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IT’S SAIL LA VIE!
City bans party boats from operating at Sheepshead Bay
pier, offers safe harbor at some other berths in borough
Booze vessels can’t set sail from
Emmons Ave pier starting in May
Banished ships
welcome at city
piers in S’Park,
other nabes
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
They’re offering safe harbors.
The city will help owners
of controversial party boats
move their vessels to other
municipal docks after offi -
cials banned the ships from
operating out of Sheepshead
Bay’s Emmons Avenue pier.
Leaders of the Economic
Development Corporation —
whose so-called Dock NYC
program oversees fi ve borough
piers, and others in
Manhattan and Staten Island
— will assist captains of the
controversial boats with fi nding
alternate ports to set sail
from, according to a mayoral
spokeswoman, who said the
ships can also dock at privately
owned berths.
“We will work to accommodate
pick-ups at appropriate
Dock NYC locations as
capacity allows. Or, they can
relocate to privately owned
marinas,” said Jane Meyer.
Starting May 1, the booze
boats will only be able to
dock at the Emmons Avenue
pier under a new ban that
prohibits the vessels from
picking up and dropping off
ADRIFT: Party boats like this vessel are banned from operating out of
the Emmons Avenue pier starting May 1, according to city and state offi
cials. FIle photo by Adam Lucente Continued on page 12
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
They’re lost at sea!
Party boats will offi cially
be banned from operating
out of Sheepshead Bay piers
starting this summer, a local
pol announced.
Starting May 1, the boats
will be prohibited from picking
up and dropping off passengers
at the neighborhood’s
Emmons Avenue pier,
where they will only be allowed
to dock while not in
use, according to Assemblyman
Steven Cymbrowitz (D–
Sheepshead Bay), who said
the ban will alleviate quality
of-life issues caused by
the controversial vessels.
“This is a fair and reasonable
resolution that will
help restore Sheepshead
Bay’s quality of life during
the summer months, and
bring in weekend visitors
who were reluctant to come
here because of the crowds
and backed-up traffi c on Emmons
Avenue,” Cymbrowitz
said in a Feb. 19 statement.
“I’ve said all along that you
can’t have thousands of people
boarding and disembarking
from party boats in the
middle of a residential community.”
For years, several booze
cruises set sail from the Emmons
Avenue pier, with some
boats welcoming as many as
600 passengers at a time —
some of whom would return
drunk, leading residents to
complain of noise, littering,
and fi ghts in the otherwise
sleepy seaside community.
Last April, Mayor DeBlasio
ordered the party boats
to ship off to Mill Basin after
Cymbrowitz and Councilman
Chaim Deutsch (DSheepshead
Bay) called for
their removal.
But Mill Basinites
erupted over Hizzoner’s decree,
staging protests that
stalled that plan and left offi
cials searching for alternative
docks ever since, most
recently at the Gateway National
Recreation Area —
where the Feds that operate
the park’s marina in October
said they wouldn’t be able to
accommodate the boats by
the time sailing season begins
this year, making their
recent banishment from the
Emmons Avenue pier a huge
relief to locals who worried
they might return with nowhere
else to go.
But one local cruise operator,
who agreed the booze
boats’ noise and crowding issues
needed addressing, said
the new ban is too broad,
because it unfairly punishes
smaller tours like his
— which was not among the
Continued on page 12
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