PortSide Steps Up Efforts To Save Mary A. Whalen
By Raanan Geberer
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
RED HOOK — PortSide New York, the organization that owns the retired oil tanker and former cultural event venue Mary A. Whalen, is stepping up efforts to raise funds to find a new home for the historic vessel.
While the Mary A. Whalen has a temporary home at the Red Hook Container Port, new security rules announced by the Department of Homeland Security in 2009 make it very difficult to present public events there, according to Carolina Salguero, PortSide’s founder and director. If visitors don’t have a federal Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) card, they have to be escorted for five blocks from the gate to the ship.