Community Charrette

"I walked out with two bags of clothes from the attic and that's it.  Four kids and a lifetime of memories...gone."  

The quote above is from a New Dorp Beach resident, and is a sadly common story on the East Shore of Staten Island.  On Thursday, October 17th, the Hunter East Shore Studio in conjunction with Zone A New York and SImagines held a community mapping charrette at St. Charles school for East Shore residents in Staten Island. The event was a success and the studio team was able to gather invaluable information first hand from residents about the East Shore study area that will be critical in the studio's resiliency plan.

While residents came from different neighborhoods along the East Shore, some common topics discussed and drawn onto maps were:

• Buyout programs
• Lack of appropriate sewage & drainage systems
• The need to even out streets to prevent flooding in regular rains
• Increasing accessibility on older, narrower streets and alleys
• The need for berms
• Accountability - which agency is accountable for what
• Mold & community health hazards in destroyed houses that haven't been torn down yet
• Increase in crime in areas with more empty lots
• Continued displacement
• Feeling forgotten about
• The working/middle class burden of making too much money to qualify for FEMA aid, but not having enough money to repair the devastating damage to homes or to incorporate new building codes like raising an entire house

Another common thread among residents was the extent to which their homes were damaged.  When asked to rate the level of damage to their homes on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the most severe, the vast majority of respondents listed their homes at a 5.  Because so many of these resents' homes were totally damaged, the majority are still displaced.  The majority of residents did not feel well informed by city, state, and federal agencies in the repair/rebuilding process.  Slightly more than half of those that filled out the survey were interested in the state buyout program.

It is the goal of this studio to use the information gathered through the community mapping sessions and the surveys distributed at the charrette to create a residency plan that meets the needs of East Shore residents, and to explore the buyout program options that may be available to the residents interested.

Charrette Photos: