Feds To Fund Restoration Of Private Seagate Beaches, Spurring Neighbors To Demand Public Access

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The US Army Corps of Engineers will shell out $30 million to restore the beaches of the gated community Seagate, after their private beaches were battered by Superstorm Sandy. The Brooklyn Paper is reporting that the influx of federal dollars has led local residents living outside the gated community to demand access to the coveted beach space enjoyed by Seagate residents.

Brighton Beach activist Ida Sanoff laid out the case in very simple terms.

“If you’re using public funds, you need to grant public access,” Sanoff said.

Officials who backed the funding of the project defended the operation as necessary to protect the entirety of the Coney Island beachfront.

“The beaches are all one holistic piece, and when you reinforce in Seagate, you are reinforcing the whole Coney Island peninsula,” Ilan Kayatsky, a spokesman for Congressman Jerrold Nadler, told Brooklyn Paper.

The Army Corps of Engineers will build four rock jetties at the tip of the peninsula that are designed to capture sand in the sea currents, a maneuver that will add acres of sand back to the beachfront.