Thursday, July 11, 2013

City jacking up streets of Broad Channel


From the NY Times:

“We do not care about budgets; we are taxpaying people,” said John Heaphy, 69, a lifelong resident of the area, Broad Channel, Queens, which is built on a marsh that juts into the bay. “From the lowest politician to the governor’s office, we’ve been begging, please help us.”

Now, the city is doing just that, budgeting $22 million to try to save the neighborhood by installing bulkheads and by raising streets and sidewalks by three feet.

The Broad Channel project offers a preview of the infrastructure outlays that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is envisioning as part of a new $20 billion plan to protect the city’s 520 miles of coast over the next decade from rising sea levels.

But the project also raises fundamental questions about whether, in an era of extreme weather, the government should come to the aid of neighborhoods that are trying to fend off inevitably rising waters.

Broad Channel’s vulnerability was exposed in October during Hurricane Sandy, which toppled homes into the bay, some of which still lie in ruins along the beach. Yet the situation here is far worse than in some other neighborhoods damaged in the hurricane because Broad Channel suffers flooding from the tides and heavy rain, not just from storm surges.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Government should not be helping those who are blind to reality. Your property will be lost by 2030 or earlier.

Anonymous said...

Bring in arbitrators and buy them out and return Broad Channel to nature. It's hopeless.

Anonymous said...

When you live low and by the water like that you MUST understand your home is only temporary. Thats why simple fishermans bungalow's were built there.
These new dummys living there put in $7000 carpets, fancy walls and floors with insulation that cant be dried out.
The homeowners should be paying to raise and repair there now full time living houses