Snakes, tracks and sewage: life in the area called ‘the hole’

Snakes are not a typical concern for most New Yorkers. But this fall, Julisa Rodriguez almost tripped over it in her backyard.

“I almost fainted,” said Ms. Rodriguez, 38, a stay-at-home mother of two. The snake’s appearance was the result of a rat infestation, a septic tank leak, groundwater collecting in her living room, and mushroom-like spores growing on her walls. None of this was surprising, she said, if you live in the Hole.

Located along the Brooklyn-Queens border, The Hole is a poor, sunken neighborhood about four miles from Kennedy International Airport, with small buildings surrounded by vacant lots, wild-growing reed grass, and streets littered with potholes and abandoned cars.

The swampy area, also known as the Jewel Streets (street names are Ruby, Emerald and Amber), is located at one of the lowest points in the city, about four feet above sea level. For this reason it is not connected to the sewage system – homes rely on septic tanks and cesspools – and the streets are flooded virtually every time it rains.

Long romanticized as a neighborhood oddity, the Hole has been used as a cemetery (possibly by the mob), a de facto junkyard, and a hub for people living out of their cars. But Ms. Rodriguez has made her home here, along with as many as 300 other residents, who have learned how to navigate the snakes and sodden streets.

Perhaps no other neighborhood in the city better illustrates the challenges of climate change than the Hole. “All these extremes are already happening here,” said Felicia Singh, a community activist who lives nearby.

As rising sea levels raise groundwater levels, drainage and sewer flooding becomes more severe here, even though the neighborhood is miles from the ocean. The area has a broader history “not as mainland, but as part of the coastal environment of Jamaica Bay,” said Kara Murphy Schlichting, an associate professor of history at Queens College.

As such, The Hole faces a central question that many environmentalists and urban planners believe other flood-prone regions in the city and the country will one day face: Can the neighborhood be saved or should residents move out and leave it to the elements?

“From a geological point of view, it is not an area that should ever have been inhabited,” said Klaus H. Jacob, a climate expert at Columbia University who focuses on disaster risk management. But the low-lying neighborhood — tucked between a mega-mall, several high-rises and Linden Boulevard — is unlikely to be condemned by city officials, who are also grappling with a housing crisis.

In June, city officials and local organizers began holding meetings with residents about how to make the Hole more livable, with the goal of publishing a resilience plan sometime in the spring. Mayor Eric Adams did that has committed $75 million to the project.

Currently, all ideas for improving the Hole are on the table, city officials said, from raising the streets, developing housing on higher ground nearby, to designing green spaces with retention ponds for natural drainage, to buy out residents.

Ms. Rodriguez hopes for a buyout. Fifteen years ago, she and her husband Carlos moved into what they thought was the perfect starter home. It was on a quiet street, had a garden and the price was right.

About a week after they moved in, all hell broke loose, Ms. Rodriguez said.

Every time it rained, a foot of water came up from the floor, she said. They installed five sump pumps and installed dehumidifiers and air purifiers throughout the house. The flooding stopped. Until Hurricane Ida hit the city.

“There was so much water,” Ms. Rodriguez said. Her father, a contractor, proposed a new solution: installing a French drain system – usually outdoors or in basements – inside the house, on the ground floor. The risky project, undertaken out of desperation, paid off. “It works beautifully,” she said.

But the Rodriguez house is an oasis in this swampy neighborhood. The family still has to contend with flooded streets and a vacant lot a block away, commanded by a man who may be mentally unstable and begins swinging a baseball bat to claim his property. “I would leave without hesitation,” Ms. Rodriguez said.

She’ll have to wait. It is still unclear whether a managed retreat program, involving home purchases, will be offered to residents.

Mohammed Doha, another homeowner, wants to stay.

Mr. Doha, 53, a general contractor, believes in the neighborhood’s potential, even though his house looks more like a boat when it rains, he said.

Mr Doha believes the city should invest in the area by raising streets and connecting houses to the sewerage system. “What a valuable piece of land New York City owns, just minutes from JFK International Airport,” he said.

Rohit Aggarwala, the city’s climate chief, who is helping develop the resilience plan, said his office is considering raising the streets. But that would require installing another pumping station in the area, which would be expensive. A more practical plan, he surmised, “is likely a combination of green infrastructure and drainage upgrades utilizing the existing pump station.”

Bianca Bautista, who has been renting an apartment in the Hole for six years, is not interested in a possible buyout or improvements in the neighborhood. She has to leave her home by the end of the year.

Conditions there became unbearable, she said, so Brooklyn Legal Services struck a deal between the landlord and tenants to vacate the property, with a small compensation. Ms. Bautista is the last tenant in the three-story building.

Mrs. Bautista never goes into her backyard, where there is a cesspool that easily overflows. When it deteriorates, human feces comes up through her bathtub, she said. When it rains, her street floods and garbage collectors and delivery people don’t come down. Mold grows on her children’s clothes.

Dr. Jacob, the climate expert at Columbia, said it would be ideal if much of the neighborhood returned to what it used to be: a green valley with a creek and swamp area. But he also understands the need for housing. He would like to see it on higher ground nearby, and for city officials to approach the area sensitively.

“The neighborhood has a very special character that is difficult to replace,” he says.