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Residents of the Rockaways are also developing new infrastructure projects to strengthen the neighborhood. The Rockaways Courthouse, for example, was built in 1932 and is a twenty-four-thousand-foot building that has been vacant for thirty years. Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the New York City Economic Development Corporation selected a developer to renovate the building into a medical center. It will house doctors providing medical and outpatient surgical services in specialties including ophthalmology, urology, obstetrics, gynecology, and orthopedics. It will be open all year and will also be an active medical center helping residents in the event of another natural disaster. Representative Gregory Meeks said, “Hurricane Sandy underscored the importance of having storm-secured, flood-protected, state-of-the-art medical facilities readily accessible to Rockaway neighborhoods and communities.”52

Another good example to look to is the Netherlands, where sustainable development makes optimal use of geography and existing structures. The Netherlands has a very low elevation, with about one third of the country below sea level—the lowest point being twenty-­two feet below sea level. By necessity, the country had to develop creative solutions to avoid flooding from nearby rivers after storms; this was tantamount to its survival and prosperity. To do this, the country developed an extensive system of dikes (natural and man-made drainage ditches), sand dunes, water pumps, and floodgates.