The Sunset Park ferry is done after October

It’s always a bad idea to give people access to things they might like, such as clean water, electricity and a myriad of transportation options, because then if you have to take it away, they’re gonna be pissed. It’s the If You Give A Mouse A Cookie lesson of government, and the people of Rockaway and Sunset Park are gonna start living it in November, because the commuter ferry that’s been running from the Rockaways since Sandy and Sunset Park since last year is going to stop for good in October according to DNA Info.

Not that no one saw this coming, since there was always a question of whether or not the city would be able to find a private operator to fund the operation of the ferry. The ferry cost $25 to $30 per trip to subsidize according to the Empire State Development Corporation, which was deemed to expensive to include in this year’s budget. An EDC spokeswoman told DNA Info that the search for a developer to run the ferry had ended without finding one and that the ferry would not operate past October. The news is definitely a bummer for Sunset Park residents, but at least they’ve got the good old R train, which is miraculously on schedule to return when the ferry service ends. For Rockaway residents though, the end of ferry service means it’s back to long trips on the A train.

Not that pro-ferry activists went down without a fight, as they extended their lobbying efforts to taking out an ad in an Italian paper asking for a ferry extension that ran during Mayor Tall’s vacation there. We can’t imagine things are gonna be any easier when he gets back, so we’d suggest he just pretend he can only speak Italian now.

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