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Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Appears Live on Pix11 to Discuss NYC Ferry’s New Soundview Service

August 15, 2018

Anthony DiLorenzo: Good morning, Dan. A lot of happy faces in the Bronx this morning here in the Soundview neighborhood. They feel like they’ve been underserved for a long time when it comes to mass transit and this is just one more great option that they have here this morning aside from the buses and subways, and of course Uber and Lyft.

Joining us this morning, Mayor Bill de Blasio. Thanks for being here this morning, Mayor. Perfect weather. Was this part of the press release?

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Yeah, this is amazing. If we could order this up every day – right?

DiLorenzo: So this is the sixth line that is opening today. Did you envision the New York City Ferry service to be this popular when you started it?

Mayor: You know I really was hopeful about it because I knew people would love to be out on the water, love a quicker commute, and that’s what’s happened. You know it’s sort of a classic example of, if you build it they will come.

When people started to experience it, they loved it. And for people here in Soundview, you’re right, they have not had their fair share. They have not had a way to get around. It’s been a community that’s felt isolated in a lot of ways.

But here’s the amazing thing. This is the first ferry service in the Bronx since before World War II. This is the first time this community has had the most amazing obvious way to get around. You can see all of Manhattan right there.

So for folks going to Lower Manhattan from Soundview, their commute is going to be cut in half. Ninety minutes becomes 45 minutes now.

DiLorenzo: We have heard from nightmare commutes – this morning, from people telling us how they have to go to the bus to the train, another train, and then they walk. So this is really cutting it – a fraction of the amount of time. You mentioned since Joe DiMaggio was playing for the Yankees –

Mayor: Yeah, isn’t that wild?

DiLorenzo: – they’ve had service down here. So, what’s next for the Bronx? More routes possible for other Bronxites?

Mayor: We’re going to look at the potential from this point on. We’re opening this route, we’re opening another route that’s going to go and reach the Lower East Side and other parts of Manhattan and that’s the first phase getting completed. And so far the response has been amazing. We’ve got over twice the ridership we expected. It says to me this experiment is working.

But now we’re going to analyze it and decide where else in the city might be worth considering. Every borough has options and is interested but the bottom line is we’ve really focused on places that did not have enough mass transit. And the Rockaways is a great example of a place where it’s been a game changer to now have a reliable easy way to get out to so many parts of the community. We’re going to be looking to do that in other places too.

DiLorenzo: So what has this done to ease congestion on the roads? Have you seen anything – I know we just had the cap with Uber and Lyft to try and cut down on that but is this also helping?

Mayor: All the pieces help. You get people off the roads onto ferries or out of the subways onto ferries, it’s good for everyone because the roads are congested, the subways are too crowded. Also, we need to get those for-hire vehicles in a better place. We know there’s too many right now clogging the roads. We know 40 percent of those for-hire vehicles don’t even have a passenger in them at any given point.

So, we’ve got work to do fix that. The legislation I signed yesterday – I think it’s a big step in the right direction. But to address congestion overall, it’s going to take a lot of different pieces. We’re adding more bus service, we’re adding more bike service. All of these things will add up to, I think, a better set of options for New Yorkers.

DiLorenzo: And on the topic of congestion pricing, where are you on that right now? Are you for or against?

Mayor: Look, I, historically, have been very concerned about fairness when it comes to congestion pricing and the previous plans including Mayor Bloomberg’s plan from over a decade ago, I didn’t think was fair to the outer boroughs. But I see some progress.

The Governor put together a commission that came up with, I think, a good start and said, okay let’s not think about the bridges, let’s think about the core areas of Manhattan that are the congested ones and think about how do we approach it that way. I think that was progress.

There’s still real questions about making sure, for working class people, that something like this would be fair. But I do think the ideas are being worked on in a productive way and if a new proposal comes forward, I’m ready to look at it.

DiLorenzo: Alright, Mayor Bill de Blasio. Did you hear that? He said that the Governor possibly had a good idea –

Mayor: I’ve said that many times, you know, when he’s right, he’s right.

DiLorenzo: Can get along. Thank you, Mayor, appreciate it. Have a good day, bon voyage. And of course, all of these ferries are going to be taking off during peak times every 30 minutes.

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