“It’s so important when you’re working in these neighborhoods to understand the history of what engineers did in New York City,” says Eric Rothstein, a managing partner at eDesign Dynamics, a water resources engineering firm. “In the Rockaways you’re talking about (late New York City public official) Robert Moses.” Historically, the projects he implemented involved heavy-handed, gray infrastructure with no regards for the community. “That’s the history that we’re butting up against every time we go into a community to do nature-based solutions,” Rothstein says. “(But) it’s still imposing something on a community if you don’t involve the community.”