A Political Ecology of Rockaway Beach After Hurricane Sandy
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City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 6-2016 Beaches, People, and Change: A Political Ecology of Rockaway Beach after Hurricane Sandy Bryce B. DuBois Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/1353 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] BEACHES, PEOPLE, AND CHANGE: A POLITICAL ECOLOGY OF ROCKAWAY BEACH AFTER HURRICANE SANDY By BRYCE BEAL DUBOIS A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Psychology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2016 © 2016 BRYCE BEAL DUBOIS All Rights Reserved ii This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Psychology to satisfy the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Setha Low _______________ ______________________________________________ Date Chair of Examining Committee Maureen O’Connor ______________ ______________________________________________ Date Executive Officer Setha Low David Chapin Leigh Graham Keith Tidball William Kornblum Dana Taplin Supervisory Committee THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii Abstract BEACHES, PEOPLE, AND CHANGE: A POLITICAL ECOLOGY OF ROCKAWAY BEACH AFTER HURRICANE SANDY By Bryce Beal DuBois Adviser: Professor Setha Low This dissertation uses restoration practices of Rockaway beach post-Hurricane Sandy as a lens to investigate tensions between nature and society on urban coasts. By focusing on this New York City beach, this dissertation aims to examine the interaction between the beach, residents, city and federal agencies, and local environmental grassroots stewards in their response to coastal flooding and erosion. This is an ethnographic case study of Rockaway Beach during the two years (October 2012-October 2014) following Hurricane Sandy. This case study is based on secondary data analysis of interviews with 52 key informants, field-notes from participant observation at community and stewardship events, and archival research. This dissertation begins with a critical environmental history of Rockaway. From there, the dissertation examines the steward's practices as a counterpoint to the federal and city agency official approaches in a time of increasing awareness and concern over sea-level rise and coastal erosion. The dissertation examines the conflicts that arise in this unique urban beach over expertise, property, nature, and development. And it concludes with considerations of procedural, distributive, and interactional justice and equity for urban beaches. The dissertation makes the case that beaches should not be managed as separate from people or nearby communities and that such management must be sensitive to issues of equity and power. i v Acknowledgements I am most grateful to the residents, stewards, and employees who participated in this study and generously shared their time and experiences with me. Thank you to Setha Low and David Chapin, who have mentored me throughout my dissertation-writing journey, and to Keith Tidball and Leigh Graham, who provided invaluable advice and mentoring during various steps in the data collection process. Dana Taplin, I truly appreciate your kind words and attention to detail, and also to William Kornblum for sharing your deep understanding of the history of the coasts and waters of New York. Thank you to the members of my cohort and colleagues at the Graduate Center, including Sruthi Atmakur, Scott Fischer, Hannah Jaicks, Bijan Kimiagar and Jennifer Pipitone. Thanks also to the members of the New York City Urban Field Station, including Erica Svendsen, Lindsay Campbell, and Ruth Rae, along with the members of the Fort Totten Fellows, who have provided thoughtful comments on various presentations that I have given on this topic, especially Nate Gabriel and Phillip Silva. And many thanks to my mentors and colleagues at Cornell University including Marianne Krasny, Shorna Allred, and my colleagues in the Civic Ecology Lab, including Justin Smith, for providing a wonderful second academic home for me. Thank you to all of my Beal and DuBois family, especially my parents Dan and Hope DuBois, brother Scott DuBois, Grandmother Dorothy Beal, and nephew Richard Gonzales for being such relentless cheerleaders of me. Finally, my heartfelt appreciation goes to my wife, Sandra Victorino, who has propped me up from beginning to end of the process and who helped me to make the decision to pursue my doctorate. Your heart and soul is also in this dissertation and I hope that you know that you have opened my eyes to the world in a way that has been more profound than any of my academic experiences. I can close my eyes and see your toes in the sand. v Table of Contents (Ch. 1) Introduction 1 Surfing, Rockaway and Sandy 2 Statement of the Problem 7 Beaches and People 14 Political Ecology 16 Purpose 35 (Ch. 2) Methods 37 Research Questions 41 Data Collection 42 Data Analysis 48 Positionality and Research Approach 50 Setting 55 Dissertation Structure 67 (Ch. 3) Critical Environmental History Of Rockaway Beach 68 The Urbanization of Rockaway 72 Coastal Infrastructure In Rockaway 85 Rockaway Beach Management 91 Sandy’s Impacts on the Rockaway Community 97 Discussion 102 (Ch. 4) Army Corps Practices And The Beach As Political Object 104 Field note 105 Army Corps Practices 106 Community Discourse 112 Discussion 122 (Ch. 5) NYC Parks And The Conservation, Control, And Consumption Of Rockaway Beach 127 Field note 128 NYC Parks Response to Sandy in Rockaway 132 NYC Parks Dune Stewardship Practices 135 NYC Parks Dune Practices “System” After Sandy 138 Community Planning of the “System” 151 Discourses about NYC Parks Practices 153 Discussion 167 (Ch. 6) The Emergence Of Community-Led Restoration Practices And Environmental Subjects 174 Field note 175 Dune Stewardship Practices 177 Restoration of Dune on Arverne East (HPD) property 178 Civic Ecology Practice Motivations 187 Discussion 192 (Ch. 7) Conclusion 196 Comparing Practices 197 Right to the City, Right to the Beach 199 vi Privatization, Safety and the Urban Ecology Agenda 201 A Case for the Beach as an Urban Green Commons 207 Conclusion 210 Appendices 212 References 218 v ii List of Figures Figure 1.1. Forces that carry sand on and off the beach 9 Figure 1.2. Diagram demonstrating east-to-west longshore drift 10 Figure 1.3. Map of New York City metro region and Long Island barrier islands/beaches 11 Figure 1.4. Recently planted dune grass on the Rockaway peninsula 12 Figure 2.1. Map of the Rockaway Peninsula and nearby barrier beaches of western 38 Long Island. Central Railroad Map of Long Island, 1873. Figure 2.2. Rockaway West 46 Figure 2.3. Rockaway East 47 Figure 2.4. A-Train and shuttle subway routes revealed on map of Rockaway 57 Figure 2.5. Rockaway Beach/Arverne Shorebird Preserve 58 Figure 2.6. Rockaway Beach use by access and public housing sites shown in 60 ‘revealed’ sections Figure 3.1. Double-dune profile from Local Office presentation 70 Figure 3.2. Roche’s Beach in early 20th Century 76 Figure 3.3. Map of Far Rockaway in 1900, including Hog’s Island 77 Figure 3.4. Map of the Counties of New York, Queens, and Richmond, 1829 80 Figure 3.5. “Arverne Renewal Area” Pre-1924 and 2012 83 Figure 3.6. Image of Hammels Neighborhood, 1924 87 Figure 3.7. Image of Hammels Neighborhood, 1951 88 Figure 3.8. Image of Hammels Neighborhood, 1996 89 Figure 3.9. Image of Hammels Neighborhood, 2015 89 Figure 3.10. Map showing the accretionary growth of Rockaway Spit 91 Figure 3.11. Map of Jacob Riis Park (bottom left), Floyd Bennett Field (upper left), and 92 Rockaway Beach (continuous area bottom center to right) Figure 3.12. Map of Jamaica Bay-Rockaway Parks Conservancy Boundary 94 Figure 3.13. The federal, state, city, and private agencies with jurisdiction and/or 96 interests and involvement in the land and other natural resources in Rockaway Beach Figure 3.15. Rockaway Neighborhoods 98 Figure 3.16. Owner-occupancy rates of the Rockaway Peninsula, 2010 99 Figure 3.17. FEMA flood map of Rockaway East 100 Figure 3.18. FEMA flood map of Rockaway West 101 Figure 4.1. Beach Replenishment with geyser, on Beach 58th Street, Rockaway, NY 110 Figure 4.2. Rockaway United Protestors demanding rock groins 113 Figure 4.3. Rockaway Activists leading ‘Demand the Sand’ Rally in December 2012 116 Figure 4.4. Piping Plover restricted nesting area 121 Figure 5.1. NYC Parks slideshow introduction to boardwalk planning event 129 Figure 5.2. Discussion About Recreation on the Boardwalk 130 Figure 5.3. Trap Bags 139 Figure 5.4. Baffle Walls at Beach 149th Street Looking East, Rockaway, NY 140 Figure 5.5. ‘Bathrooms in the Sky’ 142 Figure 5.6. Boardwalk ‘Islands’ 143 Figure 5.7. NYC Parks Protected Dunes Sign 146 vi ii Figure 5.8. Surfrider Foundation, Barefoot Wine, and NYC Parks Christmas tree dune 148 stewardship practice Figure 5.9. Dunes on Rockaway Beach from Beach 29th to Beach 9th Street 149 Figure 5.10. NYC Parks Dune Stewards 150 Figure 5.11. NYC Parks boardwalk community planning charrette, boardwalk 152 aesthetics and boardwalk access Figure 5.12. Boardwalk reconstruction phases, piping plover delayed sections in pink 153 Figure 5.13. Dune Stewardship ‘Superwoman’ 160 Figure 5.14. NYC Parks Commissioner Veronica M. White holding Rockaway spirit 161 t-shirts that were circulating during Rockaway Kick-off event at 86th St, Rockaway Beach Queens Figure 5.15. Confrontation during boardwalk rebuild job fair 166 Figure 6.1. Arverne East area 178 Figure 6.2.