Laserfiche WebLink
From: Jon Carlson, BIAC <br />To: GRP -City Council <br />Cc: Council -Diane Howard; Council-Giselle Hale; Council -Alicia Aguirre; Council-Lissette Espinoza-Garnica; Council - <br />Jeff Gee; Council -Diana Reddy; Council -Michael Smith <br />Subject: BIAC Comments re: Accepting Ferry Feasibility Study - January 11, 2021 Meeting Agenda item 8B <br />Date: Sunday, January 10, 20218:34:02 PM <br />CAUTION: This email originated from outside your organization. Exercise caution when <br />opening attachments or clicking links, especially from unknown senders. <br />BIAC Comments re: Accepting Ferry Feasibility Study <br />January 11, 2021 Meeting Agenda item 8B <br />Diane Howard, Mayor <br />Giselle Hale, Vice Mayor, Councilmembers Alicia Aguirre, Jeff Gee, Lissette Espinoza-Garnica, <br />Michael Smith, Diana Reddy <br />Dear Redwood City Council, <br />Bair Island Aquatic Center ("BIAC") is a non-profit aquatic center dedicated to rowing and paddling <br />recreation in the Redwood Creek area. BIAC's user population is around 700 people, a majority of <br />whom are on the waters of the Redwood City ("RWC") harbor on a daily to weekly basis. Our <br />members and users include Olympic athletes, high school rowers, youth paddling programs, <br />adaptive rowers, veterans programs, and adults of all ages and abilities. We are strong advocates for <br />water recreation on Redwood Creek - a unique treasure on the bay. <br />I'm writing in regards to acceptance of the Ferry Feasibility Study which presages ferry service in <br />Redwood Creek (i.e. the Redwood City harbor area and dredged channel). BIAC supports a healthy <br />and vibrant harbor and waterfront in Redwood City, and we believe ferry service might be a <br />component of that vibrance. However, we are concerned because the ferry service we have <br />experienced to date has not been positive. Both times they implemented service in the past 4+ years <br />there were significant safety issues for small boat users like rowers and paddlers. <br />BIAC's history with the PropSF ferry service began in 2015-2016, and at that time they caused a <br />number of small boats to swamp or flip in the harbor. Their boat produced a very large and difficult <br />wake, and they operated without slowing down or giving small boats much clearance. On Mar 8, <br />2016 a meeting was held with PropSF and other harbor users who made clear that PropSF's <br />operations were not safe to other users. This meeting was mediated by Lt. John Gunderson of the <br />RWC Police Dept. I wrote up a summary of that meeting, which can be found here - <br />https://bit.ly/37wZstS. PropSF's behavior improved somewhat after that meeting and associated <br />followup, but was still sometimes hazardous - they were inconsistent about operations, several <br />people still had dangerous encounters. <br />They terminated service for a while and began again in June 2018. They had new boats and a <br />different location further inside the port. While they made some good faith attempts at slowing for <br />small boats, it was again inconsistent. They attempted to keep their slow speed time to a minimum <br />before speeding up again, which meant wakes were still sent reverberating throughout the harbor <br />area, and small boats who were not consistently seen by the ferry operator were again swamped or <br />