"It's true either way," a young man said, staring at graffiti on the
remains of a racquetball wall by the ruined boardwalk in the
storm-ravaged Rockaways: the original message, "No Hope," had been
altered to "Hope Always."
His friend said he was thinking of moving out after living in the area for seven years, as he doubted the area would recover.
"I came here to be close to the beach, but not this close," he said.
More than 100 homes burned down at Breezy Point, on the southern end of the Rockaways, where police have set up a checkpoint to keep out people without resident IDs.
Rockaway Beach Boulevard, to the north, was a jumble of fallen trees, downed power lines, damaged houses and stranded cars last weekend.
Vehicles were abandoned in the meridian, and in one case, staked on a wrought-iron fence on a front lawn.
Far Rockaway is in southeast Queens, on Long Island's Rockaway peninsula.
David Selig, the owner of Rockaway Taco, said the shoulder-height piles of clumped dirt and wet sand on the curbs show signs of progress clearing the boulevard.
But the layers of slippery sand on the road remain treacherous for travelers.
"The boardwalk is missing from the mid-80s to the mid-100s," Selig said. "Clearly, the ocean is telling us the boardwalk doesn't make sense. The pylons survived, and to me, they're reminiscent of the arrogance of man in history."
Dressed in pale yellow protective gear, Selig helped clear and dry out houses through relief efforts organized by Occupy Wall Street and 350.org, an environmental group named after a carbon emissions goal to combat global warming.
Those groups coordinate work about 10 sites in the Rockaways, including the Veggie Island kitchen, two doors down from Selig's taco stand.
Red Cross, FEMA, and police and fire department vehicles whizzed past the grassroots relief stations, and military helicopters and National Guard Humvees guarded the perimeter of the island.
Read more: http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/11/05/51971.htm
His friend said he was thinking of moving out after living in the area for seven years, as he doubted the area would recover.
"I came here to be close to the beach, but not this close," he said.
More than 100 homes burned down at Breezy Point, on the southern end of the Rockaways, where police have set up a checkpoint to keep out people without resident IDs.
Rockaway Beach Boulevard, to the north, was a jumble of fallen trees, downed power lines, damaged houses and stranded cars last weekend.
Vehicles were abandoned in the meridian, and in one case, staked on a wrought-iron fence on a front lawn.
Far Rockaway is in southeast Queens, on Long Island's Rockaway peninsula.
David Selig, the owner of Rockaway Taco, said the shoulder-height piles of clumped dirt and wet sand on the curbs show signs of progress clearing the boulevard.
But the layers of slippery sand on the road remain treacherous for travelers.
"The boardwalk is missing from the mid-80s to the mid-100s," Selig said. "Clearly, the ocean is telling us the boardwalk doesn't make sense. The pylons survived, and to me, they're reminiscent of the arrogance of man in history."
Dressed in pale yellow protective gear, Selig helped clear and dry out houses through relief efforts organized by Occupy Wall Street and 350.org, an environmental group named after a carbon emissions goal to combat global warming.
Those groups coordinate work about 10 sites in the Rockaways, including the Veggie Island kitchen, two doors down from Selig's taco stand.
Red Cross, FEMA, and police and fire department vehicles whizzed past the grassroots relief stations, and military helicopters and National Guard Humvees guarded the perimeter of the island.
Read more: http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/11/05/51971.htm
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