Fire Island and the Pathways of Ideas

Fire Island and the Pathways of Ideas

by Eric Miller

It may seem odd in 21st century New York, but there is a series of towns just off Long Island connected only by foot paths. Fire Island is a long barrier island that runs along the length of Long Island outside New York City, and it has no public roads. My first visit to the island provided a unique look at virtually car-free island life.

Fire Island Beach

The trip to Fire Island started at Atlantic Place in Brooklyn (the Flatbush stop on the Long Island Railroad). The trip to Bayshore was about an hour and a quarter by train. From there a shuttle bus took us to the ferry stop, but I found the distance was close enough to walk if you come prepared with a map. On the way in I noticed a bridge at the Western tip of the Island and wondered if there was a way to travel by bus.

The ferry arrived at a small town called Ocean Beach. The town has a number of small commercial buildings that house tourist shops, restaurants, food stores and a post office. The main "street" in Ocean Beach only accommodates pedestrians. There were a few municipal vehicles around, but with everyone arriving by ferry, there were few cars in Ocean Beach.

A local resident later explained that there are actually two bridges connecting Fire Island to Long Island, but there is no road on Fire Island connecting them. The bridge seen from the ferry was the Robert Moses Causeway, which leads to parking lots at Robert Moses State Park, the location of the Fire Island Light House. At the eastern end the William Floyd Parkway leads to Smith Point County Park. There are parking lots on either end, but no towns are accessible by car.

Ocean Beach is a 600 home community and the unofficial "capital" of Fire Island. It's also known as a land of "no," once having had a regulation against eating ice cream on Main Street. Residents can bring a car in, but can't keep parked in Ocean Beach. When homes sell, they are sold with contents, because of the difficulty getting furniture on and off the island.

Cherry Grove

While the island is pedestrian friendly, bicycle use is only really practical in towns. Riding along the legnth of Fire Island would mean riding through a good deal of sand, since many areas are only connected by beach.

From the commercial area of Ocean Beach, less than a quarter mile walk through a residential neighborhood, again only served by a pedestrian walkway, we arrived at the ocean. A mile and a half east (the walks are easier at low tide because the sand is hard) we came upon the Sunken Forest. Wooden walkways lead pedestrians through this maze of holly trees. The Sunken Forest shows quite well how plant life can be sustained even on a sandy island. The walk through the forest is basically a circle that brings you out to Sailors Haven, an area served by water taxis and ferries. About one mile further you arrive upon Cherry Grove, a very active town alive with bars and restaurants (serving a mostly gay and lesbian clientele) and inaccessible by auto. It was even iaccessible by path, making bringing bicycles in again problematic. The only way in is down to the beach and back up again.

After we returned to Sailor's Haven, a water taxi came to bring us back to Ocean Beach, and we retraced our steps to Brooklyn.

Is Ocean Beach an ideal example of car-free living? It is enjoyable, but I don't think very practical. Each town comprises single-family houses and accomodates very few residents. Any attempt to increase the density would surely destroy the pedestrian environment. More, without the tourists, it's doubtful many of the businesses could survive. In the winter when tourism dies, only the post office, a mini-market and one restaurant remain open.

Animal encounter

It does however show that every inch of our communities does not need to be accessible by car. In fact, when building new communities it can be a good idea to reorient the fronts of buildings to an area accessible only to pedestrians and bicycles. I know of serveral examples of this, including a modern one in Chicago and an older one in Pittsburgh. It also may be possible to develop more communities not accessible at all by car in places that are not oriented toward tourism.

Fire Island, as it exists, serves as an excellent example of how car-dependent we have become and how nice it can be to live car-free. Walking on the pathways of Fire Island brings encounters with a variety of animal life including birds, cats, deer and even sea creatures that exist with humans without the threat of development encroaching on their habitat. In the case of the cat of course, it took full advantage of the human environment of Ocean Beach. A trip to Ocean Beach will mean face-to-face encounters with other humans along the pathways, something that won't happen in a car.

Pedestrian-oriented cities like New York and San Francisco are believed to be the foutainheads of idea formation because of the interactivity they facilitate. The pedestrian-oriented environments of Fire Island may also bring forth notions of how to improve mixed-use suburban communities and integrate office parks with residential and commercial areas, as well as improve transport and communication free of the cars that separate us and our ideas.

Text and town photos by Eric Miller; "Animal Encounter" photo by Lin Wang