Action Agenda_PublicAccess_ by

Share thoughts regarding goals

Lizb_ — 2024-05-03 14:12:48 UTC

This is your opportunity to share your thoughts regarding the goals and priorities of our new HEP Action Agenda. Please complete by Friday, May 31st.

You may add text, documents, videos, etc. Please see instructions below.

Please keep in mind that this Padlet is visible to all. Please be respectful when providing comments.

HEP's Major Roles

Lizb_ — 2024-05-03 14:12:48 UTC

Promoting Productive and Civil Dialogue: Crucial Conversations

Lizb_ — 2024-05-03 14:12:48 UTC

Here is model about ways we can engage one another when stakes are high.

Adding a post to Padlet

Lizb_ — 2024-05-03 14:12:48 UTC

This shows you how to add a post. The vido shows a wall vs. shelf format, but you are able to do the same thing on this page.

For each goal, you can click on the + and add comments, documents, videos, recordings, etc.

You can also comment on other posts where it says add comment.

If you prefer, you can like a post by clicking on the like button.

Lizb_ — 2024-05-03 14:12:48 UTC

Through the lens of Public Access what are the current challenges our region is facing?

Lizb_ — 2024-05-03 14:12:48 UTC

Convening Estuary stakeholders is one of HEP's major roles - based on this - what are some potential objectives and priorities for HEP and partners?

Our Lens: Public Access

Lizb_ — 2024-05-03 14:12:48 UTC

Our goal: To improve public access to the waters of the Estuary and the quality of experience at public spaces along the waterfront.

HEP's Major Roles

Lizb_ — 2024-05-03 14:12:48 UTC

Advancing monitoring and research is one of HEP's major roles - based on this - what are some potential objectives and priorities for HEP and partners?

Lizb_ — 2024-05-03 14:12:48 UTC

Parks in the region create a lot of opportunities for community science and engagement through science. In particular, more partnerships in National Park Service sites should be explored.

Lizb_ — 2024-05-03 14:12:48 UTC

Driving innovation and sharing of best practices is one of HEP's major roles - based on this - what are some potential objectives and priorities for HEP and partners?

Lizb_ — 2024-05-03 14:35:54 UTC

Providing for community engagement in management decisions, especially by building capacity for the ongoing participation of disadvantaged communities is one of HEP's major roles - based on this - what are some potential objectives and priorities for HEP and partners?

2024-05-06 18:28:55 UTC

Promoting swimming as a use at access points, with variable imperfect water quality, and beach regulations that require near-perfection.

2024-05-06 18:32:29 UTC

Tracking decisions to be made, and informing participants / constituents about them in time for public comment periods.

2024-05-08 20:14:42 UTC

Lack of data/information to make decisions.

Changing regs for swimming beaches

2024-05-08 20:14:55 UTC

There are some antiquated regulations and codes within the NYC Dept of Health and NYS DOH for creating more swimming beaches.

Gentrification

2024-05-08 20:16:23 UTC

Need to address what happens when we create waterfront access - it often leads to displacement of long time residents and gentrification.

2024-05-08 20:16:37 UTC

Feeling like the state government is opposed to direct access. In a city of 8 million people, how many people are going to get to go boating?

2024-05-08 20:16:52 UTC

Advancing and finding the

Balance between public access, water quality, and safety,

2024-05-08 20:17:04 UTC

Hard to know how to get from the sidewalk to the river.

Competing Uses

2024-05-08 20:17:19 UTC

Challenges between competing uses of waterways, cost of access, and safety

2024-05-08 20:17:33 UTC

Infrastructure barriers - dilapidated areas along the waterfront that are incredibly expensive to update, especially very old regions.

2024-05-08 20:18:13 UTC

High need for life-guards/well trained staff

2024-05-08 20:18:25 UTC

Balancing the recreational needs of people and wildlife at existing public parks

2024-05-08 20:19:03 UTC

Unclear on the many regulations for boating. Do you need a permit? Are we allowed everywhere?

Type of Access

2024-05-08 20:19:09 UTC

Where it is located, whether its free, the kind of access (swimming, human-power boating, etc.), the demographic's desired use, and upgrades/changes needed imagined by the community that can also include resiliency features (i.e. location up in Troy has a launch site that isn't being utilized and not serving the community that can access it)

2024-05-08 20:19:29 UTC

Better communication to the public about where it is safe to swim, through signage, communication via internet, etc.

2024-05-08 20:19:50 UTC

Getting the word out about existing access opportunities and making sure that people feel comfortable using them

Fishing Locations

2024-05-08 20:19:52 UTC

Access points for fishing but the contradictions between regulations (WQ and Health) BUT also areas in Parks where you are not allowed to fish but regulations say its okay

2024-05-08 20:20:52 UTC

Competition between public access and commercial access, even for areas that are within a certain distance of commercial access.

2024-05-08 20:21:39 UTC

Not everyone wants to swim race, some just want to splash around. We need free and safe swimming access.

2024-05-08 20:22:15 UTC

Recognizing that it is a public space that people (should) have freedom to access/ address the challenges to that liberty by advancing non regulatory solutions

2024-05-08 20:22:33 UTC

Is gentrification a reason to not improve the waterfront? Can't let this stop improving the waterfront, especially in areas of need.

2024-05-08 20:23:15 UTC

Maintaining consistency with stakeholders - when you lose representation when someone changes a role.

2024-05-08 20:23:56 UTC

NYSDEC needs to own the responsibility of water safety. We don't expect towns to predict their own weather we shouldn't expect them to predict their water quality.

2024-05-08 20:23:57 UTC

Fish consumption advisories need to be made clear - and multilingual

2024-05-08 20:24:10 UTC

When there is a lot of representation in a region, but those organizations aren't communicating much with one another - HEP could help facilitate these more local stakeholder conversations.

2024-05-08 20:24:40 UTC

Coordinate NYC DHMH & NYS DOH & NYS DEC to create a streamlined process for establishing new swimming beaches

2024-05-08 20:24:44 UTC

State of the estuary conference and related events are great

2024-05-08 20:24:54 UTC

Include waterbourne transportation and businesses on waterfront, broader stakeholder base.

2024-05-08 20:25:01 UTC

create more in person events

Awareness of Public Announcements

2024-05-08 20:25:05 UTC

Ways in which people can think about engaging people in the public process for advocacy, engaging them at different levels, using technology that can also help drive the message. How to make it into a two-way platform for getting and gathering information? MAKE IT FUN!

2024-05-08 20:26:00 UTC

Engaging people around superfund clean up in the Passaic and other waterways. Important to bring

2024-05-08 20:26:14 UTC

bring back the cardboard boat race

2024-05-08 20:26:22 UTC

The importance of legislative work on projects - for the wider estuary area, there are likely legislative goals that someone could support with as a stakeholder. i.e. a working group focused on legislative issues

2024-05-08 20:26:33 UTC

Great way to make people aware of programming in overburdened communities.

2024-05-08 20:26:59 UTC

continue efforts to promote swimming in the upper harbor and make it accessible

2024-05-08 20:27:12 UTC

Include Population density in data analysis about access sites to get a sense of real availability to people. Swimming is included in access but there are different kinds of swimming - research the audience to get a better understanding of how to meet their needs.

2024-05-08 20:27:43 UTC

Support real time CSO notification by NYC DEP and others to inform the public

2024-05-08 20:27:47 UTC

It's hard for our partners to convene when you don't have facilities. Even a container, hose or sink.

Continuing to identify Gaps

2024-05-08 20:28:31 UTC

Great to say we added more water access sites, but we need to highlight and understand the trends in underserved communities. Spatial/Social landscape analysis

Best Practices through Research

2024-05-08 20:29:17 UTC

How can we learn from research to apply into the estuary?

2024-05-08 20:29:35 UTC

Water quality matters

Data on waterfront users

2024-05-08 20:29:53 UTC

Not easy to do but it would be interesting to see who is using the waterfront by collecting zip codes of waterfront users. Are they local residents? Or are they coming from outside the adjacent community?

2024-05-08 20:29:55 UTC

Would be great to put together FAQs for monitoring/research to help align data and collection standards (i.e. FAQs on water quality monitoring for citizen science groups).

2024-05-08 20:30:07 UTC

Don't want pointless WQ monitoring, that terrorizes children, unless there is a commitment to provide more access.

Standard Operations Protocol (SOP)

2024-05-08 20:30:12 UTC

Develop an open-source SOP to conduct a wide-scale survey/monitoring program that can be based on good science that everyone can use.

2024-05-08 20:31:14 UTC

Understanding the impact of sea level rise and increased storms on the tides of the river.

2024-05-08 20:31:40 UTC

Swim and water safety education is the key to increase access especially for disadvantaged communities. Find good models of this to emulate.

2024-05-08 20:31:49 UTC

better engage public access partners and support their engagement locally / focused on their local needs. How can local groups / tie into the larger effort.

2024-05-08 20:32:14 UTC

Relationship between public access and environmental justice issues. Are the people in the neighboring community using the access, or is it people coming from afar.

2024-05-08 20:32:47 UTC

Electrification of harbor fleet interests - great potential innovation opportunity.

2024-05-08 20:32:52 UTC

Is there more sophisticated testing for WQ? Is entero still the standard? Get innovations into the hands of citizen scientists

Use of the Waterway

2024-05-08 20:33:12 UTC

Improve people's understanding of water uses and how can we get to a place that regulations don't restrict the use of the water on days that are safe.

NYC's WAIT app

2024-05-08 20:33:13 UTC

Need advanced technology in tracking water usage. People with clickers, don't cut it.

2024-05-08 20:33:31 UTC

collect information on how climate change adaption is impacting pubic access

2024-05-08 20:33:44 UTC

River pools and other alternative beaches.

2024-05-08 20:35:19 UTC

Bringing groups together that support/organize swimming could help us understand better practice (life guards and on water safety, how to alert public on water quality/cso concerns, etc.)

SLR/coastal flooding

2024-05-08 20:35:47 UTC

What are the impact of SLR and coastal flooding on existing public access points?

Funding Opportunities

2024-05-08 20:36:38 UTC

Helping disperse a design competition or dispersing grants that can generate innovative solutions to challenges faced at sites.

2024-05-08 20:37:21 UTC

How are groups in other parts of the world confronting similar issues, do they have innovative strategies we can learn from.

ADA

2024-05-08 20:37:47 UTC

How many existing access points are ADA compliant? Those sites that are not, how can we make them ADA compliant?

Improve Understanding

2024-05-08 20:37:55 UTC

Accessing the waterbody when it is safe to and how it can relate (or not) to the WQS/regulations.

2024-05-08 20:37:56 UTC

great to get an accurate count of people using the water. Good to get specific places but also recognize whole is great than sum of its part. Lots of energy for specific numbers.

2024-05-08 20:38:00 UTC

Bottom-up community based tech to share information.

Success Stories

2024-05-08 20:38:25 UTC

Getting success stories out there - sharing it to news outlets, conferences, story telling

2024-05-08 20:39:03 UTC

economic value of the estuary and recreational access

2024-05-08 20:39:05 UTC

Make it meaningful. Not just telling the public, though it's difficult. Educate public about the issues in understandable layman's ways before a comment period. No public comment periods shorter than a month during July, August, November, December. Public meetings in the evenings or weekends that include a kid activity or ways to cover childcare.

CSO outfall monitoring

2024-05-08 20:39:37 UTC

There are technologies to monitor whether a CSO is discharging in real time. We should be installing monitoring devices.

2024-05-08 20:39:56 UTC

Best practices/guidance for how groups interested in developing boating on specific sites might go about their next steps.

2024-05-08 20:40:07 UTC

freight capacity / economics of the value

2024-05-08 20:40:26 UTC

Can we utilize opportunities to look at zoning/regulations to positively affect public access?

2024-05-08 20:40:51 UTC

tracking investment in public access and public parks /

2024-05-08 20:41:14 UTC

Yearly HEP meetings on boats!

Community Engagement

2024-05-08 20:41:20 UTC

Sustain ongoing communication during times that the community can attend and be heard on how land use/access sites should be applied. Pay for community time in disadvantaged areas to make it equitable for them to be able to participate == Feedback loop, and thanking people for their time.

Making Connections

2024-05-08 20:41:53 UTC

Same voices are being heard. How can HEP work with our partners to hear from different communities that aren't as engaged?

2024-05-08 20:41:58 UTC

Real estate pressure usually results in visual access. Increase reasonable education access in restored wetlands protect the habitat but consider how to show their value.

2024-05-08 20:42:13 UTC

putting a value and making the case for maintenance and management concerns about natural areas along the water

2024-05-08 20:43:05 UTC

One challenge with public access in disadvantaged communities is that historical lack of access has led to discomfort with the water or lack of knowledge on how to swim. It's important to make these safe before putting people on the water through accessible swim lessons, etc.

2024-05-08 20:43:24 UTC

Should we engage with the motorboating jetskiing community?

Public Access WG meetings in the field

2024-05-08 20:43:41 UTC

Host meetings at a waterfront access site (as we did last year at the Downtown Boathouse) once a year and get to know folks on the ground on their turf.

2024-05-08 20:43:44 UTC

more time for people to interact at the conference . communications to the general public/ general ot

Motorized boaters

2024-05-08 20:44:23 UTC

Engage them, particularly jetskiers.

2024-05-08 20:46:22 UTC

Hold real estate developers responsible for the water access that they promised communities in exchange for being allowed to develop on the waterfront

2024-05-08 21:00:47 UTC

Also how sea level rise will impact physical access to the water - beaches that will be underwater, pier pilings that need to be raised, boathouses that will flood, sites that might lose public bathrooms and potable water.

2024-05-21 02:43:12 UTC

Foster collaboration between like-minded organizations and act as a liaison in the sharing of resources and ideas: the water connects us all.

2024-05-21 02:47:30 UTC

Use signage as a tool to collect data directly from users: paddlers, swimmers, etc.

2024-05-21 02:53:23 UTC

Coordinate with other advocacy groups with overlapping interests to reach target audiences, ie, community groups near access sites.

2024-05-30 18:35:25 UTC

Lack of equitable access to the South Bronx waterfront
Health risks of coming into contact with contaminated water (CSOs, other contaminants) and the public’s awareness of risks
Development along the waterfront poses new challenges to water quality and public access, and affordability to current residents

2024-05-30 18:38:54 UTC

Climate change resiliency and preparedness in waterfront communities
Public engagement / public events that increase the communities' awareness to watershed issues
Realtime CSO notification by NYC DEP and others
Resource for policies / calls to action
“The importance of legislative work on projects - for the wider estuary area, there are likely legislative goals that someone could support as a stakeholder. i.e. a working group focused on legislative issues”

2024-05-30 18:40:44 UTC

Researching, mapping illicit connections
Researching failing wastewater/stormwater infrastructure
Hazards mapping - e.g. Utilities, facilities, sources of pollution
Wildlife monitoring: boat strikes, impacts from shipping traffic and ferries, the growth of the oyster reefs, sensitive/threatened species populations (eg. alewife)

2024-05-30 18:45:20 UTC

Ways to automate monitoring -
- For water quality monitoring, stationary or mobile equipment
Finding illicit connections via new technologies / dye tests?
Using AI / computing to generate / locate hazards/risks to the environment/watershed
iNaturalist monitoring events
Develop interactive map of the estuary that encourages more engagement
Public info sessions / outlines for engagement

2024-05-30 18:45:51 UTC

Funding community engagement roles/jobs and providing training
- Providing funding & support for existing community orgs/groups to host meetings
Connecting more to community based / immigrant services / community groups
Compensating / incentivising community members from disadvantaged communities for giving feedback
Providing childcare and food for in person meetings
Translation services for events / feedback
Doubling engagement in disadvantaged communities