Finally, after rarely bringing the issue up, the brilliant caring folks at the NY Times have come to wonder why so much of New York's public housing ended up in highly vulnerable flood zones.
"It’s impossible to talk about the landscape of modern New York without talking about Moses, who leveraged his position as head of the Mayor’s Committee on Slum Clearance to mass-produce thousands of units of high-rise public housing, often near the shoreline. His shadow looms over much of the havoc wreaked by the storm."
Well, is only Moses to blame? In the more than 60 years since these policies started - few if any have publicly recognised the clear danger.
'Initially, there was a strict screening process to get into the Rockaways’ new projects. Over time, though, those with steady incomes were encouraged to leave, to make room for people on public assistance. To city officials, the Rockaways’ distant location made it an ideal destination for troubled families and individuals. The projects that lined the seven-mile-long peninsula were soon joined by facilities for recently deinstitutionalized mental patients and high-rise nursing homes."
The article is too short but touches on the long history.
Part two of my Hurricane Sandy/ Far Rockaway post. Sadly, the story gets much worse. Not only was Far Rockaway a dumping ground for housing projects far away from opportunity and community, it became the place to put even more vulnerable populations.
"The units are just the latest development in the troubled evolution of New York's mental health network over the last half-century. As the state continues to empty out its costly psychiatric hospitals, it appears to be moving even further from what it says had been a fundamental goal: helping the mentally ill gain independence and self-sufficiency to live within a community.
The investigation of the nursing home units shows that the mentally ill residents -- many in their 30's and 40's and physically healthy -- often receive little in the way of rehabilitative therapy and are chiefly left to wander the halls or languish in their rooms. The residents are not violent and have not been involuntarily committed by a court."
"Gain independence and self-sufficiency to live within a community." Really, by being warehoused on a very isolated barrier island almost 2 hours out of Manhattan and far away from most public services?
It should have been clear to any responsible caring person, that this location was very exposed to storms. in fact, Hurricane Irene and many other storms had impacted the island.
For some reason, I am having trouble embedding the videos.
I understand a big part of what happened is that Rockaway became an easy place to put things other communities might reject having- but morally, this is still a poor excuse.
Anyway, it gives some insight into reality of how the "liberal" governments of NY and many cities actually operate.
I apologize for another post not directly related to Pittsburgh, that I think brings up some relevant urban issues.
As many know, I am from NYC and have some knowledge of one of the areas hardest hit by Sandy. My sister, her husband and now my nephew all worked as lifeguards on the same beach in Far Rockaway for many years. For public school teachers this fit in as a fun summer gig. I haven't been there in many years. It's not the most attractive place, dominated by large public housing projects isolated on a long stretch of beach. Far Rockaway, is not just slightly far away from almost anywhere, else in the city- it's really, really far away. Yes, there is a subway, which in theory could take one into Manhattan if one has a spare hour and a half to two hours- if it's running well.
To break the suspense- I always wondered why someone thought concentrating large numbers of poor on a barrier island, exposed to storms, so far a way from jobs, shopping or social opportunities was a good idea.
Blessed with the Atlantic Ocean to the south and Jamaica Bay to the north, the Rockaways became a popular resort area of elegant hotels and fine houses in the 1830s. The coming of the railroad in the 1880s encouraged more intensive development, including playlands, amusement parks and a few apartment buildings. Attractive beachfront communities were developed, such as Belle Harbor, Neponsit, and Arverne. The opening of the Cross Bay Bridge in 1925 and the Marine Parkway Bridge in 1937 made the Rockaways convenient for middle- and working-class households, who bought the bungalows, frequently distributing themselves according to ethnic heritage.
Later, a series of factors related to falling incomes during the depression and the area's long distance from the city sent the Rockaways into decline.
Officials in the Wagner and Lindsay administrations found what they regarded as an answer to decline: build large public housing projects along the gorgeous beach. Today, the old towns of Arverne and Edgemere have some of the highest concentrations of public housing—and crime and unemployment—in New York. The city also used federal and state financing to support the development of dozens of nursing homes.
Um, That's right- city officials thought an isolated island might be a great place to warehouse not just the poor, but also the infirm, elderly.
These days, almost no one regards the Wagner or Lindsay land-use planning decisions favorably. District manager Gaska, for example, calls the Rockaways the Siberia of city government. "For five decades, the city and state governments dumped their problems here," he says. "If you were a problem tenant in public housing, NYCHA sent you here. If you didn't have a job and weren't going to get one, then this was the place for you. When the state government started closing their hospitals, they began placing those with mental disabilities here, but without any services. The Rockaways now has 50 percent of the borough's adult-facility beds. The state just keeps approving new facilities via their sham community approval process. They send us what's called a 60-day letter, telling us they're going to approve a new facility. We say no, and they say, 'Thank you for your opinion; we're going to open it anyway.' One result was that, according to the 1990 Census, one-third of our population was on public assistance.
Yes. and the mentally disabled too- far away from any support system.
What happened seems to have been a cycle, in which any project or population that was unwanted in the rest of Queens was dumped on this secluded stretch of land, few people cared about.
No great shock that big problems developed.
That's on a good day but add a a big Atlantic storm or hurricane and one has the potential for a massive tragedy.
Now the only subway line into Rockaway may be down for months and ocean water has seriously damaged power lines.
While I don't expect government to provide instant perfect responses to all disasters, I wish they would stop creating bad situations like they did in The Rockaways. It's one thing to not help people and another to forcibly create communities in which it's hard for people to help themselves.
Update: As of this posting, most people in Far Rockaway have gone 10 days without power, heat, subway service and other basic needs. Another storm is bearing down on the area.
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