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N.Y. State Sen. Andrew Lanza
(Photo: Mark Ruquet) |
By Mark E. Ruquet
FEMA made
my wife cry and now Build It Back is causing her to lose sleep. But there is some
hope that the state will do what the city has failed to do, which is to make her
and other homeowners whole again. Last Wednesday, during the Sept. 10, Midland Beach
Civic Association meeting, my wife expressed her anger and frustration with the
program to city officials present. She told them that their efforts to help her
are failing miserably, and if completed as planned, will leave her with half
the home she has now.
According to an architectural engineer from Build It Back
who took measurements of our home early last week to elevate the house above the
one in one hundred-year flood line, the program will not replace the space lost
when they fill-in the finished basement for the elevation. Why does this upset her;
because our home is a high-ranch and we live in our basement like many others
in the Northeast. It is not a crawlspace for storage. It is a living area that when
lost, will force members of the family to be displaced because the house is otherwise
too small for everyone to live in. When she purchased the house over 30 years
ago, she did so because of the basement, which she always used as a kitchen,
dining room or for bedrooms over the years.
She explained that not only does the plan call for taking
the space away, but what we would be left with is a home a mere two feet higher
than it is now. The re-paired brick facing will be gone leaving a home sitting
on pillars and open space all around. She accurately describes what we would be
left with is a bungalow on concrete stilts and there is no way to argue that this
eyesore does not diminish the value of the home and our quality of life.
In a broader sense, this is endemic of a system that is placing
little value on the comfort of home or is striving to make people whole again. It’s
nothing but band aid treatment. Two years of neglect and incompetence has been
frustrating enough, but now the insult goes further when the aid we are to
receive addresses part of the need and the solution diminishes the quality of
life. From the comments from people around us at the meeting, we know we are
not alone facing this insult. This same scenario has greeted our neighbors. Others
in our community will soon find that what is supposed to be a hand of relief to
aid Sandy victims is nothing more than another slap in the face.
At least one elected representative at Wednesday’s meeting heard
us and agreed that this situation is unreasonable. State Senator Andrew Lanza
heard my wife and said the state should try to step in and help. He made no
promises, other than to see what money the state may have to help and to speak
to the governor on our behalf. But he sees this for what it is — a wholly
unacceptable situation that is making my wife a victim twice, once from Sandy
and now from city official incompetence and intransigence. My wife hopes Mr.
Lanza will keep his word and get us, and others, the help we need. But until
she sees results she remains skeptical.
Her skepticism is not unfounded. A three page spread in the
Sept. 5 edition of the New York Times laid out how broken the city's Build It
Back program is (Titled:
“Storm
Rebuilding Program Mired by Its Design”). We, the victims of Sandy, in
Staten Island and Brooklyn, need to make a collective effort at letting our
elected officials know our displeasure with the lack of progress and how much
harm their solutions are doing.
We have to ask our representatives to explain what has happened
with the more than $61 billion in aid Congress
approved
for Sandy victims back in January of 2013. The money was to be split between
victims in New York State, New York City, New Jersey and Connecticut. I don’t
understand the disbursement schedule, but a good chunk of that cash had to go
to New York City. A four-way split would be over $30 billion between New York State
and the city. The governor’s office has said that 10,000 homes were
substantially damage from the storm throughout the state. For the sake of
argument, take $5 billion out for administrative costs, leaving $25 billion —
if my math is right — that means $2.5 million per homeowner. Folks just need a
fraction of that. So where’s the money? Where’s the help? And why is the city
of New York being such a Scrooge and further ruining people’s lives?
