We Can Hitch a Ride to Rockaway Beach

My knowledge of the Rockaways was limited to uninformative Ramones' lyrics, a single visit to the gay beach at Riis Park in the late 70s and the destruction wrought by Hurricane Sandy on the peninsula's communities in 2012.

Patti Smith kindled my interest after reading M Train.  She bought a small house in Rockaway Beach shortly before Sandy.  Little evidence of the hurricane exists today thanks to an influx of federal dollars and commercial development, especially at the eastern end, near Arverne by the Sea.

 

You're literally minutes away from the beach once you disembark from the ferry and walk south on B108, past some cute summer cottages.

 

The changing rooms look like Airstream trailers on stilts, built of wood instead of aluminum.

I pedaled to Riis Park along Rockaway Beach Boulevard, past landscaped homes and a beautiful, if somewhat forlorn, synagogue.

 

Robert Moses built Riis Park in 1936.  Somebody should restore the Art Deco bathhouse to its former glory.

It isn't hard to find the gay section. Just look for the Speedos and toned bodies.  Maybe there is life after the Pines!

I returned to Rockaway Beach on the Jamaica Bay side, past a well-tended church and through Belle Harbor, also known as Beach 129.  

Every house flies an American flag.

You can bet this Latino fisherman doesn't live in the neighborhood.

I was a lot more comfortable among the mermaids and street art in Rockaway Beach.

But patriotism could be found even in hipster terrain.