Thread by @LAShepard221

As soon I heard there were basement apartment deaths on Peck Avenue, I knew where they were likely to be and I'm furious. Here's why: 1/

I know this corner well because it's along @QueensGreenway, a major #BikeQNS route connecting the parks along the Kissena Corridor. 2/

The Kissena Corridor isn't an accident. It follows the watershed of the Flushing River and the right-of-way of the old Central Railroad of Long Island. Here's a map of Flushing from 1871. Anyone can find it in the Long Island Room at the @QPLNYC Central Branch in Jamaica. 3/

Here's a zoomed in version of the area. I placed the star around where 153-10 Peck Avenue would be today. 4/

Note that these few blocks of residences are surrounded by Kissena Corridor Park and Kissena Park. 5/

That's because there was once a giant pond here. This image is from 1924.
h/t @joby_jacob @bdhowald 6/

In 1934, the trolley through Kissena Park still had to cross a bridge over water. 7/

By 1951, the city had filled in the pond, probably using the dirt they bulldozed when they built the Long Island Expressway. 8/

For most of my life, this is what Kissena Corridor Park has been like after normal rain and snow melt. Not just climate-fueled mega disasters. 9/

Across Kissena Boulevard (about a block from 153-10 Peck) in Kissena Park, the main path gets completely inundated whenever it rains. Again: normal rain, not once-in-a-century storms. 10/

.@katie_honan reported that the city already knew these homes face flood risks from moderate rain. 11/

The fact that people lived in cellar-level apartments on such precarious land (which probably shouldn't have been developed in the first place) is just so many layers of policy failure and environmental racism, from the lack of affordable housing to the lack of notification. 12/

Our city agencies (@NYCPlanning, @NYCWater, @NYCParks, @NYCBuildings) and some longtime residents know the local hydrology extremely well. New residents (including immigrants) and those seeking any homes they can afford, often don't. There is municipal responsibility here. 13/

Left this thread open because I started going down several rabbit holes at once (wetlands policy, property records, Census data.) I need to get more facts straight before tweeting. Will pick this up soon! 14/14

Please help the neighbors if you are able!

"Many of the residents who survived the nighttime torrent have been left with little to nothing. Sanitation crews said the storm appeared to hit every single home on this block of 153rd Street."

Great @nytimes reporting by @chelsiamarcius & Ben Norman

nytimes.com/2021/09/06/nyr…

The story illustrates the human costs of mangling our watersheds, failing to develop and house people responsibly, failing to reduce our emissions to curb climate change, failing to adapt homes and infrastructure to increased flooding, failing to learn and share local history.

I biked through the area on my way to my parents’ house for Rosh Hashana and on my way home today. I spoke to people and saw the wreckage.

Many of our neighbors lost everything. @deeptinyc is raising money to help them. Please donate!

gofund.me/d294b7eb

These photos are from Peck Ave on Monday afternoon. The neighbors were busy gutting their homes. Some said they were happy to be alive.

A few volunteers had a table set up to help residents charge their phones and contact their insurance companies.

There were dead cars all over the place, including the new protected bike lane. The sewers just inside Kissena Park had clearly burst.

Monday afternoon was beautiful. The waters had fully receded but our usual problem spots in #KissenaPark still had puddles.

When I returned today, I still found water there, but @NYCParks has fixed the dirt around the sewer caps.

There were city vehicles all over the place, cops, @nycoem employees and a giant dumpster on 153rd Street. The residents were still gutting their homes and drying out their belongings. I walked down the block, where a small crowd was gathered around one house to see what was up.

Someone pointed out @NYCMayor and told me that the woman he was speaking to and her 8-year old daughter had lost everything. The people milling around were mostly just talking to each other and carrying on with the work they needed to do. There was no shouting, booing, or drama.

I took the opportunity to check out the thicket of trees in Kissena Corridor Park, just south of 56th Ave. I was not surprised to find some hydrophytic plants and standing water. This may be the original Kissena Creek bed (or simply sit on top of a sewer line buried beneath it.)

West of the thicket, a stripe of extra brilliantly green grass leads straight to the spot that used to flood all the time. (It was dry today.)

I would love to see Kissena Creek daylighted (restored to the surface.) It would be beautiful and it would help revive the natural ecosystem and its services: retaining runoff, purifying the water, sustaining biodiverse flora and fauna, etc.