Where Streets Flood With the Tide, a Debate Over City Aid

A Soggy Neighborhood Fights to Stay Dry In order to mitigate flooding in Broad Channel, Queens, which is built on a marsh jutting into Jamaica Bay, city engineers have a plan to raise parts of the neighborhood.

nytimes.com - by Kia Gregory - July 9, 2013

As the sun began to set one recent Sunday, saltwater poured off Jamaica Bay onto West 12th Road, one of the lowest-lying areas in New York City.

Now, the city is budgeting $22 million to try to save the neighborhood by installing bulkheads and by raising streets and sidewalks by three feet.

But the project also raises fundamental questions about whether, in an era of extreme weather, the government should come to the aid of neighborhoods that are trying to fend off inevitably rising waters.

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