My childhood friend Glenn Klotz (son of Red Klotz, at 5’7″ the shortest basketball player ever to play in an NBA game) grew up in a beachfront home in the Atlantic City island community of Margate, NJ. An environmental activist and blogger, Glenn has fought a tireless battle against the further proliferation of artificial dunes such as the one that has cut off ocean views and breezes for pedestrians on the Atlantic City boardwalk. The battle has now been lost as a result of Hurricane Sandy, he says, and this seems likely to produce a property-insurance windfall for owners of NJ beach-block homes that typically sell for $2 million or more.  Glenn wrote me recently as follows:

The big push is on here to get Margate in the dune system. (Click here for the full story in the Atlantic City Press.) The Press story is one-sided garbage. They found some guy who had nothing to do with the actual fight [against the dunes] and set him up as a spokesperson for anti-dune forces. At this point, however, the battle has been lost, effectively ended by Hurricane Sandy. My position is to let them have their stupid-ass dunes, for all the good it will do in the long run.  In fact, 95% of the damage island-wide was from bay-side flooding, and all the dunes in the world won’t hold back the bay.

From this point forward, here’s how things are going to work, and it’s ironic: The new flood-elevation maps will turn most of [Absecon] Island into flood zones, and homeowners will either have to lift their homes to qualify for flood insurance or be barred from selling them. But — get this! –the beach-block, with its government-built-and-paid-for dune, will be exempt!  Once again, the Too Big To Fail crowd gets some socialism for the rich and everyone else gets the shaft.  Keep in mind that 90% of those beachfront properties are second or vacation homes.  Nevertheless, and as I said, the dune fight is fini. Oh, and one more thing: Yes, the dune provides  some surge protection from 20-year storms. But where there is boardwalk, the dune effectively destroys the ocean view and breezes that boardwalks are meant to provide. Does anyone get the irony here?  After today’s newspaper story, I’ll be persona non grata around town for a while. No big deal, I’m used to it.