A city born from the tides is drowning from the clouds. New York City, with 520 miles of waterfront, is seeing a growing flood challenge away from its coastline. Neighborhoods like East New York, Flushing, Jamaica, and Bushwick are increasingly feeling underwater, with little-or-no shoreline in sight.
In some places, this is not a major surprise. It’s water finding its way back to dozens of hidden (or “ghost”) streams and creeks that were swallowed by the city’s extensive sewer system.
Many have studied these hidden streams. Eric Sanderson, for example, developed a renowned tool called The Welikia Project, which illuminates the rich ecological history that underwrites the development of New York City.
In Queens, a massive tidal wetland system existed around the Flushing Creek before the creek was reshaped for the World’s Fair. In The Bronx, the Tibbets Brook supported a lush ecosystem before being piped in 1912. In Manhattan, the DeVoors Mills Stream used to meander through the Upper East Side and empty into the East River near what is now the United Nations.
What is perhaps most notable about these historic streams and waterways is that many of them now represent the modern floodplain. If you overlay present (or future) New York City stormwater flood maps, you might be looking at an old stream or pond.
Stormwater flooding has quickly become a major climate impact in New York. For years after Superstorm Sandy, it was coastal flooding that weighed heaviest on our minds. And for good reason. In New York City alone, Sandy tragically took 40+ lives, left more than 2 million people without power, damaged 70,000 homes, and resulted in nearly $20 billion in damages and economic loss across the five boroughs (according to the New York City Comptroller’s Ten Years After Sandyreport).
Sandy was such a major hit to the region, that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed a $52 billion project to protect the region from future Sandy-like storms, known as the New York-New Jersey Harbor and Tributaries Study.
Inland flooding was “put on the map” about 9 years after Sandy, when Hurricane Ida dropped record breaking rainfall across New York City. Ida was another absolute tragedy that took 13 lives, including 11 residents who lived in basement apartments. The New York City Department of Environmental Protection estimates that it would cost $30 billion to “achieve a basic level of [stormwater] resilience” at about 80 priority sewer sites across the city. Some estimates of citywide stormwater protection are closer to $250 billion.
For the sake of sanity, let’s assume the $30 billion for priority stormwater resilience projects and $52 billion for priority coastal resilience projects. The City is staring down the barrel of, at minimum, $82 billion dollars for flood solutions.
The sad reality is…we should not expect to see that level of investment anytime soon. At least not for climate projects alone. We have to be more creative than that. We have to reimagine everything to flood.
Parks, streets, plazas, schools, and homes. These are places that already flood during extreme rainfall events! Any funded project for improvements to these places should be designed to absorb the water that is naturally going to come.
Take Flushing Meadows-Corona Park as an example. More than a park, it is a vital city resource where diverse communities gather to play, exercise, celebrate, and reconnect with nature. Alongside its soccer fields, playgrounds, promenades, and open lawns, the park is home to major cultural institutions like the New York Hall of Science, Queens Museum, Queens Zoo, and the US Open.
Despite the intense use and popularity of the park, it floods regularly, limiting recreational access and use.
Waterfront Alliance, in partnership with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, conducted a study to reimagine the park’s relationship to water. Central to that vision is bringing the Flushing Creek “back to light,” referring to a concept known as daylighting.
Across the park’s historic core, Flushing Creek is buried underground in twin pipes that guide the open stream from Meadow Lake downstream to the famous Fountain of the Planets. Daylighting the creek would allow the park to thrive with water by restoring the creek's ecological and hydrological functions and providing more space for water by expanding the floodplain. Beyond the banks of the creek, additional flood-able landscapes could accommodate excess water to reduce flooding on fields and pathways.
The vision embraces water in a way that makes the park functional when it floods. It uses nature-based solutions to work with water, not against it. By utilizing water as a key feature, the park’s vision improves its usability and resilience during frequent and intense rain events.
All across New York City, this model can be applied.
The water will come, whether it’s from the shores or the sky. Instead of waiting for tens or hundreds of billions of dollars for climate projects alone, we must begin to reimagine all places and spaces to utilize water as a key feature. Any future park, street, public space, school, or housing project is also a water project.
Everything will flood, so let everything be designed to flood.
About Tyler Taba: Tyler Taba joined Waterfront Alliance in September 2021. He is charged with leading and developing climate and waterfront policy and strategy, as well as coordinating and convening the Rise to Resilience Coalition. Prior to joining Waterfront Alliance, Tyler worked on climate adaptation for coastal national parks for the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), an environmental floodplain specialist for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and on stormwater management for the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation (NYC Parks). Tyler was recognized by Crain's Business New York's "20 in Their 20's" for his leading role in the passage of flood risk disclosure laws in New York, and most recently served on Mayor Zohran Mamdani's Transportation, Climate and Infrastructure Transition Committee.
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