New York City proceeds with flood protection project in Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood

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Alexa Avilés, the City Council member representing Red Hook, said infrastructure planning is particularly frustrating there. Along with community activists and residents, she argues that the system the city and the federal government use to decide how much money to spend on flood protections is biased against poor communities.

“It never feels like we are prioritized, and we’re constantly fighting with the city again for both a basic level of service and then to get these major projects done and coordinated properly,” she said.

To win federal grants, applicants conduct a cost-benefit analysis that has to show flood projects save more money in the event of a storm than they cost to build, said Kristin Smith, an economics researcher at Headwaters Economics, a nonprofit that studies flood risk.

That can be difficult for poor communities, she said.

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Red Hook residents, advocates, and leaders say the flood barrier system proposed for the $3.5 billion housing development in the neighborhood shows how wealthy residents in the city receive greater protection. The development, called the Brooklyn Marine Terminal, would build 6,000 mostly market-rate units on the northwest side of Red Hook, according to planning documents. A city task force approved the development in September, along with a plan to refurbish and upgrade the port. It promises a flood barrier system that would protect from 100-year storms.

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