by Pat Arnow
Twenty years ago, Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. The levees failed. Six years later Hurricane Sandy inundated New York.
New York learned nothing from Katrina. The city is building 1950s-style levees, the kind that burst in New Orleans in 2006. These massive construction projects harm our health now and will harm us for decades. We see new parks along the East River and New York Harbor with vast slabs of concrete, little shade and hot, plastic artificial turf fields.
A Mardi Gras float, six months after Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans. “Who dropped it?” asks the ball. “Army Corps? FEMA?
In New York City, officials are dropping the ball. It’s not too late to do better.
These projects display willful ignorance by city officials. The levees with sterile parks on top add more heat and dust that speeds climate change.
The newly opened Wagner Park on the lower tip of Manhattan is higher than the park it entirely replaced, though the old park was not flooded during Hurricane Sandy and had included a slope to the park building that was on even higher ground. Now there is more concrete, no shade, less lawn and a much bigger and uglier park building (unless you like Brutalist architecture).
New York still could learn as we aim to protect our coastal city. There are strategies to face the future of rising seas and more violent storms. Marshlands, oyster beds and verdant parks act as sponges that help withstand climate change. Small projects here demonstrate how it works. We need to scale up.
We also need bioswales (low, planted areas that help absorb heavy rainfall), permeable pavement and more trees and greenery along with green walls and roofs throughout the city. These help absorb fiercer stormwaters.
It’s possible to build minimalist sea walls where necessary while also preserving trees and biodiversity in our parks that keep our population healthier. We can gain protection and maintain cleaner air and water and places to play and relax.
What can we do now? Educate candidates, please. We must use our parks, roofs, ballfields, playgrounds, street trees and other plantings to help absorb the ever-more destructive forces of nature. These practical strategies will keep our city healthier, cooler, more welcoming and livable.
Pat Arnow is a co-founder of East River Park Action. She has spent much time in the beautiful beleaguered New Orleans.
Photos by Pat Arnow © 2025
Did you ever get any real press on this? It is unbelievable that they are about t kill the last of those huge trees in a week
No press except from the self-congratulatory , officious, self-righteous, stubborn bad listeners who call themselves experts.
Well written my friend. What became of people who cared? Where are the leaders we need now?