( Dowdy, 2016) Melissa Miller, a resident of the public complex Channel Park Homes, charged that her home, while disinfected after Sandy, had still not been repaired some four years out. Mike Cruz, a public housing authority executive, claimed that he had been working on getting what was owed by the federal government to make the necessary repairs. Public housing, increasingly starved for government support, proved especially vulnerable. As they struggled for funds to carry out all this work, families worried about continuing problems with water and sewer systems, also the fungus and mold that began growing in their still-damp homes. The damage caused by Sandy would cost billions in repair. That huge an impact had ramifications for all Long Beach residents. Far Rockaway, by contrast, though the runner up, suffered damage in only 21% of its homes. Not surprisingly, then, a whopping 77% of Long Beach’s existing housing were damaged enough to apply for federal funds, far more than in our other case study towns. Over sixty percent of these damaged homes had flooded first floors, about three-quarters of these more than a foot–and one-sixth of these more than four feet. By one report the storm surge of 16.75 feet there was the highest recorded on the island ( Herbert 2012). When Sandy struck, Long Beach suffered the brunt of the storm, as much so any place on Long Island. By the time of the storm, Long Beach Housing Authority had also come to operate 374 subsidized low-rent units within five development sites mostly in the central and northeast parts of the town, some as public housing and other as subsidized private units under “section 8.” Moves to gentrify Long Beach starting in the late 1970 began to draw in condominiums and wealthier residents, many of them white, also controversial moves like the strategic placement of a new mall that helped sustain racial and economic segregation within the city ( Newsday, 1987). Their decision was to sell, because it was a “less risk, more lucrative investment” ( Eaton, 1985). Long Beach private developers chose not to invest further in low-income housing. It drained police and fire department resources.

The boom of people moving to Long Beach put a strain on its economy. working poor, clients of social-welfare agencies or discharges from mental institutions” ( Eaton, 1985).

In the 1960-70’s, it fell on hard times, “with depressed real-estate values, low rent and high vacancy rate.” As property values stayed low “an inordinately large low-income population was displaced to Long Beach. Long Beach, New York, is surrounded by water, a barrier island off the coast of Long Island.īeing enveloped by the sea made it more susceptible to damage caused by Superstorm Sandy, as did its recent history of resettlement.

Hurricane sandy a level case study