BROWNFIELD BOATING
2021
Brownfield Boating is a series of paddling tours and beach days hosted throughout 2021 in collaboration with nonprofits, artist, and civic groups with a focus on the Flushing Waterfront Brownfield Opportunity Area. Participants got to check in on oyster cages stationed along the Passive Recreation Platform, explore combined sewage overflows up close, and envision how climate change may impact the existing landscape and plans for development around the Flushing, Willets Point, East Elmhurst, and College Point waterfronts in the future. Rented U-Haul trucks served as a transient boathouse throughout the year, transporting a fleet of kayaks and canoes able to accommodate up to 13 people at once. This series of projects allowed for 60+ people to paddle on Flushing Creek. Each event operated with a different invitation/RSVP format, testing multiple methods of engaging area residents and stakeholders with on-water activity.
Since the closure of the Wahnetah Boat Club in the 1910’s, Flushing Creek has lacked formal access points to directly engage with the water's edge. By providing opportunities to paddle in kayaks and canoes for free, and connecting participants to additional activities centered on caring for and experiencing about the surrounding ecology, Brownfield Boating created a point of connection on the water, engaging historically underserved communities with ongoing institutionalized planning processes and their local environment. The photos above were taken from roughly the same location, a little over 100 years apart.
MAY 2021
TENDING THE EDGE
As part of Tending the Edge, presented by Works on Water, Culture Push, and NYC Department of City Planning, the first iteration of Brownfield Boating invited 2021 NYC Mayoral candidates, Queens Borough President candidates, City Council District 20 candidates, and City Council District 21 candidates to attend guided on-water tours in Flushing Creek launching from the Flushing Meadows - Corona Park Kayak and Canoe Launch. Tours were led in collaboration with Guardians of Flushing Bay, and select community members living and working in the area including members of Flushing Anti-Displacement Alliance, were invited to paddle alongside candidates. Artist group Sunk Shore made a guest appearance during the tours, offering a site-specific speculative take on our climate changed future.
Tending the Edge was funded by Works on Water and Culture Push, with photos 1-4 by Walter Wlodarczyk and 5-8 by Julian Louis Phillips. This work was performed in collaboration with Guardians of Flushing Bay and Sunk Shore.
SEPTEMBER 2021
BROWNFIELD BOATING + BIOBLITZ
To compliment Guardians of Flushing Bay’s ‘Flushing Creek for All’ species cataloging campaign in collaboration with Flushing Anti-Displacement Alliance and the CUNY Queens College Urban Studies Department, two public paddling sessions requiring online RSVP, were planned as part of a larger beach day and ecology mapping program lead by Guardians of Flushing Bay.
Brownfield Boating + Bioblitz was funded in part by Queens Art Fund, and made possible in collaboration with Guardians of Flushing Bay.
OCTOBER 2021
FREAK THE CREEK: GHOST OF THE WAHNETAH BOAT CLUB
Using the Passive Recreation Platform as a dock attendees at Freak the Creek were welcomed to participate in first-come first-served paddling in the mudflat at the historic site of the Wahnetah Boat Club. Freak the Creek was a free six hour long beach day along Flushing Creek, lasting from low to high tide, with performances, live music, a guided tour, food + drink, and other recreational activities planned in collaboration with sTo Len.
Freak the Creek: Ghost of the Wahnetah Boat Club was funded by the the New York City Artist Corps, with photos by Walter Wlodarczyk.