Gentrification Kills Surf fun!

There’s a war going on in Rockaway beach! Surfers vs. homeowners. It’s a tale as old as time: Surfers start to frequent some derelict coastal town, and gradually the economy starts to build. Then the upper middle class come hunting for a blast of that crisp sea air, and think that because they spend close to a million dollars on a house that it means that they have complete control over the area.

The issue at hand is space. Surfing’s super hot right now in NYC, so the number of surfers catching the A train out to Rockaway is booming. At present there are only two sanctioned New York City surfing beaches, Beach 90th street and Beach 67th streets in Queens, and they’re totally packed. Surfers want to open the surrounding beaches, at which surfing and swimming are at present banned, to ease the crowd pressure. But, at the same time property owners want the same beach areas opened for swimming. Surfing and swimming at the same beach is banned in NYC, thus the problem.

You gotta fight, for your right, to grooooovel. (Photo by the NY Times)

The surfers’ claim to the beaches stems from the fact that Rockaway wouldn’t be a hot spot currently if it weren’t for them. Local surfer and restaurant owner Conrad Karl says: “Surfing is the catalyst that has begun to change Rockaway. It’s given us a cultural identity down here and brought new restaurants and wine bars and a lot of other businesses.”

Former editor of the local newspaper, ironically called The Wave, Howard Schwach (Boo, hiss!) is angry about the “entitlement” of the surfer’s protesting, and says that it’s preposterous that surfers expect their voices to be heard above “homeowners who just paid $700,000 for a house.”

No decision has been made as to the fate of surfing in Rockaway as yet. But Mr Kavanagh from the Parks department (yes the same one cousin Jeffrey worked for) says that opening the beaches temporarily to surfers to ease the summer crowds was “not an option.” Watch this space for the latest instalment of Surfing vs. Money. Unfortunately only one of them makes the world go round for the masses!