Residents want to see Rockaway's boardwalk rebuilt - both to serve as a buffer between the sea and residences and to give a boost to the area's economy. Photo Courtesy of Eddy Pastore.
They came from Queens, from Long Island, from upstate. They lugged beach umbrellas and bags spilling over with sand toys. They smeared sunscreen and yelped when their toes hit the cold water.
And they did this in the name of normalcy.
The imprint of Hurricane Sandy remains – in an incomplete boardwalk, few open food stands and the memories of residents and business owners who will never forget the Rockaways after the storm: the rubble of collapsed houses spanning as far as the eye could see, the iconic boardwalk all but decimated, the tattered American flags still flying in a place that had become unrecognizable. But beachgoers and business owners in the Rockaways were determined to make life return to as normal as possible this Memorial Day weekend.
“It wasn’t as crowded as usual, but there were still a lot of people there – and they were having fun,” said Christine DePaolo, a Rockaway Park resident who took her two children to the beach over the weekend. “It makes me sad every time I don’t see the boardwalk, but at least we were there, enjoying the sun and the sand.”
Business owners too stressed that though life is not what it once was, they are back.
“We miss you,” Thai Rock owner Robert Kaskel wrote in the restaurant’s May 15 newsletter. “We miss working. We miss the normal commotion – you know, the things we normally complain about. And although we are not fully ready to serve you as we once did, we are opening our doors Monday and will continue to work day-by-day improving everything can and always strive to provide the best food, drinks, music, water sports and other diversions.”
Still – while shops get ready for what owners hope will be the influx of summer customers and residents look forward to the summer days, a number of civic leaders are stressing that the beach isn’t open as it once was.
“There’s a very big problem in Rockaway – they’ve finished only 10 percent of the boardwalk,” said Eddy Pastore, one of the founders of Friends of Rockaway Beach. “There’s no protection. Coney Island is open, all these beaches are open and Rockaway Beach, the largest urban beach in the country that should be a jewel of the city, is treated like a step-child.
Friends of Rockaway Beach co-founders John Cori and Eddy Pastore organized a rally in March to call on Mayor Bloomberg and his administration to focus more of their efforts on restoring Rockaway Beach. Photo Courtesy of Eddy Pastore.
“Right now, people can’t sleep at night – it’s that bad,” he continued. “If we get flooded again, Rockaway is not going to come back. People are on the fence now about staying or leaving.”
John Cori, another founder of the Friends of Rockaway Beach, also said the city must work harder to replace the boardwalk.
“Most people want to presume that [the city Parks Department] will replace the boardwalk eventually,” Cori said. “I’ve been trying to get people to understand that if Central Park was ripped apart by a tornado and, say, instead of rebuilding the Great Lawn they rebuilt the boat house – that’s what they’re doing to us. The people in Rockaway live here specifically because of the boardwalk. We need our boardwalk for our sanity. It’s our lifeline.”
In addition to being a commercial draw for the area, the boardwalk is an important buffer between the sea and the residences and shops, Cori said.“If [Hurricane] Irene happened today – well, it was the boardwalk that held Irene back,” Cori said.
Stressing that he does appreciate the work the city has done in the area, including repairing concessions and restrooms, the civic leader said “it’s so frustrating” that Mayor Bloomberg’s administration is not taking residents’ calls – including at a number of rallies – for work to prevent storm damage seriously.
“I think most people, even locals, do like what they’ve done with the boardwalk concessions and the landscaping – but we’re so vulnerable still,” Cori said. “They hurry up and rebuild the concession stands and the lifeguard stands, but where’s the urgency for protection?”
Bloomberg and other city officials said they have been working around the clock to ensure beaches around the city, including in Rockaway, would be open for Memorial Day, and stressed there will be continued work throughout the summer.
A Parks Department spokesman said the city has invested $386 million into rebuilding and hardening coastal infrastructure, including replacing damaged boardwalks. The spokesman also said the department is “currently erecting new concrete baffle walls from Beach 126th Street to Beach 149th Street to replace the walls that were destroyed by Sandy and to help protect the surrounding community. These new walls are bigger and stronger than the walls they are replacing and are attached to 25-foot steel pilings that were driven into the ground.”
Additionally, the Parks Department plans to start installing areas of shoreline protective measures later this month, including sand-filled geotextile mesh bags, next to existing boardwalk piers. The first phase of this will be the placement of shoreline protection devices from Beach 108th Street to Beach 126th Street – an area where there has been significant beach loss. A second phase of similar work is planned from Beach 26th Street to Beach 108th street, according to the department spokesman.
The mayor and Parks officials also stressed how much work has been done in the time after Sandy hit. According to a city press release, more than 500,000 person hours was done to do everything from remove debris, repair boardwalks and renovate damaged buildings around the city. Nearly 8,000 volunteers came to beaches and parks following the hurricane to cart sand out of playgrounds, gather debris from shorelines and plant native plants.
New public restrooms and lifeguard stations were also erected in Rockaway – and other beaches in the city. An additional $386 million has been allocated from the city’s budget to continue restoration work in the summer and coming years, including a “full restoration of the nearly five miles of damaged boardwalk citywide, installation of shoreline protections and continued repairs to beaches, shorefront parks and playgrounds.”
By Anna Gustafson
