[ed. 'Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand. They think, deep in their hearts, that they are better than we are because we had to discover the compensations and refuges of life for ourselves.' ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald.]
Soon after Hurricane Sandy hit last fall, Joshua Harris, a billionaire hedge fund founder and an owner of the Philadelphia 76ers, began to fear that his $25 million home on the water here might fall victim to the next major storm. So he installed a costly defense against incoming waves: a shield of large metal plates on the beach, camouflaged by sand.
His neighbor, Mark Rachesky, another billionaire hedge fund founder, put up similar fortifications between his home and the surf. Chris Shumway, who closed his $8 billion hedge fund two years ago, trucked in boulders the size of Volkswagens.
Across a section of this wealthy town, some residents, accustomed to having their way in the business world, are now trying to hold back the ocean.
But the flurry of construction on beachfront residences since the hurricane is touching off bitter disputes over the environment, real estate and class.
Some local officials said they were worried that the owners were engaging in an arms race with nature, installing higher and higher barricades that could rapidly hasten erosion — essentially sacrificing public beaches to save private homes.
Last week, down the beach from Mr. Shumway’s home, another project was under way. Bulldozers and backhoes were carting stones and piling sand, assembling what appeared to be ramparts. It was to protect the home owned by Vince Camuto, one of the founders of the Nine West fashion brand.
These fortifications have been built along a stretch of coast just over 2,000 feet long in one of the most exclusive sections of Southampton, off Gin Lane. The houses they protect cost as much as $60 million and stand, flanked by swimming pools and tennis courts, on hedge-lined lots of three to five acres. (...)
Several of the protective barriers of boulders and bulkheads are now covered in mountains of sand so high that they obscure much of the houses when viewed from the beach. (...)
“I don’t think it’s reasonable to point to every sea wall that exists and say it’s a problem,” said Aram Terchunian, a coastal geologist who has advised some of the Southampton homeowners on their beachfront defenses.
“You need all the tools in the toolbox in order to effectively deal with these erosion problems,” Mr. Terchunian said. “And to ban them for philosophical and political purposes is shortsighted and certainly isn’t scientific.”
Others disagreed.
Robert Young, a coastal geologist hired by the Southampton trustees to evaluate these and other projects, said the beaches on Long Island were formed from sand carried from the eastern tip along westward currents. Sea walls seal off sand and sediment, preventing this drift, starving beaches farther west.
Mr. Young added that erosion became more pronounced at the edges of sea walls because water bends as it rushes off the wall face, carving out the sand on the sides.
“If you build a structure like that, the beach is going to disappear,” he said. “The sea wall is not there to protect the beach. It is there to protect the property behind the beach.”
Soon after Hurricane Sandy hit last fall, Joshua Harris, a billionaire hedge fund founder and an owner of the Philadelphia 76ers, began to fear that his $25 million home on the water here might fall victim to the next major storm. So he installed a costly defense against incoming waves: a shield of large metal plates on the beach, camouflaged by sand.His neighbor, Mark Rachesky, another billionaire hedge fund founder, put up similar fortifications between his home and the surf. Chris Shumway, who closed his $8 billion hedge fund two years ago, trucked in boulders the size of Volkswagens.
Across a section of this wealthy town, some residents, accustomed to having their way in the business world, are now trying to hold back the ocean.
But the flurry of construction on beachfront residences since the hurricane is touching off bitter disputes over the environment, real estate and class.
Some local officials said they were worried that the owners were engaging in an arms race with nature, installing higher and higher barricades that could rapidly hasten erosion — essentially sacrificing public beaches to save private homes.
Last week, down the beach from Mr. Shumway’s home, another project was under way. Bulldozers and backhoes were carting stones and piling sand, assembling what appeared to be ramparts. It was to protect the home owned by Vince Camuto, one of the founders of the Nine West fashion brand.
These fortifications have been built along a stretch of coast just over 2,000 feet long in one of the most exclusive sections of Southampton, off Gin Lane. The houses they protect cost as much as $60 million and stand, flanked by swimming pools and tennis courts, on hedge-lined lots of three to five acres. (...)
Several of the protective barriers of boulders and bulkheads are now covered in mountains of sand so high that they obscure much of the houses when viewed from the beach. (...)
“I don’t think it’s reasonable to point to every sea wall that exists and say it’s a problem,” said Aram Terchunian, a coastal geologist who has advised some of the Southampton homeowners on their beachfront defenses.
“You need all the tools in the toolbox in order to effectively deal with these erosion problems,” Mr. Terchunian said. “And to ban them for philosophical and political purposes is shortsighted and certainly isn’t scientific.”
Others disagreed.
Robert Young, a coastal geologist hired by the Southampton trustees to evaluate these and other projects, said the beaches on Long Island were formed from sand carried from the eastern tip along westward currents. Sea walls seal off sand and sediment, preventing this drift, starving beaches farther west.
Mr. Young added that erosion became more pronounced at the edges of sea walls because water bends as it rushes off the wall face, carving out the sand on the sides.
“If you build a structure like that, the beach is going to disappear,” he said. “The sea wall is not there to protect the beach. It is there to protect the property behind the beach.”
by Michael Schwirtz, NY Times | Read more:
Richard Perry/The New York Times
