SHEEPSHEAD BAY'S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS BLOG

Source: Metropolitan Transportation Authority Patrick Cashin

As the $60 billion Sandy aid package finally gets doled out, it is interesting to see how that mountain of money actually gets spent. A New York Post editorial highlights how Governor Andrew Cuomo intends to spend $6 billion worth of the pie on water-proofing the city’s subway system.

On top of the $6 billion set aside to figure out a way to somehow make sure the subway doesn’t get flooded again, the MTA is also receiving $4.8 billion in federal funds for general Sandy repairs. The Post editorial takes aim at Cuomo and the MTA for trumping up the damage estimates to ensure the biggest federal payout possible.

For example, when accessing the damage to the A train tracks in the Rockaways, the MTA guessed that they would need $650 million. Construction on that line is nearly finished and will open at the end of the month. In Cuomo’s actual budget released at the end of March, the cost so far has only amounted to $17.9 million. According to the Post, something isn’t adding up:

From photo op to photo op, there’s no reconciliation between huge initial numbers and later smaller ones. But this seeming opposite of a massive cost overrun isn’t that surprising — and it’s more Cuomo’s fault than the MTA’s.

Last year, the MTA was under huge pressure to announce huge numbers, fast — or watch the state lose out on federal aid. And now that the state has secured that cash, no one much cares what happens to it. After all, the money was free.

The cost overruns are creating questions as to where the money earmarked for the ‘water-proofing’ plan is going and how exactly it will be spent. While officials have solutions on how to protect above ground subways from storm surges by building protective walls, they have less of a clear picture on how to protect the underground portion of the system.

At a recent press conference, MTA chief Tom Prendergast admitted that he has no idea how to prevent flooding in places like Lower Manhattan, which has over 500 flood entry points alone.

The Post noted that many ideas floated to protect the underground subway are practical and low on cost, like installing deployable watertight grates across vents and stairways and placing inflatable bladders in key locations. Despite this, the Post is guessing that Cuomo and the MTA will likely favor a more expensive and futuristic idea that makes full use of the billions headed their way.

Just as we came upon the sixth month anniversary of Superstorm Sandy, a unique arts organization has covered Gerritsen Beach with dozens of stars to bring hope and inspiration to the children of the disaster stricken neighborhood.

See a gallery of all the stars, photographed by local photographer Lisanne Anderson.

Source: 401(K) via Flickr

With the threat of climate change and redrawn flood zone lines leading to skyrocketing insurance rates, you’d think the only thing that is certain to rise along the Southern Brooklyn waterfront would be encroaching flood waters and not property taxes. Well, property taxes have been hiked for Manhattan Beach, Sheepshead Bay and other coastal areas like Coney Island and the Rockaways, according to a report by the New York Post.

The rise in property taxes comes as a cruel blow to homeowners who have already shelled out thousands on home-repair following Sandy. According to the Post, the news of the tax hikes doesn’t sit well with local residents:

“This is totally insensitive and heartless,” said Ira Zalcman, president of the Manhattan Beach Community Group, which has received more than 30 complaints from residents about the hikes.

“We just sustained one of the worst national disasters in our nation’s history, and now the city is delusional, claiming our property values went up.”

Zalcman said that since Sandy, he has spent roughly $100,000 repairing the basement of his Dover Street oceanfront home, for which he pays more than $7,000 a year in property taxes.

Source: Williams

The reality of the proposed Rockaways natural gas pipeline project came one step closer to fruition this week as Williams Transco, the company looking to build it, officially filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to begin the project, according to a report by Natural Gas Watch.

As we’ve previously reported, opposition to the pipeline was heated, but federal legislation signed by President Obama last month made it legal for companies like Williams Transco to do construction in Gateway National Recreational Area, a federal parkland that includes Floyd Bennett Field. The filing is only the latest formal action; Williams has been providing FERC with pre-filing reports and documentation for several years – and locals have been filing statements of opposition, too.

The pipeline, officially known as the Rockaway Delivery Lateral Project, is set to run through the Jamaica Bay wetlands, underneath Jacob Riis Park and ending at Floyd Bennett Field where a new meter and regulating station will be built in two of the park’s historic hangars.

Environmentalists and local residents have voiced opposition to the project due to fears  of the proposed new regulating station at Floyd Bennett Field being flooded in the event of another storm like Hurricane Sandy, as well as other safety, environmental and security concerns.

Williams Transco claims that the pipeline will provide much needed extra energy to New York and “supply flexibility and increased capacity to meet future incremental demand growth.”

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: Local mariners have something to be happy about this New Year: the Department of Environmental Protection reversed course on plans to destroy a 78-year-old navigational aid between Manhattan Beach and Breezy Point that mariners say makes them safer and shows them the way home when gizmos can’t.

According to documents released under a Freedom of Information Law request filed by Sheepshead Bites, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection decided to leave a wastewater diffuser pipe that locals affectionately refer to as the “roundhouse” after sailors and other mariners objected to its removal.

“Comments received questioned whether it would be more advantageous to leave the existing outlet chamber in place,” DEP reps wrote to partnering agencies in a September 2012 letter. “If kept, it could serve as an underwater fish habitat and provide opportunity for sea birds to perch.”

It wasn’t just the environmentalists that the DEP sought to please; the agency determined the now defunct roundhouse served a crucial purpose for navigation, and as a marker for underwater infrastructure that could damage vessels.

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The MTA has announced it will resume toll collection at the two bridges connecting the Rockaways to Brooklyn and Queens.

Toll collection at the Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge and Cross Bay Veterans Bridge will resume beginning 12:01 a.m. on Saturday, December 1.

The $3.25 cash toll and $1.80 E-ZPass toll for cars on both bridges were suspended on November 4 to help vehicles traveling back and forth for Sandy recovery efforts in the hard hit Queen’s peninsula. Tolls paid by residents immediately following the October 29 storm were retroactively credited back to customers’ accounts.

Burnett Street (Source: Google Maps)

A Marine Park apartment building that was emptied after the landlord failed to make timely mortgage payments was given permission to offer monthly leases to Hurricane Sandy victims.

The New York Post reports:

The 144-unit complex at 1865 Burnett St. lost half its tenants during a four-year foreclosure suit, but a judge’s recent order allowed more than 50 families to find a safe haven this month.

“It gives me back some sort of a life,” said Joy Walsh, 76, who moved into a one-bedroom apartment with her bulldog, Belle, after fleeing her burning Belle Harbor home in a kayak. “I’ve never been homeless before, and it’s a terrible thing to say.”

Walsh obtained FEMA assistance and signed a month-to-month lease because she vows to move back to Belle Harbor once the neighborhood is rebuilt.

The building sat empty after a federal court turned it over to GE Commercial Mortgage Co. in 2009 when landlord Victor Dedvukaj missed several monthly payments. But over the summer the property was turned back over to Dedvukaj after the court found the mortgage company had no standing to foreclose, and on November 7 the judge gave permission to the landlord to rent it out.

Source: Jacinta Quesada via Wikimedia Commons

In a frightening, yet somehow fun, new interactive map, the New York Times presents a grim portrait of the city’s future in the coming centuries, a future that wipes Sheepshead Bay off the map in a few hundred years.

The map’s data, based on a 2012 study from the journal Science, predicts that in 100 to 300 years, assuming the world’s nations continue on their course of making only moderate cuts to pollution, the oceans will rise five feet, swallow LaGuardia Airport and flood all ports. This level of flooding will contribute to the disappearance of seven percent of the total city.

Things get much worse after 2300. By then, the oceans will have risen 12 feet, sinking JFK airport, Coney Island, the Rockaways and all neighborhoods along Jamaica Bay. Obviously this includes our beloved Sheepshead Bay. Who knows, perhaps our descendants will all be living in the sky like the Jetsons, or in underwater domes like true Atlantians. Either way, at that point, nearly a quarter of the New York City we know and love will be submerged forever.

For those really looking to imagine a brave new world, or at least one where no effort whatsoever was taken to cut pollution or build massive sea walls, projections into the deep future are also given. For example, 39 percent of New York City will have vanished, with Manhattan only existing north of 34th street. The oceans will have risen a staggering 25 feet, and our only hope for survival will be developing unsightly gills like Kevin Costner did in Waterworld and sailing aimlessly around the globe in a vain effort to find some kind of land-based oasis.

How’s that for a cheery article about our future generations?

Source: vcohen via Wikimedia Commons

Using logic that only makes sense on the 10th level of Hell, some insurance companies have told homeowners affected by Superstorm Sandy that their hurricane insurance doesn’t cover flood damage, according to a report in the New York Daily News. Of course, this comes as no surprise to any of us who’ve been grappling with it from day one.

Focusing on the devastating damage of local Rocakways couple Alex Savoie and Peggyanne Dubra’s home, in which a piece of the local boardwalk smashed into the side of their three story house, the report hammers home the callous and weasley legalese used by insurance companies to stiff them out of a payment. This is a reality faced by thousands of New Yorkers.

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