Slow, Complicated Recovery for Breezy Point
by brownstoner
When Hurricane Sandy hit last year, water and fire damage destroyed approximately 350
out of the 2,800 homes in Breezy Point, a cooperative community on the Queens
waterfront. As of today, reports the Wall Street Journal, only one house–a wooden affair
at 10 Gotham Lane–has risen from the wreckage. Residents point the finger at a maze of
governmental red tape as the reason so little progress has been made. “It’s at times very
frustrating when you meet a roadblock, a wheel of bureaucracy. You’re put through a
drawn-out process of facing a bunch of objections to what you’ve submitted,” said Arthur
Lighthall, general manager of the private community’s cooperative. “They have rules and
regulations, they have codes, they have zoning. The system makes it very difficult for
anyone to maneuver around it.” One big problem: City maps on file didn’t even correctly
reflect the street grid. Another snag: Many residents lost their records in the storm. On
top of that, it took FEMA many months to release new flood zone information. Residents
just want to get back to the way things were. “This community will always consist of
individual one- and two-story houses,” said Lighthall. “That’s what we want to see. We
are not interested in new development and major changes.
Photo from Breezypointdisasterrelief.org
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