Levees, removable walls in plan to protect NYC

Associated Press ^ | Jun 11, 2013 2:29 PM EDT | Jennifer Peltz

[Olog-hai]

Removable flood walls would be set up for much of lower Manhattan, a 15-to-20-foot levee would guard part of Staten Island and gates and levees would shield Brooklyn as part of a nearly $20 billion plan Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed Tuesday to protect New York City from storms and the effects of global warming.

Bloomberg’s proposals also include building dunes in Staten Island and the Rockaways, firming up the shoreline with bulkheads in various neighborhoods and considering building a levee and a new “Seaport City” development at the South Street Seaport that would echo nearby Battery Park City.

The mayor also is suggesting giving $1.2 billion in grants to property owners to flood-proof their buildings and $50 million to nursing homes to improve theirs; making hospitals even in rarely flooded areas upgrade their pumps and electrical equipment; and expanding beaches and marshes, among other ideas. …

Fueled by the city’s blow from Superstorm Sandy last fall, the sweeping proposals represent a sizable step up in scale and urgency for a mayor who has for years emphasized the threat climate change poses to the nation's biggest city, which has 520 miles of coastline. …

[Carriage Hill]

Good movie. Gave me chills, way back then.

[EQAndyBuzz]

Sure, but lower Manhattan has been there for a while. They have been hit with storms before and will be hit again.

[Bubba_Leroy]

[IronJack]

BOONdoggle, BOONdoggle, BLOOMdoggle.

[Domangart]

They could always raise the streets 50 feet like the west coast cities.

[Senator_Blutarski]

This project will, of course, require lots of union labor. Once completed, it will require a large standing army of union workers who will maintain it and who be in a ready “stand-by” state to implement it when a storm arrives. Those workers will be supported by a cadre of clerks and bureaucrats. There will, of course, need to be a special police security detail created, and so on. The union employment opportunities would be endless.

[clearcarbon]

Wall-in the progressives. Good idea!

[BlueMondaySkipper]

I suggest a $100 entry fee for entering the city.

A $100 EXIT fee would be better.

[presidio9]

I am not defending Mayor Bloomberg, but the value of the newly created real estate on the lower east side WOULD offset a great deal of the costs. Remember, we are talking about some of the highest land values in the world. The reason things like this don't get done more often around the island typically involves blowback from environmentalists on the left, not the right. In this case, everybody wins. Whether sea levels are rising or not, the "hundred year storms" that happen just about every decade here have demonstrated how vulnerable the island (which sits a few feet above sea levels in most areas) and particularly its hundreds of miles of train, automobile, and other tunnels (which, of course are far below sea level) are to storm surges.

Again, I am sure there are things to hate about any plan Bloomberg comes up with, but this is a project that is about 100 years overdue for NYC.

[cripplecreek]

Talk to me about it when FReepers drop the idiotic notion of razing Detroit.

[presidio9]

This is the worst quality evident in FReepers. Hating those who are politically opposed to you gets you nowhere. They are still people. American people. Misguided, sure, but they want the best for the country, same as you and me.

That being said, I am not sure how much of Detroit is worth saving as long as the unions control that town. But what is best for NYC is without question good for the rest of the country. The problem is, the people who run NYC don't always know what's best for them. And things that are practical in a complicated place like NYC often seem strange and out of place to most of the rest of the country.