Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Beach Channel Drive needs shoring up


From the Daily News:

Local officials in Rockaway are pleading with Mayor Bloomberg to fix a battered bulkhead that has allowed Jamaica Bay to creep dangerously close to Beach Channel Drive.

A portion of the esplanade near Beach 108th St. and Beach Channel Drive has collapsed, just feet from the peninsula’s main east-west thoroughfare.

“One bad Nor’easter and we could lose the westbound drive,” said Jonathan Gaska, the district manager of Community Board 14. “This is our Queens Blvd. and it’s in danger.”

Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder and Community Board 14 have recently sent letters to the mayor’s office, warning the city about the precarious situation.

“I’m concerned that one day we might wake up and Beach Channel Drive is in the bay,” said Goldfeder. “It doesn’t take an engineer to see we have a pretty bad problem on our hands.”

While sections of the bulkhead that protect Rockaway from Jamaica Bay have been repaired over the years, it remains an uneven barrier.

Parts are owned by various city agencies as well as the federal government.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Crappy,fixing Beach Channel drive was something Weiner was working on when he was not working on his pecs. I hope this project didn't get lost in the meantime. Congressmen Weiner explained to us that the Beach Channel wall requires lots of coordination among government entities because various parts of the wall are the responsiblility of many different agencies. I hope that coordination is still going on. Rockaway is always hurricane away from disappearing - remember Hog Island? Of course you don't; but it used to be right off Rockaway.

Anonymous said...

Anon-1. This isn't a federal problem. The city should repair it, period. The crap is the amount of "coordination" that is required - which is only code for playing games with which account to draw the money from.

99? said...

Rockaway is always hurricane away from disappearing - remember Hog Island? Of course you don't; but it used to be right off Rockaway.
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If it was in CB1 or CB 2 they would be looking at 40 story buildings for a place like this.

Why? Well because the MAYOR has NYC Plan 2030 THATS why!

And not a single person that actually lives in those areas ever thought that another half million residents was just the ticket!

Anonymous said...

in 1956, many N.Y.C area H.S. and College basketball players would test their skills at 108 street @ the ocean/beach playground. we had no summer camps in those days.the breeze cooled the players .as well as a few brews.

the courts were made famous by DICK and Al McGuire (St. John's U. & N.Y.Knicks ),whose mother Dolly owned a lounge two blocks away.

the section should be landmarked.it is mentioned in the book "LAPCHICK" by Gus Alfieri (ST.John's U. star and 1959 N.I.T. Winner.)

maybe St. John's U. and Coach Conasecca can give some public relations aid to your problem.

Anonymous said...

Not really related to the article but John Gaska is the most honest city employee I've ever met and truely cares about the community he serves. I was we could have him here for cb7. Hopefully he can get enough voices together and get what he needs for that retaining wall

Anonymous said...

Very dangerous. On a related note, the bulkhead near the East River in Astoria is collapsing too. Perhaps some parts should be inspected and fixed before someone's child leans on a rotting section and falls to the river rocks below.