Courtesy of Danny Ruscillo
Borough President Katz sent the letter to Mayor de Blasio last month.
By Michael V. Cusenza
Queens Borough President Melinda Katz recently climbed aboard the Rockaway community’s effort to convince the administration to name the Citywide Ferry Service dock on the peninsula, “Deckelman’s Landing,” after the defunct Rockaway Ferry’s most ardent advocate, Laura Deckelman.
“I have received a petition supporting this naming, which includes the signatures of over 2,000 Rockaway residents and supporters from surrounding communities,” Katz wrote in a December letter addressed to Mayor Bill de Blasio. “This effort also carries the support of all elected officials serving the Rockaways on the Federal, State, and City levels.”
The grassroots movement first sprouted last March from the minds of Deckelman’s friends and fellow civic leaders, Danny and Linda Ruscillo. The longtime Rockaway Park residents set up the “Name Our Rockaway Ferry Dock ‘Deckelman’s Landing,’” petition page on ipetitions.com in honor of Deckelman, a Rockaway native, Bayswater denizen, and professional photographer who the Ruscillos said “has done so much for our community when it comes to the Rockaway Ferry that the dock (landing) should be named after her. It’s fair and very appropriate at the same time. Whoever agrees with me, please forward out to your friends, neighbors and Ferry riders.”
At the time, Deckelman told The Forum that she’s “surprised, flattered, and awed that Danny and Linda are nominating” her. She said she has “worked diligently for the Ferry cause since summer 2013, and have not given up…”
In asking the de Blasio administration to “fully consider the request of the community to recognize the commitment and dedication of Laura Deckelman to bring permanent ferry service” to the peninsula, Katz said she, too, has witnessed Deckelman’s advocacy on behalf of her beloved borough.
“From firsthand experience I can also attest to the tireless work Laura Deckelman has done in the wake of Hurricane Sandy to raise awareness for the need for permanent ferry service connecting Rockaway to Brooklyn and Manhattan,” the borough president noted. “Furthermore, Ms. Deckelman continues to participate in community meetings and EDC presentations concerning the upcoming Citywide Ferry Service plan in order to ensure the success of this new permanent transportation option.”
During his 2015 State of the City address, de Blasio unveiled his vision of a new five-borough ferry system that would “knit together existing East River routes with new landings and services to Astoria, the Rockaways, South Brooklyn, Soundview and the Lower East Side” for the cost of a subway ride.
The Citywide Ferry Service is on-schedule to launch this summer.
