(1) Coasts are not just areas for recreation, but they are essential for commerce.
(2) Coastal areas generate enormous tax revenues, in the form of property taxes, seaborne commerce and tourism.
(3) Only a moron would argue that US coasts should be devoid of infrastructure and that such infrastructure should never be rebuilt - from a national security standpoint alone, this is foolish.
(4) Areas of the US that are far from the coast experience tornados, wildfires, earthquakes, avalanches, blizzards, storms and flooding - yet one rarely hears complaints about internal regions receiving federal aid to rebuild their infrastructure.
Wait till New York City has an earthquake. The NYT will be screaming to be rebuilt.
So... I guess we should not rebuild NYC after Sandy?
This article is a slap in the face of Staten Island, isn’t it?
Here in the Outer Banks of NC, if dunes are breached and the house is washed into the sea or can no longer be occupied, the property owner cannot rebuild. You see this from Kitty Hawk to Hatteras.
Probably 99% of the homes on the west end of Dauphin Island where the most storm damage & erosion occurs are vacation homes. Many are for rental income. There are very few permanent residents on the west end, & for good reason - your property can easily wash away, every year!
We need to stop wasting money replacing infrastructure & rebuilding sand beaches that wash away, storm or no storm. We should buy up properties that file multiple flood damage claims, turning the land to public use and/or wetlands.
If they had their way, everyone in the country would be crammed into 800 square feet apartments in big cities.
I can see rebuilding/maintaining barrier islands and clearing navigable waterways, etc.
I can see national flood insurance covering a working farm flooded by a break in a river levy.
But I cannot see my tax dollars being used to repeatedly rebuild someone’s beach home or rental property on a sand bar in Hurricane Alley.