In this week's Wave - the Beachcomber column

The below snippets were found in this week's edition of our local newspaper, the WAVE, in the Beachcomber column.....

"Mark your calendar if you’re concerned about flood insurance premiums and other FEMA actions. Saturday, September 28th will be National Stop Fema Now Day. There will be rallies in Rockaway,Staten Island, Louisiana, all over New Jersey, and other places. Details will follow in coming issues of The Wave. And even before the September event, we hear George Kasimos, the founder of StopFemaNow, will be meeting with various groups in Breezy on August 26th. We encourage all peninsula residents to make a point of supporting StopFemaNow and follow them on Facebook. You can’t just hope things take care of themselves when it comes to FEMA!"

[Comment:  Unlike what follows below, this is important folks..  Biggert-Waters, the NFIP and FEMA are not going away.  Information about these rallies will be posted on this site as well as published in coming issues of the WAVE...please get involved and support this endeavor as our communities depend on obtaining real relief from the regulatory reforms being foisted upon us. ]

"Fishermen beware. Or fisherpersons. There is something plaguing Jamaica Bay called Cownose Rays. They look like stingrays. People fishing or even in kayaks should avoid."

[Comment:  "fisherpersons"????....Political Correctness has come to the WAVE?  I guess it's better than being called a "cownose ray"!  Nevertheless, it pays to be careful...remember the March 29th edition of the WAVE earlier this year when we were warned  of"Jamaica Bay’s own Loch Ness monster, “Jamie,” ... " ]

"Crain’s New York, the business magazine booted one this week. When reporting on the Resilience Institute on Jamaica Bay, Crain’s wrote: the mayor announced a new beach grass nursery will be planted at Ebbets Field, allowing for the study and harvesting of beach grasses to protect sand dunes against erosion. Ebbets Field?!! The long-gone home of the Brooklyn Dodgers is now a housing project. We think the writer meant Floyd Bennett Field."

[Comment:  WHAT?   Ebbets Field is closed?  I was just there for the World Series where the Bums beat the Yankees...that was back in....oh yeah...1955...I have to get out more often!]

"We don’t remember former Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe touting resilience much. He was in charge after Irene. And still in charge when the holes in the boardwalk were still there a YEAR later. Now he’s on the board of the new Jamaica Bay – Rockaway Parks conservancy? Do they need to balance the board with someone who didn’t pay attention to the beach?"

[Comment:  All that's missing is some background music...how about "Won't get fooled again" by the Who?..."Meet the new boss, same as the old boss"....]

"The Wall Street Journal must be on the NYC Parks’ payroll. Somebody wrote a review of the comfort stations that was downright embarrassing. These curved steel-frame structures elevated on pillars possess a mod aesthetic and a kinetic energy…These structures look for all the world like the Scandinavian starfleet’s first mission ended up not at Mars, but on our shores, boasting an elegantly curved steel frame and corrugated stainless steel shell and woodlike side panels crafted out of Taktl, an “ultrahigh performance concrete.” With Jamaica Bay getting all this interest the worry now is that it will become so healthy there will be so many birds Rockaway will turn into an Alfred Hitchcock movie."

[Comment: I don't know about a Hitchcock movie but "Scandavian startfleet's first mission..."?  Hmmmmm...the WAVE might be on to something there...]