Don’t Let The Stevedore Hit You On The Way Out

Waterfront development may be pushing out, um, waterfront development in Red Hook:

Dozens of longshoremen swarmed across the blue-hulled Zim Charleston on Tuesday at the Red Hook container port, unloading 1,150 containers of food, clothing and furniture from India that are bound for Long Island, New York City and New Jersey.

It was the first of what Zim, one of the world’s largest container carriers, says will be a weekly service bringing 90,000 containers a year to Pier 10, more than doubling the current volume and adding an estimated 152 new jobs.

But by next April, the city and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey are hoping to close the container port and the last remnants of Brooklyn’s once-bustling cargo piers, while evicting the operator, American Stevedoring. They say the freight can be better handled at ports in New Jersey, or at Howland Hook on Staten Island.

The city is also interested in residential projects and other maritime uses on the waterfront that could generate thousands of jobs, like the newly opened cruise ship terminal on Pier 12 in Red Hook.

Although the Bloomberg administration says it would consider creating a container port in the future, the City Council will vote today on the administration’s plan to turn part of the only alternative location — the long-dormant South Brooklyn Marine Terminal in Sunset Park — into a parking lot.

Critics like Councilman David Yassky of Brooklyn, and Representative Jerrold Nadler said the city’s plan to close the Brooklyn port is both wrong and shortsighted. They say that both the business and the well-paying waterfront jobs could be lost forever. And, they say, both New York and New Jersey need every inch of space to handle the rapidly escalating volume of goods.

“Shipping creates excellent-paying jobs for people who don’t compete in the high-tech economy,” Mr. Yassky said, “and it keeps trucks off the roads.”

But Deputy Mayor Daniel L. Doctoroff counters that Red Hook is not sustainable because of its small size and lack of rail and highway access.

“Our single most important priority is providing jobs for New Yorkers,” Mr. Doctoroff said. “We also consider it an important priority to preserve and enhance jobs for dockworkers. That does not mean we have to achieve that by retaining the current uses or current tenants on the piers.”