On January 3, 1914, a storm devastated the peninsula's neighborhoods and swept the 1,200-seat Arverne Pier Theater out to sea.
[4] On June 15, 1922, a fire leveled a large part of Arverne, leaving about 10,000 people homeless, although the neighborhood was quick to rebuild.
New York City's urban renewal projects of the 1960s leveled most of the summer resorts and some of the residences, many of which had been abandoned.
[7][8] In 1964, the New York City Planning Commission approved the designation of a 302-acre (122 ha) Arverne renewal area.
Controversy later arose when the city decided to place 100 mobile homes instead of permanent housing for low-income Puerto Ricans.
[15] By 1973, Mayor John Lindsay was calling for 500 of 3,650 proposed housing units to be deleted from the Arverne redevelopment plan.
[There was to be] a phalanx of mid- and high-rise condominium and rental apartment buildings, [as well as] more than $1 billion... enclosed amusement area on the Arverne site, to be called Destination Technodome, with rides, movie theaters, an indoor ski slope and a hotel.
[24] To improve pedestrian accessibility, a section of Rockaway Freeway beneath the station was closed to through traffic[25] and the Beach 67th Street–Gaston Avenue station was renamed Beach 67th Street–Arverne by the Sea as a symbolic recognition of the neighborhood's rebirth as a residential area and a summer waterfront destination.
[28] New restaurants and retail establishments arrived as part of an effort to make shopping available to local residents at a hub near the Beach 67th Street station.
The Dubos Point Wildlife Sanctuary is northeast of the intersection of Da Costa Avenue and Beach 65th Street, fronting Jamaica Bay.
[35][18] At the northwest corner of Arverne is Brant Point Wildlife Sanctuary, located west of Beach 72nd Street and north of Hillmeyer Avenue on Jamaica Bay.
[36] A third sanctuary, Vernam Barbadoes Preserve, is on Terrapeninsula, a peninsula between two inlets of Jamaica Bay west of Beach 75th Street and north of Amstel Boulevard.