It's not just the windsurfers, kayakers and people fishing from the pier who will be displaced from the Berkeley Waterfront by ferry passengers. 

The part of the Berkeley Marina selected for the new ferry terminal also supports a wide range of public uses, include non-profit and educational organizations (Shorebird Nature Center), recreational facilities (Adventure Playground), tidelands access (Municipal Fishing Pier, kayak, windsurfer and small boat access), businesses (restaurants) and existing maritime uses (boat berthing, charter fish boats) and a number of organizations that straddle two or more of these categories (Cal Sailing Club, Cal Adventures, Berkeley Racing Canoe Center).   

Ferry ridership is projected to top out at 1,000 round trips per day, but WETA (Water Emergency Transportation Authority) has no plans for additional parking. In fact, the ferry will pre-empt much of the parking now used by all of the user groups and activities mentioned above. 

Of the four prospective sites, WETA has chosen the only one with no potential to expand the parking supply as the service grows in popularity. WETA has also chosen the site with the most active and intense existing park and recreational uses in close proximity. The draft EIR justifies disqualifying the sites behind the racetrack because the ferry route would then traverse *water* that is within the boundaries of Eastshore State Park, even though there is virtually no park activity on shore that would be disrupted at those locations.  

A ferry will be a wonderful amenity for Berkeley. But the siting is all wrong for the scale of service proposed. If we get the ferry - and this rate we probably won't - it will be at the expense of much of the value of our active and diverse waterfront. 

This thing could still work if done right. For the fishing pier site, that means smaller boats on a lighter schedule, with a high enough ticket price to keep the parking and traffic demand within the existing infrastructure's ability to absorb it. Market rate pricing also means less subsidy. Ferries of this type are extremely inefficient in terms of cost, energy and carbon footprint, and we already have a bridge and a tunnel to SF. We should not be subsidizing a boutique commuter ferry to the tune of several times more public funding per trip than we spend on transbay bus transit. 

Paul Kamen, Naval Architect, Berkeley Waterfront Commission