City cites progress in talks to build North Park flood barriers

Long Beach’s corporation council told a City Council meeting Tuesday night that significant progress had been made in a seven-year-long dispute with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority that has halted construction of bulkheads to prevent serious flooding in the city’s largely Black North Park section.

But North Park residents said they remain unsatisfied with the progress of the talks, and demanded that the council host a special meeting on the issue, allowing questions to be raised about the environmental impact of the project, among other matters.

After an exchange of views with some North Park residents, Corporation Council Rich Berrios said he believed city and MTA attorneys had gotten “past” a key impediment: the amount of insurance coverage the state agency is seeking to protect Long Island Rail Road employees who will be working near construction of the bulkheads.

“We’ve reached agreement on that,” Berrios said. The insurance costs to the city “are less prohibitive.” He did not offer any specific numbers.

Hector Garcia, a senior director of external affairs at the MTA, said earlier this week that the agency was working diligently to resolve the issues with Long Beach. He declined to comment on specifics.

“We have to get reimbursed” for insurance costs, Garcia said. “We are working to help the city minimize their exposure” to higher costs.

“At this point, it’s down to the attorneys” to come up with a complete negotiation document, he added.

Tuesday’s meeting began with Berrios saying he had “not much else to report” on the bulkhead issue. “We have exchanged letters,” he said of the city and the MTA. “We’re trying to get this deal done.”

But after some comments from James Hodge, a former board chairman of the Martin Luther King Center in North Park, Crystal Lake, a community leader, and a resident, Wanda Brooks, Berrios said that progress has been made on the insurance issue.

Both Hodge and Lake called for a citywide forum on the barricade issue. “This should involve the whole city of Long Beach,” Hodge said. “The lower-interest part of the city should not always have to fight for what’s right. The city should have a meeting with all of the parties.

“I’m calling for this,” Hodge added, his voice growing louder. “We’ve been waiting for this for years and years.”

“There is a crucial need for such a hearing,” Lake said. “Both sides need to see the pain and suffering” North Park residents endure during heavy rainstorms, when many streets are flooded.

“There are so many unanswered questions,” she added, including the environmental impact of the project, and whether the bulkheads will prevent street flooding.

Lake said that she recalled, as a child, a particularly bad storm. “I was one of those children sitting in a rowboat,” she said.

Berrios said he “could understand the need” for such a meeting, but added, “What the attorneys need to do is reach an agreement. I don’t think the city is opposed to a meeting.” But he emphasized that there needed to be an agreement between the attorneys before any such meeting could take place.

The dispute has caught the attention of others in Long Beach, including Bishop Isaac Melton Jr. of the Christian Light Missionary Baptist Church. “I certainly agree that this matter requires immediate attention,” Melton wrote in an email, “and I, as well as others, look forward to open dialogue.”

City officials want to install about 2,700 linear feet of bulkhead, demolish an abandoned gun range on Water Street, replace all utilities on Water Street, including sewers and other infrastructure, and repave the street.

At the end of the meeting, Lake said she remained dissatisfied.  “There’s no resolution to move forward,” she said, adding that she said she understood the need for lawyers to negotiate, but that that should not preclude a general meeting.

“There are some concerns that can be answered,” she said.