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Bette Midler calls for slower NYC boats:-
NEW YORK
Actress and singer Bette Midler testified at New York City’s City Hall that a Harlem River boathouse is suffering damage from reckless boaters.
Midler testified Thursday before a joint hearing of the City Council’s Transportation and Waterfronts Committee, which is considering restricting river speed limits by both recreational and commercial boaters, reported the New York Post Friday.
Midler, whose New York Restoration Project raised $12 million to build the Harlem River boathouse, told the council the building had sustained serious damage from speeding boats.
They travel at excessive speeds, and they create extremely dangerous wakes not just for our building, she said. We have sustained thousands of dollars (in damage), and the thing has only been there a year.
Midler makes
waves over
boat speeds
The fabulous Bette Midler brought some of her sassy star power to City Hall yesterday to urge the City Council to pass a law to make boats slow down along a narrow stretch of the Harlem River.
“I can’t stress enough the importance of regulating the speed of motorized boat traffic on the Harlem River – mostly for the kids,” said Midler, founder of a group that cleans and renovates green spaces around the city including a 5-acre park at the Harlem River and Dyckman St.
Midler said wakes from speeding boats have damaged the park boathouse built by the New York Restoration Project – and endanger kids learning how to boat.
“We have raised the real estate values in a lot of the places that we’re in. I think we need a break,” Midler told the Council’s transportation and waterfront committees. “I think we need your help.”
The committee is mulling a bill that would create two zones in the Harlem River where water vessels would be prohibited from travelling more than 4 mph. “It’s not that long a stretch of water to ask all vessels to slow down,” said Queens Councilman John Liu, who is chairman of the committee.
Lisa Colangelo
New York Daily News
