the box February 2011

Goals

Make it an attractive park feature, an educational amenity, and our first year-round exhibition space.  Create a design that could be used elsewhere in the harbor.

Safety information

Fish safety guide (in English, Spanish and Chinese) for info on how to clean and cook fish to avoid contaminants and more.

For boating info see our H2Oinfo page

Precaución al consumir pescado

Vea la tabla al fondo o un guia disponible en español.
 

Precaución al consumir pescado

La razón principal para no consumir pescados y mariscos que provienen de aguas de Nueva York es su contenido de químicos como PCB (bifenilos policlorados), dioxina y cadmio. Estos químicos se acumulan en el sistema de la persona que ingiere el pescado y a largo plazo pueden causar cáncer o defectos de nacimiento en los niños. Le recomendamos que se informe acerca los pescados que se pueden consumir y cuales se deben evitar.

Vea  los avisos pesqueros del Depto. de Conservación Ambiental (DEC) y de la Agencia de Protección Ambiental (EPA).

¿Busca saber qué pescados evitar? Presione los enlaces en la tabla para una imagen más amplia del tipo de pez.

La tabla pertenece a una guía que contiene información acerca cómo limpiar y cocinar el pescado para reducir sus contaminantes. Está disponible en español.

Making a container educational

During several months of 2011, PortSide re-conceived the container at left thanks to pro bono design services  won via a desigNYC competition.  This BoatBox is where the Red Hook Boaters store their kayaks in Valentino Park. During the time period allowed by desigNYC, PortSide's team solidified the form of the architectural design.  Content concepts were established in this round and the 2D design will commence in the next phase.

This means that the interpretive graphics below are placeholders and do not represent the final 2D design. In several sections, we would like to use illustrations by Christina Sun who has a harbor blog bowsprite. She is a kayker who works on a survey boat and ferry.  Many of her illustrations are on the right side of our H2O info page.

As of October 2011, PortSide is working closely with the Parks Department on conceptual design, and we are enthusiastic about how it is going.

Features of the design:

• Creates an outdoor boat-themed room at the NW corner of the park
• Provides comfort of shade and seating made from large harbor flotsam
• Provides boat rack where visiting kayakers can lock up their boats and visit the community, the hardware version of PortSide's kayak valet
• Metal framework is rugged and affordable scaffolding
• Design is modular. Position of the boat rack, shade, and seating can be shifted for BoatBoxes in other locations.
• The angled panels on the BoatBox side will show a supergraphic to visitors entering the park, and the other side provides detailed content to be read up close.

Content to include info about following (for now see tips below)

• ships, tugs and barges seen from the park
• risks of eating fish caught in the park and how to engage in safe recreational boating.  Safety info will be in Spanish and English
• how street litter reaches the waterways and our beaches and how to prevent that; info on the Red Hook Boaters beach clean-up program
• more of our WaterStories research into Red Hook history along a water theme
• Red Hook Boaters and PortSide NewYork programs

Fishing Safety Information
Fish from New York City waters can contain chemicals like PBCs, dioxin, and cadmium. These chemicals build up in your body over time and may lead to cancer or birth defects in children. Here is some info to help you learn more about eating fish you catch.

Fishing advisories from the DEC and EPA.

Daily News story Fishing for Danger.

Want to know which fish to avoid eating? Click links in the chart below from a NYS Department Of Health guide to get enlarged photos. 

Please download the full fish safety guide (in English, Spanish and Chinese) to get more information on how to clean and cook fish to avoid contaminants and more.

Fish		Women Under 50 & Children Under 15	Women Over 50 & Men Over 15
	American eel	don't eat (see DEC Hudson River and Harlem River regulations)
	Atlantic needlefish	don't eat	up to 1 meal/month
	Blue crabs	a few meals per year don't eat tomalley	up to 6 crabs/week don't eat tomalley
	Bluefish	don't eat	up to 1 meal/month
	Carp	don't eat	up to 1 meal/month
	Channel catfish	don't eat	don't eat
	Gizzard shad	don't eat	don't eat
	Goldfish	don't eat	up to 1 meal/month
	Rainbow smelt	don't eat	up to 1 meal/month
	Striped bass	don't eat	depends on location
	White catfish	don't eat	don't eat
	White perch	don't eat	depends on location
Other fish not listed		don't eat	up to 4 meals/month

BoatBox project team included

Design:

Paul S. Alter, Project Advisor, Lee H. Skolnick Architecture + Design

Bronwyn Breitner & Luigi Ciaccia, 590BC, 3D design

Sue Labouvie, Studio L'Image, 2D design

PortSide staff:

Amy Bucciferro, PortSide BoatBox Project Manager

Inna Guzenfeld, WaterStories historical maritime research

Stephanie Ortiz, Community Outreach, Spanish interpreter

Carolina Salguero, Director PortSide NewYork, Maritime Outreach & Supervision

More about desigNYC:

desigNYC’s mission is to amplify the work of extraordinary NYC non-profits, community groups and city agencies serving the public good by connecting them with the power of good design. The focus is local, and the approach is multi-disciplinary. The process is participatory and community-centric. desigNYC was incubated within ESI Design and became an independent non-profit summer 2011.

590BC Architect Bronwyn Breitner + Robert Painter of the Red Hook Boaters at the desigNYC final exhibit

Planning History + Process:

The container came to serve the park as a result of a series of meetings with the Parks Department, PortSide NewYork and the Red Hook Boaters that began in 2006.

The resulting understanding was that the Boaters would use the inside of the box for their programs and that PortSide would take the lead in creating the educational content for the exterior.

Summer 2009, the BoatBox began to serve Valentino Park. 

During 2011, PortSide engaged in extensive community outreach to plan the information on the BoatBox.

PortSide met with the Red Hook Boaters, with Added Value and Red Hook Initiative (two groups who educate about food and health issues and work with Red Hook's low income community),  with the two tenants associations of the Red Hook Houses, and the Parks Committee of Com-munity Board 6.

PortSide also spoke to people in the park and other Red Hook fishing locations, visited other water access points, ran an on-line survey, and posted outreach announcements on our Van Brunt Street sandwich board.

Boating safety info is needed due to fast currents and heavy heavy commercial marine traffic nearby: tugs, barges, containerships, cruise ships,  high speed ferries, excursion boats. 

PortSide advocates boating safety information because Vision 2020, NYC's 2nd Comprehensive Waterfront Plan, calls for more boat launches.  This raised concerns among the commercial operators (of tugs, ships, ferries etc) that more untrained boaters could be on the waterways.

This all prompted several PortSide recommendations to Vision 2020 including that safety information be included at city launch sites, because recreational boaters are not licensed. This means there are no competency standards for them.

We see our BoatBox a pilot project for improving boat storage design and safety signage at launch sites harborwide. 

For safe boating info
See our H2Oinfo page