This Basketball Court Is Saving Residents From Floods. Plus, New Yorkers’ Hot Takes
When your city looks for inspiration for the future, does it look to the Netherlands? That’s what designers and officials in New York City did in order to integrate flood mitigation into public housing. Inspired by places like Rotterdam, the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) collaborated with other groups to give Queens a state-of-the-art, climate-resilient amenity — in this case, a basketball court. David talks with Katy Burgio from NYCHA and Runit Chhaya of Grain Collective, one of the involved design firms, about the larger infrastructure the court is a part of and how it’s setting up NYC for climate resilience.
Mentioned on the show:
- Water Square and its creative facilitators: https://www.dezeen.com/2025/11/25/grain-collective-basketball-courts-flood-prevention/
- Rotterdam’s own “water square”: https://landezine.com/water-square-benthemplein-by-de-urbanisten/
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