Boaters Afraid That Tide's Against Them

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
18 July 2010
By Brian O'Neill

It's true some nomads have it worse, but having been bounced up and down the Allegheny River for 20 years, nobody can blame the Murphys for craving a secure harbor.

On a recent sunny Saturday I joined Patrick and Mari on their pontoon boat, Murphy's Law, at the Allegheny Marina. That's near the city side of the 62nd Street Bridge. Their untrimmed poodles, Shadow and Midnight, greeted me, too, and we took off downriver.

"To really understand the story of the wandering tribe,'' Mr. Murphy told me, "you have to start at the beginning.''

When we neared the yellow triplet bridges that span the river, they pointed out what had been their best spot, Dave's Marina, which had been just east of the Rachel Carson (Ninth Street) Bridge.

They moored there from 1990 to 1996. For the first few years, their bow faced an illegal gambling tugboat whose jukebox seemed to play nothing but "New York, New York'' -- until some anonymous patriot tossed it into the river. The police shut down the gamblers early in 1993.

That spot, where the Lincoln Apartments are now, was prime for watching fireworks and riverfront construction. But Dave's Marina got the heave-ho in 1996 to make way for the apartments that opened in 1997.

So Murphy's Law was one of nearly 100 boats that followed Dave Weaver when he set up new slips upriver beneath the Cork Factory and called it South Shore Marina. That spot would provide some memories, too.

The Murphys live in the East Carnegie neighborhood and don't often spend the night on the boat, but they were asleep on it one night when, about 3 a.m., Mrs. Murphy heard a big splash. She ran out to see two red lights sticking out of the water. Then a white light went on below the surface and a man bobbed up from below "like a sea monster.''

Seems those lights belonged to a car. The driver had miscalculated the end of the parking lot, informing her he'd come from "up there.'' Rescue workers drove him home.

Back in the '90s, the old Armstrong Cork Factory had stood empty for decades and Mrs. Murphy would think, "Gee, I hope someday they restore that."

"Well, they did and kicked us out.''

The Cork Factory would become a plush apartment complex that includes a smaller marina, but there was an interim season when no slips were available, so their tenure there lasted from 1996 to 2005.

In 2006, the Murphys and their friends moved their boats to the Allegheny Marina -- "We're like little gypsies trying to stick together,'' she says -- and now the city has more grand plans for riverfront development. They don't expect the plans include little folks like them.

The city and the Buncher Co. announced intentions in March to redevelop 80 acres of riverfront land from the Strip District to Lawrenceville, including the former Tippins International site at 62nd Street that includes the Allegheny Marina.

A spokeswoman for the Urban Redevelopment Authority said last week, "There are currently no development plans or a timeline for the Allegheny Marina site," but that sounds fishy to Mrs. Murphy.

Lawrenceville's community plan is for an expanded Allegheny Marina that includes a public boat launch, a boathouse and trailer parking. Earl Faust, the marina's owner, still a water skier at 84, has been on a year-to-year lease since the URA bought the property a couple of years ago. He hopes the city accepts his plans for a more modern, "greener'' marina.

The URA and Riverlife point out that the city has added slips in recent decades. The city supported construction of the marina at Washington's Landing, with both money and land. It's doing the same on the Monongahela River at South Shore Riverfront Park, where the city is working with David Maxwell, owner of Fox Chapel Marina, to build about 320 slips.

The Murphys can't help but notice that the thrust of most riverfront plans seems to be toward landlubbers getting to green space along the river. There seems relatively little thought for boaters already on the water. Allegheny Riverfront Vision was a 12-month planning project that ended in April, and its preliminary vision plan said nothing about marinas.

Maybe the Murphys missed the boat by not speaking out during that process, but Mrs. Murphy would like to see a permanent liaison between boaters and the URA.

"Nothing about boating in Pittsburgh is easy,'' she said.

Brian O'Neill: boneill@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1947.