What to Know
- The number of street flooding complaints is skyrocketing across the five borough, according to Localize.city
- Localize.city, a real estate knowledge platform, determined the hot spot areas for street flooding complaints
- Staten Island dominated Localize.city's list with seven neighborhoods being notorious for street flooding
They have become common scenes in New York City when it rains: pedestrians jumping across the puddles that form at crosswalks, while drivers travel across what can only be described as pools of water.
It turns out, these scenes are becoming more frequent since, according to a report by Localize.city, the number of street flooding complaints is skyrocketing across the five boroughs.
With this in mind, Localize.city, a real estate knowledge platform, determined the hot spot areas for street flooding complaints.
Overall, there were 3,141 complaints about street flooding over 12 months, according to Localize.city’s analysis of 311 data from Oct. 1, 2017, through Sept. 30, 2018. This number reflects a 53 percent increase compared to the number of complaints during the same time frame four years before.
[NATL] Top News Photos: Pope Visits Japan, and More
“The question remains: Is the rise in street flooding complaints attributed to more people complaining about the issue or worsening conditions from more frequent storms? In general, the total number of flooding complains is correlated with rainfall, and 2018 has been a rainy year,” said Localize.city urban planner Olivia Jovine.
Local
This year has been wetter than average, according to data from the National Weather Service.
According to the study, a number of Superstorm Sandy-affected areas are still flooding, including Midland Beach in Staten Island, which ranks among the highest for complaints about street flooding. One block in particular — Grimsby Street at Mapleton Avenue — is one of the city’s biggest hot spots for complaints, the analysis says.
Staten Island dominated the Localize.city’s list with seven neighborhoods on the top 10, including the No. 2 spot, Midland Beach, which saw 60 complaints.
Top Tri-State News Photos
“There is a corridor of especially problematic areas more or less along the city’s southern coastal areas in Staten Island and southeast Queens,” said Localize.city data scientist Michal Eisenberg.
However, according to the analysis, many of the locations facing flooding problems in Staten Island and Queens are expected to eventually undergo upgrades, including elevations, barrier creations and storm drains reconstruction.
Additionally, three areas in Manhattan — Midtown South, Chelsea and the Upper West Side — also made the list.
The streets of Marble Hill, a small neighborhood attached to the Bronx along the Hudson River with a Manhattan ZIP code ranked first, with about 143 complaints per square mile.
[NATL-LA GALLERY] Photos: What to Keep in Your Disaster Emergency Kit
When it comes to Brooklyn, the high number of complaints are concentrated around Gowanus Canal and inland due to the polluted canal causes issues, according to Localize.city.
Here are the top 20 neighborhoods for street flooding complaints, per square mile, in the past year:
- Marble Hill, Manhattan: 143
- Midland Beach, Staten Island: 56.1
- Stapleton, Staten Island: 44.3
- Arrochar, Staten Island: 43
- Midtown South, Manhattan: 40.3
- Chelsea, Manhattan: 38.2
- Rosedale, Queens: 34.4
- Coney Island, Brooklyn: 33.7
- Far Rockaway, Queens: 33.6
- Borough Park, Brooklyn: 30.4
- Eltingville, Staten Island: 28.4
- Upper West Side, Manhattan: 27.4
- Oakwood Heights, Staten Island: 24.8
- Gowanus, Brooklyn: 23.6
- Laurelton, Queens: 23.1
- New Springville, Staten Island: 22.8
- Flatbush, Brooklyn: 22.5
- St. Albans, Queens: 22.3
- Dongan Hills, Staten Island: 21.3
- Pelham Gardens, Bronx: 21.2
