Instead, the water surrounding the island is polluted with everything from illegal dumping in a nearby town to sewage issues to lead bullets from the NYPD’s nearby Rodman’s Neck Outdoor Range. Growing up, he lived next door to a fisherman now, the island’s fishing economy is a relic of the past. “There’s no one forcing these agencies to work together, to work in a holistic way to address some of these problems.”ĭoyle, who grew up on the island and lives only blocks from his parents’ home, said he’s seen conditions in the neighborhood worsen throughout his lifetime - and not only for reasons related to climate change. “It’s like a circular firing squad,” said Doyle. He also shared a chain of unanswered emails sent to the Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery. But his complaints to the city’s Department of Transportation have not resulted in significant fixes-“few and far between,” he said-instead, they refer him to the Parks Department and the Department of Environment Protection. But locals say they’ve gotten little help from the city and state in addressing the island’s infrastructure and resiliency problems.įor example, the roads in Pelham Bay Park, along the evacuation route from the island, regularly flood, Doyle said. For urban island communities like City Island already coping with flooding from minor rain events, the next big storm could be devastating. The recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change warned of increased likelihood and intensity of so-called 100-year storms in the near future. “If the tides had went the other direction, we would have been decimated,” he said. But in his mind, the storm could have been much worse. “People were literally clearing out the stuff in their living rooms because the whole living rooms flooded, like just bringing it up to the street,” Doyle said. In 2012, Superstorm Sandy tore through the Bronx island, blowing off the neon lobster sign attached to the iconic Lobster House restaurant and causing extensive damage to properties, businesses and land. “This is not a once-a-season problem, this is a Tuesday problem,” he said. This street is one of many, though, on City Island that regularly collects water even after the slightest weather events, according to John Doyle, of City Island Rising, a community-run nonprofit.
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