Poor Planning

Dear Editor:

Well, let’s stop dancing around!  Ask any thirteen-year-old “what are the best months to go to the beach in Rockaway?”  The ANSWER of course is June, July and August.

A-hah! So that’s why the Parks Department and Army have scheduled full guns ahead NOW for their candy-coated beach protection folly. Their plan includes rolling beach closures between Beach 116th and Beach 146th Street for the whole season. The question is:  Why the crash now?  Sandy was 2012… eleven years ago, and now all of a sudden for this summer they have scheduled a gangbusters effort to disrupt and basically ruin the season for locals. It seems vindictive! Why wasn’t this extreme effort undertaken in the spring, say March, April, May? Or skipped to ahead to the fall—September, October, November?

To the Parks / Army – Your righteous chest pounding is laughable!  Don’t tell me the existing concessions will stay open. Well of course they should be! No thanks to you. Don’t boast that 70+ blocks of beach will be open. Say instead 76 blocks will NOT! – Beach lovers here are now facing major closings, on and off, with crashing rocks dropping and endless beep beep beep from the bulldozers from 7 to 4 every day.

This whole scheme is totally self- serving. Parks and Army Corps just need a surefire way to justify their paychecks. If not this – what the h*ll else would they be doing?

Last, but not least – reality check – if Mother Nature wants her way again all of these rebuild efforts will be swept away in minutes. Really.

Glenn Lawson