Blog

Sum­mer Updates from Gov­er­nors Island

Sep 10, 2020 10:33 am

Gov­er­nors Island has been open to the pub­lic since July, and we’ve been thrilled to pro­vide New York­ers with much need­ed open space dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic. As sum­mer winds down, we’re excit­ed to share a few updates about this sea­son thus far. 

Our 2020 pub­lic sea­son has pre­sent­ed unique chal­lenges and offered unique oppor­tu­ni­ties. While our pub­lic open­ing was ini­tial­ly delayed due to COVID-19, the Island opened to the pub­lic on July 15 with a new set of health and safe­ty mea­sures in place and a goal of pro­vid­ing more equi­table access to the Island for all New Yorkers. 

A major fea­ture of the enhanced health and safe­ty mea­sures is our new timed tick­et­ing sys­tem. By requir­ing vis­i­tors to reserve tick­ets both to and from the Island, the new tick­et­ing sys­tem allows us to main­tain low capac­i­ty on our fer­ries to ensure that social dis­tanc­ing remains pos­si­ble dur­ing the trip. 

This year, the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island also shift­ed Brook­lyn fer­ry ser­vice from Pier 6 to Red Hook / Atlantic Basin in order to reach a wider audi­ence, par­tic­u­lar­ly NYC com­mu­ni­ties under­served by pub­lic space. Addi­tion­al­ly, free rides were extend­ed to all res­i­dents of NYCHA hous­ing for the entire sea­son. So far, res­i­dents of NYCHA hous­ing, IDNYC hold­ers, and cur­rent and for­mer mil­i­tary ser­vice­mem­bers, all of whom ride for free, have reserved over 16% of all tick­ets this year. 

To date, over 100,000 vis­i­tors have tak­en the fer­ry to Gov­er­nors Island since we reopened the Island in July. More than 40% of tick­ets reserved have been free of charge, includ­ing over 23% as free rides avail­able to all vis­i­tors before noon on weekends. 

Anoth­er major change this year has seen the his­toric hous­es of Nolan Park and Colonels Row reded­i­cat­ed as work­space for artists and cul­tur­al work­ers. The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island, Low­er Man­hat­tan Cul­tur­al Coun­cil, and 18 arts and cul­ture orga­ni­za­tions joined forces to intro­duce the Gov­er­nors Island Res­i­den­cy Ini­tia­tive to pro­vide the space in response to the effects of COVID-19. LMCC’s Arts Cen­ter and the hous­es award­ed through our Open Call for 2020 pro­gram­ming orga­ni­za­tions pro­vide enough space for over 115 artists cho­sen by the orga­ni­za­tions to work in the build­ings through the rest of the pub­lic access sea­son. You can learn more about the artists in res­i­dence here.

Nolan Park and Colonels Row aren’t the only areas on the Island find­ing new use. GrowNYC’s Teach­ing Gar­den in the Urban Farm shift­ed focus this year from edu­cat­ing vis­i­tors and school groups about urban agri­cul­ture to full-on food pro­duc­tion. They’re aim­ing to pro­duce 20,000 pounds of food this year, which will be dis­trib­uted to New York­ers whose food secu­ri­ty has been threat­ened by the effects of COVID-19. Across the road, Earth Matter’s Com­post Learn­ing Cen­ter has remained focused on its mis­sion of pro­cess­ing food waste and com­postable mate­ri­als col­lect­ed on the Island and else­where into valu­able com­post to be dis­trib­uted to gar­dens across the City. Both sites are open for pas­sive vis­its on week­ends, 12 – 4pm. 

Gov­er­nors Island-based Bil­lion Oys­ter Project has also had a ban­ner sum­mer, between installing their first com­mu­ni­ty reef in Queens and huge new tanks across the chan­nel in Red Hook that can sup­port up to 50 mil­lion juve­nile oys­ters at once. 

It was a record-break­ing year for the Friends of Gov­er­nors Island’s vol­un­teer pro­gram, too, with over 130 new vol­un­teers join­ing 45 return­ing vol­un­teers. This amaz­ing group of vol­un­teers helps wel­come and ori­ent vis­i­tors and works along­side our gar­den­ing team to tend to the Island’s 120 acres of open space. So far they’ve pro­vid­ed a 131% increase in hours of ser­vice as com­pared to last year, demon­strat­ing the impact every day New York­ers can have giv­ing back to the city they love.

The Island’s food and bev­er­age options are more robust than ever this year with all13 of 2019’s ven­dors return­ing plus four new ones. Almost all are small busi­ness­es based in New York, and between them offer a globe-span­ning selec­tion of cuisines. This includes long­time favorites like Lit­tle Eva’s and Fauzia’s Heav­en­ly Delights, Sois­sons Land­ing main­stays Island Oys­ter and Taco Vista, and new­com­ers like Piz­za Yard, serv­ing up Neapoli­tan-style pies on Colonels Row, and Ter­ry & Yaki, whose teriya­ki bowls come in veg­an and halal varieties. 

This year marks the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island’s tenth anniver­sary as the stew­ards of 150 acres of Gov­er­nors Island. Head over to our blog to see high­lights from the past decade as we look for­ward to the next one. We’ve been thrilled to wel­come so many vis­i­tors to the Island this year to enjoy its sweep­ing park­land, scenic his­toric dis­trict, wide selec­tion of food and drink ven­dors and more. 

If you haven’t vis­it­ed yet this year, you’ve still got time. Gov­er­nors Island is open until Novem­ber 1 for bik­ing, hik­ing, grilling, or just hang­ing out in a ham­mock. We’d love to wel­come you ashore.