Abstract

The queer community is central to New York City, and spaces within the city constitute

historical communal queer spaces. Sea level rise presents unique challenges to both Greenwich

Village and Fire Island, two queer community hubs. These challenges are created by the

community and geographic makeup of each space. Mitigation specific to the unique barrier

island topography of Fire Island would be most effective, while Greenwich Village would likely

require large, labor intensive projects to protect from sea level rise.

Introduction

New York City has been described in Hamilton as “the greatest city in the world” and

while that is certainly an exercise in both nationalism and hyperbole, it indicates the prominent

place New York City has in the American imagination (Miranda, 2016). But even New York and

the surrounding areas are vulnerable to sea level change. New York has been impacted by the

combination of both sea level rise and extreme weather events, both in Hurricane Sandy, and the

very recent Nor’easter. New York is not just a large city; it is also home to the largest number of

gay residents than any other US city (Leonhardt, 2015). This paper will be specifically looking at

this area and this population, asking what impact will sea level change have on queer communal

space in New York city and the surrounding area and how can these spaces be protected? Before

examining this question specifically, I will discuss the background of sea level science regarding

New York City.

New York and Sea Level Change

New York City has seen a large level of sea level rise. Experiencing an average rise of

1.2 inches per decade since 1900 (a total rise of 1.1 feet), New York City has seen nearly double

the global rate of sea level rise over the equivalent period (New York City Panel on Climate
Change, 2015). This has been coupled with other effects of climate change such as temperature

increases of 0.3ºF per decade, an increase in mean annual precipitation of near 0.8 inches per

decade (New York City Panel on Climate Change, 2015). The effects of sea level rise specifically

has been working in tandem with subsidence. Land subsidence has produces a sinking of around

3-4 inches per century in New York City, spurred on by the Earth’s crust rebounding (Kahn,

2012). The combination of these multitudinous effects have brought New York, itself “a coastal

city with 520 miles of shoreline” as described by Daniel Zarrilli, the city's Chief Resilience

Officer, closer to the sea itself (quoted in Garfield, 2017).

These changes have left New York facing large economic and societal dangers,

especially from flooding. While currently monthly tidal highs are around 6 feet above mean

lower low water (MLLW), Hurricane Sandy produced a storm surge tide of over 14 feet at

Battery Park (NOAA, NYC Special Initiative for Rebuilding and Resiliency 2013). A storm

surge of this level is well above the 10.5 feet marker, the value at which the subway system will

begin to flood (NYC Special Initiative for Rebuilding and Resiliency 2013).

The flooding danger, if unaddressed, is projected to cause around $174 million per year

in economic losses (Vandenberg-Rodes et al. 2016). A major factor in those potential economic

losses is the placement of valuable real estate near flooding danger. There are over “71,500

buildings valued at more than $100 billion stand in high-risk flood zones” in New York

currently, and both the number of building and the property value will only increase as sea level

continues to rise around the city (Gardiner, 2017). The total potential for losses is around $174

billion dollars, and would include over 400,000 homes (McMahon, 2015). Damages could even

rise to .8% of Gross State Product (Hsiang et al., 2017) The gravity of these potential damages

are quite large, yet they will not impact everyone equally.
Marginalizations and Climate Change

Climate change and sea level rise will likely impact marginalized communities first and

most harshly. In Hurricane Sandy, it was low-income and communities of color in New Jersey

that were most impacted (Worth, 2015). These communities are not only often placed in highly

vulnerable geographic areas, but also do not receive the outreach efforts and information

regarding sea level change that could aid them. One marginalized group (really an amalgamation

of marginalized populations) that is rarely mentioned in discussions of differential impact is the

LGBTQ+ population. This community will be the focus of this paper, both because of the

prominence of the queer community within New York City and because this is an attempt to

include queer people in discussions of sea level rise.

Queerness is often an invisibilized marginalization, meaning that, while it is immutable,

queer identity can somewhat be hidden. Queerness is interconnected to other subjected groups

and this paper will attempt to use an intersectional framework, meaning that an individual’s

social locationalities will be considered. Summarily, a black gay man has a different experience

and faces different marginalization than a white gay man. Queer people are often

socioeconomically disadvantaged, for example a greater percentage of gay and bisexual men live

at or below the poverty line than heterosexual men of the same age (APA, 2018). Despite this,

specific work on the impacts of sea level on the queer community is minimal.

This paper will use a location based focus in order to combat the issue of demographic

questions failing to account for people who do not report themselves as queer. Queer spaces offer

“a shared history, a cultural memory of those places of possibility” and therefore are a fertile

space for analysis (Goh, 2011). Narrowing down to two main spaces, the neighborhood of

Greenwich village (specifically the landmark of Stonewall Inn and Pier 45) and Fire Island (both
the natural space and the human habituated areas) I will question how sea level would alter these

spaces. All of these spaces have been communal sites for community and activism. The

inspiration for this paper, in fact, came from watching the seminal documentary Paris is Burning

and seeing the scenes on the Christopher Street Pier (Figure 1) that displayed this as a shared

queer space.

Figure 1. Paris is Burning at the Pier [Livingston 1991]

Greenwich Village – History and Current State

Greenwich Village has a long history in New York City, even becoming the city’s first

historic district in 1969. Greenwich has been a queer space since at least the 1890s, when it

featured an early gay bar named “The Slide” that was derided for its debauchery (Brazee, 2014).

Focusing more on the modern history, Greenwich began to gain its reputation as a center for art

and the bohemian when the Whitney Museum was founded in the 1930s. This reputation

continued, as did the neighborhood’s queerness. Foundationally, Stonewall Inn is located in

Greenwich. Stonewall was the site of what is often considered the start of the modern queer

rights movement. In response to a police raid, a riot began and in fighting back against

institutional and police violence, a movement began (Brazee, 2014). Stonewall has since become

both a queer and nationally recognized landmark, becoming the first LGBTQ+ specific site

named to the National Register of Historic Places (Goldfarb, 1999). The piers as well have been

“an epicenter of queer congregation” but one that is even closer to the margins of society (Goh,

2011). The piers are a space for homeless queer youth, mainly of color, to gather, outside of both

the heteronormative world and outside of mainstream gay rights movements often seen as

assimilationist.

Today, Greenwich has become an expensive area, one not currently undergoing

gentrification because that gentrification mainly has already occurred. The New York

University’s Furman Center deems it as high rent area, meaning that the area had already

gentrified by 1990 (Furman Center, 2016). Not only is Greenwich an already expensive area, but

rents are continuing to increase, up 61.2% since 1990 (Furman Center, 2016). This difference

exacerbates the social difference between the LGBTQ+ people able to live in Greenwich and

those who find themselves on the pier. Despite this difference, both are still important and

historically relevant queer spaces.

Fire Island – History and Current State

Fire Island is a long sand barrier island that is made up of a national seashore along with

human habitated areas largely used as summer vacation properties. The Pines, a major developed

area, was founded in 1953 and has served as a mix of both heterosexual family and queer life

(Trebay, 2013). At the time of this founding, many years before the Stonewall riot, queer life was
initially somewhat secret, before the space was queered when “a generation discovering itself”

took the space as their own (Trebay, 2013). Those that used the space, however, economically

privileged – those with disposable income to get a summer vacation rental. Fire Island continues

to be presented as an iconic portion of queer life. There is continued interest in the history of the

Pines, demonstrated by Tom Bianchi’s photo collection from the Pines, and it is still a very

population vacation destination.

The Pines remain mainly a seasonal destination. A small group of people that live there

annually, before the population can surge to over 3,000 after Memorial Day (Trebay, 2013). This

means that most development on the island is not built for year round occupancy, but rather with

a focus on ease and beauty for vacation rentals. That point, along with the geography of the

island, has caused developments and homes to be quite close to the water and therefore at risk.

The national seashore portion of the island has varied environs, stretching 26 miles and including

dunes, residential communities and maritime forests (National Park Services, 2017). This area

was a site of analysis surrounding Sandy, with work to explore the hurricane’s effects on barrier

islands.

Greenwich Environmental and Risk Status

As has been discussed, Greenwich is a changing neighborhood that has become a high

income area. Due to this, NOAA classifies much of Greenwich and the surrounding areas as low

vulnerability regarding sea level rise (NOAA, 2018). This demonstrates a failing of these

methods, by using demographic data and placing it across an area, those who may be more

harshly impacted can be classified as low vulnerability. Therefore, a closer examination of

specific dangers within the area is needed.

 The New York City Planning office has produced neighborhood based analyses of

resiliency. They have not created a report for Greenwich village, but a report has been written on

West Chelsea. This is a neighborhood directly north of Greenwich and has similar demography,

with less queer history. Due to the proximity and similarities of the neighborhoods, however, this

report is quite useful and applicable to Greenwich village. The report highlights that “prevalence

of active ground floor uses, basements and cellars, even low flood elevations can pose

considerable challenges.” (Resilient Neighborhoods). The proliferation of these uses create

vulnerable sites throughout these neighborhoods. Included in these dangers are ground floor

residential units. These are currently in danger in the event of a storm surge and they would also

be lost due to flood proofing retrofitting (Resilient Neighborhoods). This would disparately

impact poorer people as they are more likely to live in these units and diminish the supply of

more affordable housing options. Harkening back to the demography of the queer community,

LGBTQ+ people would be more effected by both these planning changes and the dangers of sea

level rise due to their higher poverty levels.

Those considerations, however, are focused on those people who are homed. The

homeless community sees large overlap with the LGBTQ+ community and is an important

consideration in analyzing the impacts of sea level change. Pier 45 is a large site for homeless

queer youth to live and gather. Contrasted with the rest of Greenwich village, Pier 45 is a space

for economically disadvantaged queer people, largely of color as well (Jones, 2013). Being a

pier, this space is on the water and therefore on the front line of the sea level rise the city is

experiencing. The pier is classified as a high risk flood zone, and as extreme weather and

flooding occur more often, the pier may become uninhabitable (FloodHelpNY, 2018). Currently

the base flood elevation of the pier is just 8.92 feet meaning that everything lower than that
elevation are in danger from flooding events (FEMA, 2017). Due to the development on the pier,

and the homeless status of the queer people there, this space is incredibly vulnerable to the

flooding events that will continue to occur as the sea level rises. Contrastingly, Stonewall Inn is

not in a flood zone, nestled further away from the water and on high enough elevation to be

protected from expanding flood zones (FloodHelpNY, 2018). The differences there demonstrate

that certain queer spaces are more in danger than others, the monuments and legacies that will

remain are those protected by both moneyed interests and governmental designations such as

being a historical site. The most marginalized of the queer community in Greenwich village are

the most at risk of seeing their community places washed away or flooded.

Fire Island Environmental Risks

While Greenwich Village is seated directly in Manhattan, Fire Island is a sandy barrier

island that faces different environmental risks. Fire Island has a natural system of dunes, ranging

from 10 to 20 feet tall, but much of this dune system was destroyed by the winds of Sandy

(Foderaro, 2012). The diminishment of the dunes, losing an estimated 3, 500, 000 cubic meters

of sand during Sandy, makes this ecosystem and human developments increasingly vulnerable

because the dunes formerly offered the first line of protection against rising sea level, flooding

events, and extreme winds (Hapke, et al. 2013). Fire Island also has high wave height

vulnerability, a trend only exacerbated by the diminishment of the dunes (Pendelton, 2004).

Fire Island’s structure also makes it vulnerable to breaches. Fire Island rests between the

Atlantic Ocean and Great South Bay. Due to the thinness of Fire Island itself and its relatively

flat topography, it is particularly susceptible to breaches forming between the two aquatic spaces.

Hurricane Sandy, a major event still shaping actions and the environment on Fire Island, carved

a breach in Otis Pike Fire Island High Dune Wilderness that has not yet been closed. Initially,
there was push to immediately close the breach and restore the environment back to its pre-

Sandy makeup (Forderaro, 2016). What has happened since, however, is that this breach has

combatted pollution in Great South Bay. The breach has inhibited algae growth, growth

promoted mainly by septic runoff, and has made this bay more habitable for various species of

fish (Forderaro, 2016).. This is an example of a major shift in the geography of Fire Island

producing positive changes, but it also demonstrates how susceptible this space is to extreme

weather events altering the very landscape itself. This danger extends to the Pines where homes

and buildings can be quickly made more vulnerable in storms. The queer community uses both

these built-spaces and natural spaces as gather grounds on the island. Multiple forms of queer

space are thus at risk from sea level rise and environmental changes to Fire Island.

Greenwich Mitigation

Greenwich presents are area rife with varied interests, uses, and people. A major effort to

combat sea level rise in the area would appear likely or possible due to the vested economic

interest in the area. A potential option to help mitigate rising sea level would be a version of the

East Side Coastal Resiliency Project applied to the Greenwich area. This is an expansive project,

altering the coastline by creating a system of berms that would respond to rising sea level and

storm surges (East Side Costal Resiliency Project, 2017). That development is coupled with

alterations to the waterfront, creating new public spaces and increased park access. This is an

incredibly expensive effort, with $338 million allocated to the project currently; because of the

cost, the economic status of Greenwich may be advantageous in enacting a similar plan there

(East Side Costal Resiliency Project, 2017). The businesses in the area could present incentives

to the city to act. A major contention with this mitigation strategy would be the impact on the

piers. As has been discussed, the Christopher Street Pier is a space used by homeless queer youth
and is especially vulnerable to climate change. If the coastline were to change, these people

would likely be pushed out, removing their communal space. This would further exacerbate the

differential impacts of climate change in the area.

Differences in development and buildings would be another potential method to preserve

the area. New developments have taken the strategy of using the top floor of buildings to house

supposedly flood proof emergency generators that would allow the building’s residents to have

power for up to a week following a major flooding event (Dunlap, 2017). This change would

increase the safety of residents during and after these events and could aid the queer residents of

the area. There are a couple issues here, firstly that there is no building mandate for protecting

against electricity failing after flooding, and that these changes would only be in new buildings.

As shown by Greenwich’s classification as a high rent area, most new developments would only

be open to very wealthy people; and therefore the general queer population would not be able to

access these buildings. A possibility for retrofitting with these strategies could be useful, if

possible in older buildings.

Finally, potential option could come in the combination of new bulkheads and raising

street levels (Kensinger, 2017). This is another labor intensive plan that would be financed by

large public spending. It would, however, minimize the flooding risk posed to the neighborhood.

While Stonewall, for example, is not in danger of major flooding, it may still feel the impacts of

extreme events. By raising the street levels, flood levels would have to be higher in order to

inundate the area. A potential drawback is the question of how high these streets could be raised

and for how long that would be effective. As potential flood levels continue to rise, how useful

would raising the height of streets be? A useful project may be raising the pier, this would be a
smaller effort and could allow those living or spending time there to gain protection form the

rising sea level.

Fire Island Mitigation

Fire Island is a sensitive environment, and one that may see struggles in mitigating the

impacts of sea level change. These strategies have been used on similar barrier islands in

attempts to protect them from sea level rise. A major strategy is to pump tons of sand onto the

island in an attempt to widen beaches and dunes. This is currently being done on Long Island

Beach to limited success; because of erosion and continually rising sea level on that island, sand

must continue to be pumped (Gual, 2017). This strategy does not present lasting changes, but

attempts to stem the greatest effects. Fire Island may attempt to use this strategy, but due to

increased erosion post-Sandy, the effectiveness would be questionable. Figure 3 demonstrates

the extreme erosion both during Sandy and post-recovery from Sandy, indicating that erosion

will continue to grow on the island (Brenner et al, 2016). This trend is only likely to continue as

sea level rises.

Figure 2 – Shoreline Erosion Statistics at Fire Island [Brenner, et al. 2016]

 Another mitigation issue is that properties will likely have trouble gaining flood

insurance. The federal flood insurance system in the United States has accrued massive debts,

largely from responding to extreme weather events exacerbated by sea level rise (Gual, 2017).

While the vacation and queer populations of Fire Island are largely middle class, the potential

premium rises would make it near impossible for many people to build or buy homes on the

island (Gual, 2017). This would increase the financial gate keeping and close Fire Island off to

large portion of the queer population. The potential of being priced out may keep people away

from building or buying places in danger from sea level rise but it also would likely inhibit the

growth of the queer community on the island; or at least alter the demographics to make them

increasingly exclusionary.

Another method that would help with protection against sea level rise and with

researching the issue would be increased installation of backbone monuments. These permanent

markers and measurement tools are steel rods that are rooted into the ground and use brass disks

as measurements (Phan, 2017). The National Park Service was given a $21 million grant to

install these in the North East US, and their installation on Fire Island would be useful to both

get data and apply it as mitigation (ibid). With data about elevation changes, homes and other

forms of construction can be built with protections against first floor flooding risks or away from

areas especially vulnerable to sea level rise. Queer space on Fire Island is mainly concentrated in

the developed parts of the island and therefore constructing or altering buildings to be protected

against sea level change would be crucial to protecting this community. The dangers of being on

a sandy, barrier island, however, are potent and will only continue to grow as the surrounding sea

continues to rise.
Conclusion

Fire Island and the neighborhood of Greenwich Village both are sites of queer history and

current queer community. Despite their changes these spaces are incredibly significant to both

their local queer communities and the larger national LGBTQ+ movement. Personally somewhat

like a pilgrimage the first time I visited Stonewall. These are spaces that are also at risk from sea

level rise, especially the vulnerable ecosystem of Fire Island and the marginalized spaces within

Greenwich village. Sustained mitigation efforts, both scientifically-based, but also social

services, can protect the current queer residents of these places along with protecting the places

themselves. Communal queer spaces are vitally important to holding and honoring history while

crafting the current queer narratives of the everyday and therefore these spaces must be

protected. It will be laborious and expensive, but as New York City continues to subside and the

sea continues to rise, it has become a necessity.