Baltimore's boating community faces choppy waters as the Harborview Marina officially shut its doors yesterday following a lack of safety assurances for its deteriorating fixed pier. Marina management broke the news earlier this month, leaving tenants scrambling to find alternative docking spaces in a city where liveaboard opportunities are already scarce. According to CBS News Baltimore, boater Bobby LaPin, a vocal member of the boating community, noted the significance of the closure, "The three marinas that would allow liveaboards that was Harborview, Anchorage Marina and Hendersons and Fells Point. And now with Harborview closing, it takes one less option off the table for these folks that want to live on their boat."
As days pass since the closure, a handful of vessels remain moored at the empty docks, contingents of a community dispersed in haste. Boat repairman Phil Tansill told WMAR-2 News, "It is expensive even to get rid of a boat if you just wanna essentially throw it away. It's very expensive," highlighting the financial burden cast on boat owners by the sudden announcement. Joel Schlossberg, general manager of Lighthouse Point marina, explained that they have been accommodating an "influx of 60, 70 boaters," some only just managing to ready their boats for relocation.
Yet, on the docks, skepticism swirls regarding the true motives behind the marina's closure. Suspicions arise when the staff and sailors still frequent the supposedly unsound pier, and visible safety measures are absent. "Everyone wants to see it," Jeremy Salkin, a Harbourview resident, said in an interview with The Baltimore Banner, referring to the elusive engineer's report that justified the closure. Court files across the harbor hint at a potential power struggle between rich owners, casting further doubt on the reasons for the marina's abrupt shutdown.
