The group received support from U.S. Representatives Paul Tonko, Jerrold Nadler, Carolyn Maloney and Nydia Velazquez at MWA’s Waterfront Conference Floating Follow-Up in 2011. The Waterfront Alliance began the Open Waters Initiative in 2010 as a program to construct community docks at waterfront sites in New York City. The first dock will be constructed in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn in 2012. The Waterfront Alliance organizes 6 task forces to discuss and deliberate waterfront policy, they include: Aquatecture, Water Mass Transit, Green Harbor, Harbor Education, Harbor Recreation and the Working Waterfront. The Waterfront Alliance's Waterfront Conference is a platform to address current waterfront issues including environmental concerns, climate change, equity and access and financing. City of Water Day focuses wide-scale public attention on the challenges and opportunities facing the waterfront and the event also highlights solutions. In 2011, 25,000 people participated in the event. Roland Lewis is an American urbanist and community organizer. He was the President and CEO of the Waterfront Alliance in New York, New York until 2020. He was formerly the Executive Director of Habitat for Humanity NYC. Previously, he was a partner in the law firm of Dellapa, Lewis, and Perseo. Lewis serves on the board of the New York Foundation, and is Co-Chair of the Harbor Estuary Program Citizens Advisory Committee. He also serves on the Freight and Maritime Advisory Board of the Center for Advanced Infrastructure & Transportation at Rutgers University, the Professional Advisory Committee for the New York Harbor School, Hudson River Park Trust Advisory Council and the New York City Waterfront Management Advisory Board.New York City Council Resolution  In 2012, Lewis was the chairperson of the 4th Annual Urban Waterfronts Conference in Abu Dhabi, UAE. His op-eds regarding the state of the New York-New Jersey waterfront and housing have appeared in the New York Times, Crains New York Business, Newsday New York City and Brooklyn Heights Press.