WATER AND WATERFRONTS 155 



subway riders, is an example of the energy that must be put into 

 claiming waterfronts for the public. 



Paradoxically, the very existence of decay on the waterfront gives 

 Americans a second chance to improve its appearance and amenities. 

 Although there is still competition for land on the water's edge, the 

 existence of decay is evidence that certain older uses are no longer 

 necessary there and that we should be thinking seriously of the kind 

 of uses which should replace them. Some older harbor cities no 

 longer consider the harbor as part of their economy long-range 

 truck transportation has been a major factor here and the result 

 is that refuse and objectionable land uses like wrecking yards find 

 their way to the shoreline. 



There is already in existence a trend to reclaim those areas for com- 

 munity use. The new Liberty State Park (part of the Statue of 

 Liberty National Monument in New York Harbor ) will be designed 

 on the site of old wharves and ancient industries in Jersey City. It 

 will be the only waterfront park on that stretch of upper New York 

 Bay. 



Why should not the new land uses at the waterfront provide an 

 amenity rather than a hazard to health or an eyesore? If the econ- 

 omy no longer requires so much industry or commerce on the water- 

 front, why cannot we consider it for more pleasurable uses? The 

 answer is: we can. Our urban waterfronts can be treated as a 

 new resource for the economy of leisure. But there must be safe- 

 guards, or they will be despoiled all over again in the very name of 

 the public. Of this, more anon. 



The San Francisco waterfront provides an illustration of the pos- 

 sibilities of reclamation. There are piers all the way around from 

 Fisherman's Wharf to the China Basin. They were built in a gener- 

 ation when visions of expanding world trade coupled with an al- 

 ready obsolete docking technology led shipping and port authorities 

 to "cover the waterfront" with these facilities. 



Today, one marginal berthing facility of sufficient width could 

 accommodate all the ocean-going ships ever to be found at one time 

 in San Francisco Bay. 



San Francisco's Marine Museum at the Embarcadero, with its six 

 vessels giving a realistic picture of life aboard ship in former times, 

 shows what can be done by private enterprise in an educational way. 

 New York City has as yet nothing like this. The idea of recreational 

 piers put forward by Jane Jacobs for the latter city deserves imple- 



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