With delayed timelines and ongoing construction, Red Hook residents are still living in limbo as they wait for a $568 million resiliency project to come to life, more than a decade after Sandy slammed the complex.
“We must build a future where every New Yorker makes a living wage and earns enough to cover the basic necessities to survive and then some, so that a climate emergency doesn’t mean financial ruin and impossible existential choices.”
After Superstorm Sandy-related reconstruction knocked out the gas line to several Red Hook West buildings in January, some tenants are seeking compensation for the disruption.
While the last decade has seen cleanup efforts planned or launched at some of the city’s most polluted waterways, like Gowanus Canal and Newtown Creek, the community has struggled to get traction for a comprehensive cleaning plan for Coney Island Creek, despite its continued recreational use and multiple requests for action by local leaders.
“Instead of turning a blind eye to the suffering of basement and cellar apartment dwellers, disproportionately low-income and from immigrant communities, we must find the political courage to face this challenge by legalizing and making them safe.”
Environmentalists say an Army Corps of Engineers’ plan to protect the city from coastal storms using walls and gates fails to address other climate change-related threats, like heavy rainfall.
New studies have found that the mental development of children exposed to Superstorm Sandy in utero are associated with stress. This article originally appeared in Nexus Media News and the Guardian.
“During Sandy we saw evidence of how parks can be built to weather the worst impacts of storms. Areas that suffered less damage overall had infrastructure in place that served to alleviate some of the harsher impacts: facilities such as beaches, wetlands and parks which, if built right, can serve as a cushion for harsh weather conditions that might hit coastal and neighboring communities.”
Retired HPD photographer Larry Racioppo spent months without electricity after Hurricane Sandy rebuilding his Rockaway Park home. His photos from that time, and of his neighborhood over the decade since, are the subject of an exhibit on display this month at the Rockaway Initiative for Sustainability and Equity (RISE) in Far Rockaway.
“Hurricane Sandy damaged 10 percent of the city’s housing. In a city with a vacancy rate of 4.5 percent, even a temporary loss of the housing supply isn’t just a problem for those directly displaced: it tightens the market for everyone, making it harder and more expensive to find housing.”
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