No more ferry tales for New Orleans

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http://grist.org/cities/no-more-ferry-tales-for-new-orleans/

?w=250&h=166

Come the end of this month, New Orleans may lose its one and only ferry, thanks to a state uncommitted to keeping it financially afloat and a city even less sure about who’s responsible for keeping it from going under. This is the ferry that since 1827 has crossed the Mississippi River, transporting “West Bank” residents to jobs downtown. It’s the ferry featured in the HBO series, Treme, that carries the populist scold Creighton Bernette, a hopeless romantic for New Orleans, to his death at the end of the first season. Now, with its original funding stream dammed off for good, the ferry’s own ending is imminent.

Funding for public transit is pretty shallow across the nation, no matter whether we’re talking buses, rail, or otherwise. As the nonprofit Transportation for America recently reported, last year’s federal transportation bill surfaced with less funding than normal, leaving states to look for creative ways to cover yawning budget shortfalls. But ferry service gets stepchild treatment even during prosperous years.

In Louisiana — a state not historically friendly to expanding public services — transit has taken a backseat to issues like healthcare and coastal restoration. The endangered ferry species, meanwhile, is having a tough time getting any government agency’s attention.

Three ferries serve the greater New Orleans metropolitan region by shuttling pedestrians and cars across the Mississippi, mostly for work purposes. The one ferry that serves New Orleans city proper brings residents who live on the West Bank to the Canal Street station, which is within walking distance of thousands of hotel, restaurant, bar, retail, banking, hospital, and government jobs. The ferry carries over a million pedestrians and over 175,000 cars annually on average.

[kestrel91316]

1. Glad I took that ferry over to Algiers to see the Victorian painted ladies

while I could (went to NOLA about 4 years ago for a conference).

Sigh. Such shortsighted foolishness. They are doing this to deliberately hurt the poor.

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2. i can't believe they're going to let that happen. nt