Yes, we’re recycling this image, but its the same
old story.

For those of us who have been waiting for July, and the return of NY Water Taxi’s East River Service, life continues to be a good news/bad news kind of thing.

The good news? As of today (30 June), NYWT has supposedly resumed its East River service.

I say supposedly, because as a Williamsburg resident, I would have no way of verifying this. That’s because the bad news is that – according to the NYWT website – East River service will not include Schaefer Landing until 7 July.

Riding across the East River on the J train today, I noted (as I do just about every day) the singular lack of any docking structure at Schaefer Landing. Yes, the dock that was supposed to arrive in May, is still not there. Nor is there any activity around the area where one might expect a dock to be indicating that anyone is remotely interested in actually building a dock-like structure.

Not that I don’t believe NYWT when they say service will resume on 7 July. Its just that we’ve all been, uh, mislead a few times over the past few months.

Meanwhile, I encourage everyone to try out the Ikea Express. It departs every 20 minutes from Pier 11 in Manhattan and runs right to Ikea’s new Red Hook store. And its free! No purchase necessary. 36 boats a day – gratis (or fri, if we are getting in the Ikea spirit)! Amazing what a little subsidy will do. As far as I know, you don’t even have to set foot in the big blue store. Go to the ball fields and get a taco. Go to Pier 41 in Red Hook for delicious key lime pie. Go to Baked on Van Brunt for more dessert. Go to Lenelles’s for some good hootch. Go to Fairway for a decent selection of food (you won’t find that in Williamsburg). Consider it your steal-this-book moment while you wait for NYWT to show up at Schaefer Landing with four pitiful boats every morning and four more in the afternoon.