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Jan. 18–24, 2019 Including Canarsie Digest
SERVING BERGEN BEACH, CANARSIE, GEORGETOWN, MARINE PARK & MILL BASIN
SUNKEN DREAMS: From left, ferry advocates Sharon Long, the chief of staff to councilman Alan Maisel, Dorothy Lee, Mark Want, the head of the
Canarsie Improvement Association, and Beth Malone were devestated to hear the city will not include a stop at Canarsie’s namesake pier in its
forthcoming expansion of the NYC Ferry Service. Photo by Steve Solomonson
FERRY BAD!
City’s commuter boats not coming to Canarsie any time soon
paign’s sails, and stealing the
stop that he said should be destined
for Canarsie instead.
“Every meeting that we
were at with the city, Coney Island
was trying to join in. Coney
Island was trying to piggyback
on us, and now they
got it,” he said.
Last August, DeBlasio told
Canarsie residents that the
city would decide on a possible
expansion of the NYC
Ferry service by the end of
2018, following a feasibility
study conducted by offi cials
at the Economic Development
Corporation, the agency that
oversees the waterborne transit
system.
That study examined six
potential new stops in the borough
in addition to Canarsie,
including sites in Bath Beach,
Gowanus, Sheepshead Bay–
Manhattan Beach, at Sunset
Park’s Bush Terminal, at Co-
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
The city threw their hopes
overboard.
Canarsie residents’ spirits
sunk following Mayor DeBlasio’s
Jan. 10 announcement
that the city will create a
ferry stop in Coney Island —
but not at their beloved pier.
“It’s terrible, basically
Canarsie is being neglected
again,” said Marc Want, the
head of civic group the Canarsie
Improvement Association,
who in 2017 collected
more than 6,000 signatures
on a petition demanding a
ferry stop at the Canarsie
Pier.
Hizzoner announced the
new Coney stop during his
state of the city address,
delighting Coney Islanders
who fought to bring the
ferry to their neighborhood
for years. But Want accused
those Brooklynites of taking
the wind from his own cam-
Continued on page 12
BEHIND BARS: Saeed Ahmad will
serve at least four years in prison
after leaving his friend to die in a
fi ery crash. District Attorney’s Offi ce
Drunk driver
from M’Park
prison-bound
for collision
BY COLIN MIXSON
A drunk driver will spend at
least four years in state prison
after leaving his friend to die
in a fi ery, Greenwood Heights
crash in 2017.
Supreme Court Justice
Vincent Del Giudice on Jan.
9 slapped 24-year old Marine
Park resident Saeed Ahmad
with a four-to-12-year sentence
following his November
guilty plea to second-degree
manslaughter.
Ahmad is eligible for parole
after serving four years
in a state penitentiary and,
if denied at fi rst, he can apply
for parole once every two
years until his full sentence
is served, according to the
district attorney’s spokesman
Oren Yaniv.
Ahmad smashed his car
into a barrier on the Gowanus
Expressway while attempting
to speed past another car between
the Hamilton Avenue
and Prospect Expressway
exits at 4 am on Oct. 13, 2017,
causing his Infi niti sedan to
burst into fl ames, according
to District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.
Continued on page 12
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