By Rich Bockmann
When Superstorm Sandy hit a year ago, its tidal surge carried two shipping containers down Rockaway Beach Boulevard that smashed into storefronts like a pair of 5,000-pound shoes in a washing machine.
“They banged against the walls and landed underneath the el,” said Beer House proprietor Phil Cicia, who owns a building with about 130 feet of streetfront property that housed two tenants in addition to his own business before the storm. “Welcome to the boulevard of broken dreams.”
With his back to the gleaming steel shutters he recently installed on his renovated storefronts, Cicia pointed at the steel repositories sitting in a parking lot across the street that tore three awnings belonging to a check casher, an H&R Block and his liquor store off the front of his building like they were Band-Aids.
A year after the storm brought the peninsula’s economy to a standstill, Cicia said the check casher is finally set to open its doors under new owners soon, and he is hoping he can use the extra income to invest in his own business’ recovery.
“I had a decent summer,” he said. “If not, I would have picked up and left.”
Across the peninsula, owners of businesses that survived the Oct. 29 storm and its aftermath said that after squeaking by through a slow summer season, they are looking toward the future with cautious optimism.
“The only good thing that came out of the storm is that people returned to shopping local,” said Lisa Long, owner of the pet supply store Rockapup on Beach 116th Street. “In general, though, it’s pretty bad.”
Long estimates that somewhere between 30 percent and 40 percent of her business came from residents of Breezy Point, a neighborhood where nearly 130 homes were burned to their foundations in a fire during the storm.
“The whole community is gone,” Long said. “They have not even begun to rebuild because of the permits.”
Where residential recovery has stalled, officials made an urgent effort to get the peninsula open for business at the start of the summer tourism season.
The Ramones’ “Rockaway Beach” blasted across the airwaves from Memorial Day to Labor Day in radio ads promoting the area as a fun-in-the-sun destination spot, courtesy of the Queens Economic Development Corp.
The city provided transportation via the Rockaway Ferry, by May A train service had been restored and for the second year in the row Rockabus shuttled Brooklynites to the beaches.
“Call them what you want — hipsters or young people or whatever. I love them. I think they’re great. They bring new life to the community,” said Rockaway Beach resident John Toolan, who said crowds seemed good at the concession stands that opened on the beach.
Intermittent construction kept various beaches closed, and the city Parks Department estimated the sand got about half the visitors it received the year before Sandy.
Beach restoration, economic recovery and the possibility of rising flood insurance rates are all issues local business owners said will determine the future of the Rockaways’ economy.
“It’s more devastating than the storm,” Long said, referring to the potential rise in flood insurance could have on her pet supply store. “We recovered from the storm. I don’t know how to recover from that.”
Before the storm hit, Cicia had plans to convert the lot behind his store into a beer garden where patrons could sip locally brewed libations.
After getting his business up and running on a bare bones basis, he turned his attention to getting tenants back in the building and now is setting his sights on turning the dilapidated lot into a hot spot.
“I did the best I could. At least a year later I got a lot — I think it’s a lot — accomplished,” he said.
Reach reporter Rich Bockmann by e-mail at rbockmann@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4574.
