City Reclaims Waterfront as "Sixth Borough" http://www.wnyc.org/blogs/wnyc-news-blog/2011/mar/14/city-reclaim-its-waterfront-assets-sixth-borough/ Staten Island's waterfront is getting a makeover http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/03/staten_islands_waterfront_is_g.html Waterfront Vision & Enhancement Strategy http://www.nyc.gov/html/waves/html/home/home.shtml The Waterfront Museum and Showboat Barge http://www.waterfrontmuseum.org/ A Brief History of the Gowanus Canal http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/topic/57886/ Once upon a time, the waterways around New York City were teeming with oysters, aquatic life, and people could swim freely in the East River. Those days are long gone, but a new plan for the city's waterfront may bring about a dramatic transformation of the nearby waters, albeit with a great deal of work and several billion dollars. This Monday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced an ambitious plan that envisions New York as a type of waterfront city that effectively opens up (and cleans up) the waters that surround the city. The plan stresses the restoration of the natural waterfront and making the waterways more attractive to canoes, ferries, and kayaks. Key elements of the plan include 130 projects that have been in the planning stages for some time, including the completion of 50 acres of waterfront parks. Another crucial element is the inclusion of ferry service to underserved areas, and the hope is that if pilot programs back and forth across the East River are successful, they will lead to additional services from Manhattan. Other groups have weighed in on the project, including the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance's director, Roland Lewis, who noted, "A working harbor is good for the environment by getting trucks off the road". The first piece leads to an article in Crain's New York Business, which reports on this new plan and its various elements. The second link will take users to an article from WNYC's blog that talks about how the waterfront will be transformed over time as a result of this plan. Moving on, the third link leads to a piece from the Staten Island News about how that borough will be affected by this long-term plan. The fourth link leads to the official homepage of the waterfront plan, which is known as the "Comprehensive Waterfront Plan: Vision 2020". The fifth link leads to the homepage of the Waterfront Museum. Here visitors can learn about the museum's exhibits and their tours. The last link will whisk users away to a history of one of New York's most infamous waterways, the extremely polluted Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn.