NYCEDC is making waves in New York City with the Waterfront Vision and Enhancement Strategy (WAVES), a citywide strategy launched by Mayor Bloomberg and Speaker Quinn that lays out a sustainable blueprint for the City’s more than 500 miles of shoreline. WAVES has two core components: Vision 2020: The New York City Comprehensive Waterfront Plan, released a year ago, which established long-term goals for the next decade and beyond, and the New York City Waterfront Action Agenda, which identified 125 waterfront projects in all five boroughs to be undertaken before Mayor Bloomberg leaves office at the end of 2013. Within the first year of WAVES, the City completed 34 initiatives and another 71 initiatives are on schedule for completion (84 percent of total projects).

Projects have brought focus to efforts such as enhancing area ferry services, increasing climate resilience, improving water quality, restoring shorelines, and supporting the waterfront as an economic-driver for the City, including:

• Testing feasibility of commuter ferry service on the East River connecting Brooklyn and Queens with Manhattan (NYCEDC, 2011)
• Developing a maritime skills apprentice program in partnership with SUNY Maritime College (NYCEDC / NYC Dept. of Small Business Services, 2011)
• Replacing and lowering Anchorage Channel Tap Water Siphons to facilitate deepening of the harbor shipping channel (NYCEDC, 2011)
• Completing construction of 8.5 acres of East River Esplanade South between Battery Maritime Building and Pier 35, including Pier 15 to feature water uses, educational uses, and café (NYCEDC, 2012)
• Completing improvements to the South Bronx Greenway (NYCEDC, 2012)

Download the New York City Waterfront Action Agenda Progress Report for more detailed information on the projects and improvements that are going on.