Fort Tilden Won’t Be Open This Summer, And Other Important Beach News
We’ve sort of been expecting bad news on this front for a while — beaches, like so many other places, are still in the long slog of recovering from Sandy — and, well, we were right. Gothamist reported yesterday that Fort Tilden Beach won’t be opening back up this summer, having incurred too much damage during the storm to be safe for the public. It’s considered so unsafe, in fact, that it will actually be fenced off and patrolled to keep people from sneaking in.
“It can’t be safely reopened,” said Gateway National Recreation Area spokesperson Daphne Yun. “The erosion was very bad there, and it’s going to remain closed this summer […] The erosion has exposed quite a lot of debris, some of it sharp. There are pieces of the road that are still in the water, as well as rebar and other sharp debris. We just don’t have the resources or the time to safely address that before the start of the summer season.”
Yun also added that there’s no clear timeline for re-opening the stretch of beach, saying, “It’s being put on the back-burner.” So, that’s a pretty huge, if unsurprising bummer. In the interest of bracing ourselves (and encouraging the private delusion that summer is almost here), let’s look at the rest of Yun’s updates on our damaged beaches, both good and bad.
