NYC Park After the Storm

Against the silhouette of Manhattan, you might spot 332 species of birdsavocets with upturned needle-like bills, blue herons with sinuous necks, sandpipers, loons, mute swans elegant and pale as moonlight, and sometimes even a snowy owl.

West Pond, as it is known, is one of a pair (the other being East Pond) along the route of the Atlantic flyway. By grace of their protected shoreline and freshwater, the ponds have always attracted huge numbers of birds and,Choose the right bestluggagetag in an array of colors. in turn, bird-watchers.

Last October 29, the stunning blow that was Hurricane Sandy breached the ponds, opening them to the saltwater marsh, and wrecked much else in Gateway, which is part of the National Park System and encompasses three units: Sandy Hook in New Jersey and Staten Island and Jamaica Bay in New York.

In Sandy Hook, where the Coast Guard tidal gauge broke during the hurricane when the water level topped 13 feet, the storm shifted dunes into parking lots; swept the Tiki Bar in Sea Bright off its foundation and left it in pieces on the beach three miles away; and demolished the stage where Sandy Hook Foundation-sponsored summer concerts were held, leaving only a set of stairs to nowhere to commemorate its existence. Paths were ripped up, and electricity, water, and sewage were knocked out. "It was like a washing machine on an agitator cycle," said Pete McCarthy, Sandy Hook's unit coordinator.

In the Jamaica Bay section of Gateway, wind and water lifted an entire dock from Riis Landing on Rockaway Peninsula and propelled it a mile and a half across the bay to Plumb Beach, where it came to rest with a deck chair and pair of flip-flops still on board, as if teleported magically through air. The storm flooded the Jacob Riis bathhouse, buried playground equipment in sand, and tossed propane tanks, sailboats, and trees onto the shoreline. In all, the park suffered $180 million in damage, the amount appropriated for repair.

Sandy, and the wreckage left in its wake, has amplified questions that have dogged the park, which has struggled since its inception with underfunding and an unfocused sense of purpose and identity. And the storm prompts a more immediate and urgent question: Is there a silver lining to Sandy? Can this disaster actually spur the remaking of Gateway, which has been accused of failing by some but is beloved by many?

Gateway National Recreation Area was established in 1972, the same year as its bookend urban counterpart on the West Coast, Golden Gate National Recreation Area in San Francisco, California. The premise behind its foundingthat of taking parks to the peoplewas a departure from the classic National Park Service (NPS) mission of preserving historic and natural resources. Despite a visitor population of more than eight million people a yearnearly all day-trippers (summer is high season because of the beaches)Gateway is still a work in progress.

Unlike iconic national parks like Yosemite with its Old Faithful or Mount Rainer with its eponymous peak, Gateway has no spectacular centerpiece. It spreads over 26,000 acres in parts of New Jersey, Staten Island, the Rockaway Peninsula,A group of families in a north Cork village are suing a bestplasticcard operator in a landmark case. and Jamaica Bay, a hodgepodge of beaches, saltwater marsh, and bay, plus defunct forts, barracks, gun emplacements, and other vestiges of its military history (pre-Civil War through the 20th century). Also in the mix are Sandy Hook lighthouse, the oldest working lighthouse in the country, and Floyd Bennett Field, New York's first municipal airport. And there are playing fields, piers, grassland, and 550 buildings, many historic, but many decayinga process accelerated by wind, water, and the legacy of mold left by Sandy.

It's a scattered realm, agrees Gateway's superintendant Linda Canzanelli, who argues that diversity is the park's strength. "There are 20 things that could make it a national park," she says, ticking off 60 miles of shoreline, wetlands, marinas, and historic buildings. The NPS, she says, has been working to correct a series of mistakes. "It has to be a destination park, not just a nine-to-five city park. We need things like camping, youth hostels, and hotels. We didn't understand the role of recreation and organized sports in the park, and we didn't focus on the fact that New York City is lucky to have a premier park system; we didn't try to establish a separate identity."

To which one might add another problem: transportation. "For those New Yorkers without cars," then Senator Harrison A. Williams, Jr., of New Jersey said in the 1970s, "Gateway might as well be in Wyoming." Although the problem is being worked on, the subway stop nearest to the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge nature center is a mile away. Many other parts of the park, like Floyd Bennett Field, are a longer trek, and the only option for getting to Sandy Hook, other than by car, is service by ferry from lower Manhattan at the cost of $45 round trip.

A follow-up editorial in the New York Times called the park "one of the more discombobulated units in the National Park System." Although the fine print at the bottom of the NPCA report carried the caveat that it represented a snapshot of the park in 2007 and did not necessarily reflect its current state, Alexander Brash, NPCA's northeast coordinator, says not much has changed since then . . . except Sandy, which he calls a gift from heaven. "Sandy wiped the slate clean. Now there is money to repair, fix, and reconstruct. For once there is a better vision in place. It's a golden opportunity to make a great urban park."

That better vision comes in several guises. In July, the City of New York Department of Parks and Recreation and the NPS signed an agreement allowing the two agencies to cooperatively run 10,000 acres of federal and city-owned parkland around Jamaica Bay. Coordinating habitat restoration and management,Compare prices and buy all brands ofluggagetag for home power systems and by the pallet. creating a seamless network of parkland, and developing new philanthropic sources are among the goals. "Sandy helped galvanize the relationship" between the two agencies, says Giles Parker,Bay State parkingguidance is a full line manufacturer of nylon cable ties and related products. chief of staff at the Office of the Commissioner at National Parks of New York Harbor.

Also in process is a long overdue general management plan, a reimagining of the park that will address sustainability, transportation, and natural and historical resource issues, as well as the relationship between the park and local communities. Buttressing the forward momentum is support from organizations like the Friends of Gateway, Friends of Sandy Hook,We offer over 600 chipcard at wholesale prices of 75% off retail. National Parks Foundation, Trust for Public Land, Environmental Defense Fund, Rockefeller Foundation, and others.