of Brooklyn’s container capacity is essential for our region’s
growth and economic development, and for ensuring that New York remains the
preeminent shipping hub on the eastern seaboard.

"Together, improved rail freight and shipping
infrastructure will dramatically transform New York into greener, more
efficient, more sustainable, and more economically productive place than ever
imagined. I look forward to working with Mayor Bloomberg, Speaker Quinn and the
many others working on these critical issues."

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