A new Staten Island Ferry is planned to be named after the historic Sandy Ground, one of the first settlements of free slaves in the country.
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the boat's name when he met with residents and local officials at a town hall meeting on Staten Island on Thursday night, as part of his week-long tour of the borough.
The second of the three new ferry boats is expected to be named Sandy Ground, according to the mayor's office.
The town hall crowd peppered the mayor on issues like sidewalk repairs, Vision Zero, education, and immigration.
NY1 talked with some of the attendees to find out their concerns.
"We stay at a homeless shelter, so they wanted us to come here so we could see what was going on, but nothing about us was going to be asked and we weren't going to get the chance to ask anything, so I'd just rather go home and sleep," one man said.
"I wanted to ask about my neighborhood," one woman said. "Like the parks and also the paving of the streets."
"He's been on the island for three days and what interaction has he had? He got on the ferry boat twice," Island resident Daniel Ahearn said. "He's not talking to the regular people."
De Blasio is scheduled to wrap up his week in the borough with one more event later Friday.
The new ferry boats are expected to start carrying riders in 2019.