New Yorkers may be able to row to work in the not-so-distant future.
City kayakers are slowly building a network of friendly ports along the East and Hudson rivers that could one day make paddling preferable to straphanging.
The newest is the Long Island City Community Boathouse, which just opened this weekend, said founder Erik Baard.
If ferries are the river equivalent of buses, then kayaks are its bicycles, Baard said – but the problem is, there aren’t many bike racks.
“I used to commute with a folding kayak to Jersey City,” Baard said. “But more boathouses would make it much easier. Queens was the last major waterfront area facing Manhattan that had no presence whatsoever.”
Like the Downtown Boathouse in Manhattan and the Gowanus Dredgers in Brooklyn, the Long Island City Boathouse will offer free kayaking to the public and free storage to volunteers.
But if boats could be shared between a network around the five boroughs, then one-way trips from Brooklyn to Chelsea or Long Island City would be possible.
“I’d use it all the time,” said Laura Segal, 29, an experienced kayaker who lives on the Upper East Side.
While it is still years away, prospects for a kayak network are improving, Foote said, “There are now locations in Red Hook and Greenpoint, and people are looking to start a few more,” he said.