Giving the restoring of the Riis Park Bathhouse another expensive shot

Patch 

 Jacob Riis Park, known as “The People’s Beach,” is undergoing an Art Deco comeback as developers plan to restore the historic bathhouse and open the historic site next year.

Over $50 million will be injected into the project, which will include restaurants, a bar, a pool, event spaces, and 28 hotel rooms in the Rockaway site with two octagonal red brick towers. The hub’ phased opening is set to start in 2023.

“This project to revitalize and rejuvenate the Jacob Riis Bathhouse represents a giant step forward for the Rockaway Peninsula as it continues to recover from the battering it received from Hurricane Sandy a decade ago,” said Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. in a statement.

The project is led by CBSK Developers and the architecture firm Beyer Blinder Belle.

The restoration of the bathhouse, built in 1932, will add eateries, a beachfront bar, and retailers stocked with beach supplies. The courtyard will include a pool and lounge areas.

 The New York State Historic Preservation Office reviewed the project.

Didn't they try to make Riis Park a tourist destination before with that glamping bullshit?

Ok, now who's going to tell nature to stop devouring the shore right next to the bathhouse? 

Swimming banned at Riis Park after bacteria found in water

  

 

NBC News

A popular beach escape for sweltering New Yorkers took a hit this week, the same day heat indices climbed back near the triple digits.

Park officials announced the closure of all swimming at Jacob Riis Park until further notice citing unsafe water conditions.

Samples taken from water along the Queens beachline produced high bacteria levels that exceed the National Park Service safety standards.

Regular swimmers to NYC beaches know well the challenges of getting in the water this summer. In addition to a handful of shark sightings that have suspended swimming for brief periods, large stretches of the Rockaways have been closed through much of the summer for construction and restoration of the beach. 

 

 

Swimming banned in Riis Park because of shore erosion

 

The Wave

Bay 1, a section of Riis Park Beach will be closed to swimming access, which is anticipated to be the case for the remainder of the season. 

“Beach erosion has created unsafe conditions along the Bay 1 waters and eastern beach, exposing deteriorating wooden groins and other structures. The exposed structures could be dangerous to swimmers. The closures will be adjusted as necessary but is anticipated to remain in place for the rest of the summer,” the National Parks Department said in a Statement. 

Bay 1, the beach closest to Neponsit, is a highly trafficked beach, and is also an NYC LBGTQ historic sight, as it is considered as a safe haven for that community.

“We want to make sure that our visitors are able to enjoy this space safely. The hazards are not always visible, especially at high tide, which is why swimming is not allowed in Bay 1,” said Jen Nersesian, Gateway superintendent. “We know how important this area is to the LGBTQ+ community of NYC and are pursuing long-term options so that this beach can be enjoyed for many summers to come.”

Neponsit hospital will finally be demolished for a park and LGBTQ community is pissed

 

THE CITY 

 A city plan to demolish a long-abandoned hospital and nursing home in the Rockaways has drawn scrutiny from all sides — including those who want the building to stay up to protect a historic beach haven for New York’s queer community.

The public hospitals agency announced last month that three crumbling buildings comprising the former Neponsit Adult Home on Beach 149th Street would be torn down at the end of the summer season. The land would then be turned over to the Department of Parks and Recreation, and eventually be home to a park, with space for lifeguard facilities and parking, officials said.

“It’s been a community eyesore for a long time, and there really wasn’t a good plan for it for a very long time,” local City Councilmember Joann Ariola (R-Queens) told THE CITY. “I think it’s going to be a positive addition to the community.”

But those who flock to the sands behind the seaside building — including a historically Black and brown community of trans and queer beachgoers, and some nudists — fear tearing down the edifieces that acted as a shield will ruin their “utopia.”

The former hospital’s fence directly borders the beach, where beachgoers have built a monument to the late Ms. Colombia, a beloved NYC queer icon whose legacy they’ve celebrated each year since she died in 2018.

LGBTQ New Yorkers have congregated at Bay 1 — the first beach in the federally operated Jacob Riis Park — since the late 1950s, according to historians. Queer authors including Audre Lorde and Joan Nestle mention the beach by name as a safe haven in their works.

 Many in the community now believe tearing down the hospital and putting in a park where children play would make Bay 1 less of a safe space.

“There are so many places in New York City that we are not comfortable in. Riis is our home, our dance floor, our marriage place and our burial ground,” Ceyenne Doroshow, founder and executive director of Gays and Lesbians Living in a Transgender Society, or GLITS, told THE CITY.

Riis Park parking fees will double to $20 next summer

 Rockaway Times

For the first time since 2012, Gateway National Recreation Area is hoping to increase parking fees for the Riis Park parking lot. These parking rates would go into effect for the summer of 2021. 

Currently $10 a day, the proposal calls for a doubling of the fee to $20. In 2016, National Park Service tried to propose a fee increase to $15. It never came to fruition. This season, with beaches being closed due to coronavirus, fees were not collected until July as opposed to the regular Memorial Day weekend start.

The proposed fees for 2021 would include: $20 per day; $100 per season; $50 per oversize car per day and $200 per oversize car per season. Visitors with Senior or Access Passes would be charged half price for parking, as they are currently.

“We are committed to keeping the park affordable but also want to provide visitors with the best possible experience,” said Gateway Superintendent Jen Nersesian.  “The money from the parking fees will help improve our visitor facilities and services.” 

Now that's how you gentrify a beach. Make way for privatization.

Riis Park Beach Bazaar is getting cancelled

Rockaway Times

 

Riis Park Beach Bazaar (RPBB) immediately helped revitalize Riis Park when it secured a lease to run the concessions at the park that offered little to visitors for decades. That was five years ago. Since then, the group has offered a wide variety or food vendors, beach rental equipment, live entertainment and even year round indoor dining (in pre-Covid times). Many locals have found employment with the company as well.

And now the lease is up. The five-year lease is due to expire November 1, just a couple of months from now. The lease does not have a renewal clause and NPS says the “park plans to release a competitive solicitation in early Fall 2020, to lease facilities at Riis for similar purposes.”

Chalk up another bust for this hipster culture entrepreneurial collective. Thanks for the memories

Humpback whale dies alone at Riis Park

Patch

 A 28-foot-long humpback whale washed ashore Tuesday at Jacob Riis Park in Queens, according to state environmental officials and the nonprofit Atlantic Marine Conservation Society.

In keeping with social distancing guidelines issued by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, scientists with the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society did not examine the whale, according to a news release.

This is the first stranded whale reported to the New York-based Atlantic Marine Conservation Society's stranding response team so far this year.

"It is always unfortunate when a whale washes up on our beaches," Atlantic Marine Conservation Society chief scientist Rob DiGiovanni said. "By working together, we strive to collect as much information as possible to help understand the cause of mortality."

What if the great mammal is alive? The AMCS can't get n95 masks either?

If this whale needs a respirator, it's out of luck

Riis Park only improved the beach for the bazaar and boardwalk and not for the picnic area

 

Impunity City


Well another summer has departed and the belated autumn solstice has arrived today after the climate change influenced unusual warmth of last October, so this would be the right time to document and review this years spring and summer season spent at Riis Park. And it’s not good at all and it has not ended well, as the dramatic changes that came forth with certain and way overdue (and selective) renovations took place

 As the days of May got later, there actually was a itty bitty slither of hope for the people’s beach. The Riis Park Bathhouse renovation attracted more concessions and restaurant fare, as well as new food stands on the end of the boardwalk by the abandoned hospital and both were supplied with live laptop DJ’s. More food trucks were added to where the heart of the Brooklyn Night Bazaar Riis Park Beach Bazaar takes place, probably for people who do not care for the upscale foodie concept fare being sold in the restaurant inside and the stand by the pitch-and-putt course. There was also the return of the ludicrous high end slum camping concept Camp Rockaway in the dirty chigger infested backyard of the bathhouse. Volleyball courts were also added right in the next yard too for adventurous players and camp guests to play on the hard concrete. It was quite a sight to behold this year on every weekend, as people gathered to enjoy the summer breeze, sharing the company of diverse races and cultures, and extravagantly overpriced fast food, beer and cocktails. Vibrancy in action I believe it’s called.

 

 


But something was missing from all the free market vibrancy going on the boardwalk. Somehow all the restorations and renovations and all the upscale prices that went into providing a venue for the bazaar did not transfer to a very essential part of beach and parkland that was already a big attraction. In fact it was the only vibrant destination spot before the natural disaster of a category one hurricane and the unwelcome appearance of gentrifiers hit the people’s beach (yes, I’m aware of the irony that gentrifiers are people too) and that is the picnic and grilling area.

Before that bitch Sandy came, it was arguably the best and most spacious grilling area in the city. Despite how small it looks, it had ample space and plenty of tables and grills for anyone that showed up anytime. It also had a lot of wind swept trees from the powerful Atlantic Ocean winds that gave the picnic area a cool presence and a visual wonder of nature.

 

 



But where are the goddamn tables? This is a federally tax payer subsidized picnic area.

Cell tower being placed at abandoned hospital for Riis Park and Fort Tilden visitors phone habits is rattling Neponsit residents

Rockaway Times

What’s the topic of conversation in Neponsit? Something to help make conversations easier—a cell phone tower. But at a recent Neponsit Property Owners Association meeting, the tower got bad reception from neighbors.

Residents of Neponsit were on alert this week when they noticed construction crews staging an area at the old Neponsit Health Care Center on Beach 149th Street, in preparation of installing a cellphone tower, which parts of were left on a flatbed trailer. This became the top topic of discussion at Tuesday’s meeting held at West End Temple.

Not too much has taken place at the old Neponsit Home since it was evacuated and shut down in 1998. The property is currently maintained by NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation, which according to a report from 2015, pays about $266,000 annually just on security and basic repairs for the decaying building. However, something may be happening that could potentially help HHC recoup some of those costs.

According to HHC, a cell phone tower is coming to the property as part of a three-month pilot program. The tower belongs to telephone provider T-Mobile and is being erected in response to complaints about poor coverage in Riis Park and Fort Tilden. The tower is expected to bring improved service for T-Mobile customers in the area. As it is a pilot, the company says it will take public opinion into consideration to determine if the tower will stay beyond three months.

However, early opinions show that some neighbors are not very receptive to the idea, nor have they been in Neponsit for several years when it comes to the subject of cell towers. Cell phone towers are not absent in Rockaway, with towers that operate at Beach 108th Street, Beach 116th Street, Beach 121st Street, and Beach 135th Street among others. However, in Neponsit, the backlash has been consistent. In 2008 there were plans to put a cell tower on top of West End Temple, where Tuesday’s meeting was held, but this plan was eventually halted due to the community's concerns about health issues, especially because West End Temple houses a religious school, day camps, and nursery school.

Those same health concerns and others were repeated this week with the new tower. At a sparsely attended meeting, which was competing with an important community board meeting and the District Attorney election, the Neponsit property owners discussed the tower and posed questions to Councilman Eric Ulrich representative Robby Schwach. The majority of the attendees were opposed to the tower, citing either possible health concerns, or the unsightliness of the tower itself.

Got a feeling that this "pilot" program is going to lead to T-Mobile splaying their ugly ads all over the park area too. But lots of people today, especially all these visitors for the "Beach Bazaar", gotta have reception at all times because cellphones, texting and instagramming are as addictive as crack and smack.

Another interesting thing is that HHC is spending over 250 grand a year to guard and repair the building. But clearly mostly to guard it, the only visible repairs there are the cemented windows and the creepy tower lights that are on at night.

Tar balls found on the sands on Riis Park beach caused by oil tanker spill

Gothamist

On Thursday, the Dublin Express spilled an unknown quantity of fuel from its 300,000 gallon tank into Arthur Kill waterway, thanks to a 15-square-inch hole in its hull. Watchstanders caught the leak while the ship was moored at the Global Marine New York Container Terminal off Staten Island; responders hauled the wounded vessel up onto a containment boom and temporarily closed down the port so they could skim the surrounding waters. As of Friday evening, the Coast Guard said it had sent "60 responders, 10 vessels, four skimmers, two vacuum trucks, two vacuum trailers for recovered oil product, and 15,000 feet of containment boom" to deal with the incident.


By Saturday, however, the Coast Guard had received reports of "oil sheen and tar balls" in the waters off of Coney Island and Long Island, from Norton Point to Atlantic Beach. The Coast Guard deployed flight crews to survey the situation from the air, along with its Shoreline Cleanup and Assessment Technique (SCAT) teams to investigate on the ground. They spotted a swath of tar balls about 400 feet long and 2 feet wide on Jacob Riis beach in the Rockaways on Sunday, and today, Unified Command will send out "crews proficient in the cleanup of tar balls" to tackle the infestation once "the tide is favorable," according to a news release.

"The People's Beach" has gone to the hipsters

If you want to see what happened to the Riis Park Bathhouse, head on over to Impunity City. But be forewarned: this crap is not for the faint of heart. G.E.N.T.R.I.F.I.C.A.T.I.O.N.

Park Service looking to refurbish Jacob Riis Bathhouse

From CBS 2:

With colder weather and the holidays upon us, you may not be thinking about your summer beach plans.

But as CBS2’s Brian Conybeare reported, the National Park Service is.

In fact, the agency is trying to restore the historic bathhouse on Rockaway Beach with the help of private investors.

The iconic bathhouse at Jacob Riis Park in Queens has been virtually abandoned for decades. Built in 1932, the art deco pavilion was a popular summer destination for New York’s working poor and immigrants – with restaurants, a surf shop, and a mile-long white sand beach.

But time, neglect, and storms took their toll.

The Park Service is now looking for bidders to reopen parts of the bathhouse with dining, concessions, arts, and an event space for next summer. But the second floor, which housed a Howard Johnson’s hotel in the 1960s, will obviously take much longer.

The second floor now looks like modern-day ruins, with crumbling ceilings and rotting bathrooms.

Attempt to gentrify a beach and a Federal park

http://www.rockawayartistsalliance.org/#!film-festival/ul2yr

(Note the following: Presented by Bloomberg and in collaboration with Central Park Conservancy & National Park Service. The Central Park Conservancy? Why?)

Now I wrote last year about those idiots (the Brooklyn Night Bazaar and Gothamist) that are running a booze and music festival at my favorite beach Riis Park and my opinion that it's an attempt at gentrifying a beach (fortunately it hasn't worked), but they might have figured out how to do it. They are doing one of those bullshit outdoor movie nights and I provided the links above.

This is going to get very, very ugly. These big spenders don't have enough space and amenities where they are from, they got to turn the "people's beach" into the Hamptons.

Enjoy your afternoon,

JQ LLC

Follow up:

I could only take a few pics but I assure you, there was NOBODY setting up on the sand to watch this, and the concession area had barely a crowd. There were more park rangers and crew than customers and passersby. What's even more dreadful is that they had a laptop DJ do a set and no one was paying attention even when she was giving away prizes doing trivia about the movie that was on (It was West Side Story). Lame.

Rockaway gas pipeline almost complete

From Rockaway Times:

The Rockaway Lateral Transco Pipeline Project, running from the Atlantic Ocean, through Riis Park, and up Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn, is expected to be complete by March 2015.

“We have been working nearly around the clock and remain on schedule to place the project into service by the end of the first quarter 2015,” Williams spokesperson Chris Stockton said. The Rockaway Lateral Project began construction on June 9, 2014. The project includes one mile of horizontal directional-drilled pipeline and 2.2 miles of conventionally laid 26” pipeline connected to an existing Transco pipeline in the Atlantic Ocean. National Grid’s portion of the project, the Brooklyn Queens Interconnect Project, which is complete, will connect with the Transco project. Together, the pipeline projects will bring additional natural gas into Rockaway, Brooklyn and other parts of Queens.

Williams, the company behind the Transco pipeline, has a Rockaway Community Grants program “to benefit the environment and local communities within the NYC areas affected by Williams’ Rockaway Lateral project.” The company awards grants of up to $15,000 per funding cycle for each program. In October 2014, 13 organizations received grants, totaling $115,000. Some groups included the Rockaway Point Volunteer Emergency Services, the Breezy Point Cooperative, the Broad Channel Historical Society for the Collection Preservation project, Beautify Rockaway Beach, the Roxbury Volunteer Firehouse, the Rockaway Youth Task Force and more.

Gas pipeline hearing tonight

From Metro:

The first of two Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Public Hearings over a proposed Rockaway gas pipeline will be taking place at the Knights of Columbus Rockaway Council 267 at 333 Beach 90th Street starting at 7 p.m.

The pipeline, to be built by Williams Transco and National Grid, is being hit with much of the same criticism as the Spectra Pipeline planned for lower Manhattan.

Both pipelines would bring shale gas — produced by fracking — to the city. Opponents are complaining that the review period has not been long enough and that environmental and safety concerns are not being adequately considered.

This pipeline would be embedded in the ocean floor, run under the sandy bank of Riis Park Beach, cross below the Rockaway Inlet and continue up Flatbush avenue to a Metering and Regulation facility. The facility would be built in two of the old abandoned airplane hangars at Floyd Bennet Field.

Jacob Riis is still standing tall

From the Daily News:

Jacob Riis, the muckraking journalist who championed reforms for the poorest New Yorkers at the turn of the century, is still watching over Rockaway from his oceanfront perch.

A bronze bust of Riis, replaced just two years ago by a group of Queens schoolkids, miraculously withstood the fury of Superstorm Sandy.

The rest of Riis Park did not go unscathed from the storm that sparked fires and flooding throughout the peninsula. It toppled brick walls, twisted fences and unfurled railing across the sprawling recreation area.

Riis Park lot turned into massive garbage dump

From NY1:

The drive to Jacob Riis Park is a familiar one, but now most beachgoers probably wouldn't recognize it.

Seagulls usually drawn to picnics are now drawn to the remnants of Hurricane Sandy and a steady stream of sanitation trucks.

"Residents of Rockaway and Howard Beach Queens are so lucky that the National Parks Service immediately granted access to use this facility or else the magnitude of the clean up would be a lot worse," Joseph Hickey from the Department of Sanitation said.

At Jacob Riis Park, a parking lot for beachgoers in the summer has morphed into a temporary dump.

All around there are mountains of trash created by items that were once the prized possessions of Rockaway residents.

Sad state of Riis Bathhouse

From the NY Times:

With its octagonal brick towers rising above the beach, the sprawling bathhouse at Jacob Riis Park in the Rockaways has, since opening in 1932, served as a monument to Art Deco design, grand public works and populist fun. Lately, however, it has become a symbol of something else: public frustration.

Renovation work began in the 1990s on the bathhouse, which is part of the federal Gateway National Recreation Area. Nearly $20 million was spent on asbestos removal, electrical upgrades, window replacements, new elevators and facade work. Politicians predicted that the bathhouse would be a fitting centerpiece of Jacob Riis Park, which is nicknamed the People’s Beach, while beachgoers envisioned cafes and souvenir shops, hot showers and community space.

But the work was never finished, and today the 40,000-square-foot bathhouse appears all but abandoned. Its large oceanfront bays are boarded up with plywood; its giant courtyard houses piles of sand, weeds and several derelict lifeguard stands, two of them toppled over.

Officials of Gateway, which is part of the National Park Service, say that the bathhouse suffered a one-two punch. First, the money meant for the restoration did not go as far as they had planned. The bathhouse complex actually comprises four buildings; while the entry pavilion on the inland side is finished, the beach pavilion still needs major work. Then came Tropical Storm Irene, which smashed a series of large doors protecting the interior — the ones now covered in plywood — and dumped four feet of sand on the ground floor.

"Keep your pants on..."

From the Daily News:

Rockaway residents fed up with getting an eyeful from a nude beach are demanding the city rebuild a fence to shield their gaze from naked sunbathers.

Dozens of scandalized locals rallied at the beach Sunday — pushing to rebuild the fence that separated the federally controlled adult beach in Riis Park from the tamer sands of Neponsit.

The fence blew down during Hurricane Irene last year - and the protesters said the nude beachgoers have been in their face ever since.

"The city needs to put the fence back up, plain and simple," said City Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Queens). "This is about protecting families and children. This is about protecting the community. This is about protecting decency."

City officials have been reluctant to rebuild the fence, saying the law requires undivided public access to beaches below the high tide line. Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said in a letter to local officials that the city Parks Department and the National Parks Service, which runs Riis Park, are trying to manage their properties with a “more holistic approach.”

The pipeline under Riis Park

From the Daily News:

Rep. Michael Grimm’s support for a natural gas pipeline through Queens is fueling criticism that he’s a pol courting powerful private interests — not the Tea Party reformer he claims to be.

Seven months after sponsoring legislation to run a pipeline under Jacob Riis Park, the freshman congressman has collected some $3,000 from its backers.

Grimm, a former FBI agent, won his Staten Island campaigning as an outsider who wasn’t going to buy into the crippling go-along, get-along ethos of inside the Beltway.

But the intersection of money, power and legislation is highlighted in the latest campaign financial disclosure statements, not just for Grimm but others in the New York delegation.

Disgraced Queens Rep. Anthony Weiner had shown interest in the project before he resigned in June. National Grid was among Weiner’s top campaign contributors in his last run for election, giving some $6,200, according to a review by the Center for Responsive Politics.

Veteran Queens Rep. Gregory Meeks and Republican newcomer Bob Turner, a former cable TV exec, co-sponsored the pipeline bill.

Since July, Meeks received donations totaling $2,500 from lobbyists pressing Congress to approve the pipeline project, according to campaign reports.

Turner received a $600 from a National Grid employee before he took office, campaign financial records show.