By Madina Toure
City Councilman Paul Vallone (D-Bayside) said he is working on getting a full-time ferry from Citi Field into Manhattan that would be privately funded by the Mets and the US Open.
“It would be a great way to get into Manhattan, drive into Citi Field, take the ferry down,” he said. “Especially in the spring, it would be nice.”
He is also looking to have weekend ferry service from Fort Totten into Manhattan for recreational purposes, such as visiting the Statue of Liberty and the World Trade Center.
This came just as Mayor Bill de Blasio announced in his second State of the City speech a new citywide ferry service that would unite East River routes with new landings and services to Astoria, the Rockaways, South Brooklyn, Soundview and the Lower East Side.
De Blasio said the ferry service will launch in 2017 and be supported by a $55 million capital commitment.
Vallone also said businesses in the College Point Corporate Park that pay into the park’s improvement fund can now determine how its money is used.
During meetings with Vallone, Queens Borough President Melinda Katz and the Mayor’s Office, the businesses that currently contribute to the fund and have been for decades, “never saw a dollar,” Vallone said.
“We put in an immediate halt to all funding down there and now the College Point Corporate Park is going to have control over its own money for the first time,” he said. “And the city’s actually going to hand it over to them.”
The College Point Corporate Park is a 550-acre office park with more than 200 companies and 6,000 employees. Of the 200 companies, 57 are required to pay into the park’s improvement fund.
The fund supports the park’s management and maintenance program, along with business assistance training, beautification projects and capital improvements. But over the last 20 years, the fund has accumulated about $5 million. .
The city Economic Development Corporation is in the process of establishing a new steering committee that will help determine the future of the investment funds, an EDC spokesman said.
Options that were being considered included the creation of a business improvement district, a board of directors, an advisory board or a nonprofit composed of the businesses, the city Economic Development Corporation and members of Community Board 7, Chuck Apelian, co-chairman of the College Point Corporate Park Taskforce and first vice chairman of Community Board 7, previously told TimesLedger.
Reach reporter Madina Toure by e-mail at mtoure@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 260–4566.
