Gotham Gazette

The Place for New York Policy and politics

Superstorm Sandy

Superstorm Sandy

  • Still Planning for Climate Change Ten Years After Sandy

    Climate resiliency envisioning (photo: mayor's office)


    Superstorm Sandy’s impact on New York City must not be forgotten: 44 people died citywide, over 69,000 homes were damaged, and Brooklyn’s waterfront neighborhoods flooded in an area more than twice as large as the 100-year floodplain. Over 2 million New Yorkers lost power, stranding some residents – especially those in public housing – for weeks before power was restored. 

    Now it’s a decade later and we’re still recovering from the last storm and completely

    ...
  • Max Politics Podcast: The Environmental Bond Act Ballot Proposal and Other Key Climate Issues

    Rooftop solar panels (photo: Gabriel López Albarrán)


    October 13, 2022 - Max Politics Podcast: The Environmental Bond Act Ballot Proposal and Other Key Climate Issues

    Proposal 1 on the 2022 general election ballot is a statewide referendum on the $4.2 billion Environmental Bond Act, which New York voters will approve or disapprove this fall. Julie Tighe, president of the New York League of Conservation Voters, and Amy Chester, managing director of Rebuild by Design, joined the show to discuss the bond act and other major New York climate issues.

    Listen to the

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  • City Council Passes Bill Requiring 'Citywide Climate Adaptation Plan'

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    Coastal resiliency project underway (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


    Update: The City Council approved the Citywide Climate Adaptation Plan legislation on Thursday, October 7.

    After Hurricane Ida once again exposed New York City’s vulnerability to major climate events, the New York City Council is set to pass, and Mayor Bill de Blasio is expected to sign, a bill that will mandate the creation of a new “citywide climate adaptation plan.”

    The Council will vote on Thursday to approve the legislation, ...

  • New York City Needs a Resiliency Plan that Creates Green Jobs for New Yorkers

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    Solar panels rendering (image: Mayor's Office) 


    Eight years ago today, October 29, Hurricane Sandy struck the Eastern seaboard, causing severe flooding and power loss throughout New York City and the entire region. Sandy was very personal to me and my family as I know it was to many of you and yours. Friends nearby in Brooklyn lost their homes and businesses, and one even lost her life. I was honored when President Obama asked me to lead a federal task force to ensure we recovered and rebuilt stronger. The Sandy effort showed how strong and resilient

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  • A CLEAR Path Forward on Emergency Preparedness

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    Mayor de Blasio holds an emergency management briefing (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)


    I’m writing this from my living room. My three-month-old daughter is across the room, sleeping in her activity gym. My wife is watching television. This should be another normal day, but all of us, including you reading this, knows it's not. Our daughter has barely seen her grandparents since February. My wife hasn't seen the outside world in almost two months. Aside from a few stressful trips along empty streets to the grocery store, neither have I.

    Nothing about this

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  • James Oddo's Not Done Fighting the Bureaucracy, But He's Also Not Running for Mayor

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    SI BP James Oddo, right, with Mayor de Blasio (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    James Oddo, the outspoken Republican Staten Island Borough President, doesn’t want to talk about President Donald Trump or the contentious congressional race heating up in his borough, and says he won’t run for mayor of New York City or any other elected office ever again. But none of that’s to say that the zip is coming off Oddo’s trademark chin-music political fastball.

    “The bureaucracy is too big and and the reality is but for one time—during Rudy

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  • 7 Years After Sandy - Part III: Is the City's Emergency Responsiveness Ready for Whatever Comes Our Way?

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    (photo: NYC Gov)


    This is part three of a three-part series on '7 Years After Sandy.' Find part one here: Pieces In Place That Worked, Rebuilding Efforts That Failedand part two here: The City's Limited Resiliency Efforts Since the StormThis series is part of Gotham Gazette's work in participation with the 

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  • 7 Years After Sandy - Part II: The City’s Limited Resiliency Efforts Since

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    Rendering of Coney Island wetlands project (photo: mayor's office, Oct. 2013)


    This is part two of a three-part series on '7 Years After Sandy.' Find part one -- Pieces In Place That Worked, Rebuilding Efforts That Failed -- here. Find part three --

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  • 7 Years After Sandy - Part I: Pieces In Place That Worked, Rebuilding Efforts That Failed

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    Brooklyn Bridge Park (photo: mayor's office)


    This is part one of a three-part series on '7 Years After Sandy.' Part two -- on the city’s stalled and advancing resiliency measures -- can be found hereThis series is part of Gotham Gazette's work in participation with the Covering Climate Now project, which includes over 250 media outlets focusing on

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  • Getting New York City Ready for the Next Big Storm - & the Next Heat Wave, Flash Floods & Other Climate Emergencies

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     (photo: William Alatriste New York City Council)


    Billy Joel’s dystopian vision for New York City, laid out in the very upbeat but equally terrifying “Miami 2017,” is coming true. The lights have indeed gone out on Broadway. Perhaps the only difference is that Queens won’t stay. 

    This is New York City in 2019: a near 100-degree heat wave shut down power for hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers, who then trudged through flooded streets once the high temperatures gave way to torrential

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  • Suggestions for Better Disaster Relief from Former HUD Leader

    NYC Ferries

    NYC Ferries (Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    As the city approaches the five-year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy, which ravaged the eastern seaboard and wrecked homes and businesses in New York’s coastal communities, a new report says there is more work to be done to prepare for the next storm.

    Former HUD regional administrator for New York and New Jersey Holly Leicht, who oversaw the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s $15.2 billion Superstorm Sandy recovery program, presented ...

  • Bill Mandates Board of Elections Emergency Plan

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    City Council Member Mark Treyger, left (photo: William Alatriste) 


    New York City is no stranger to calamity, be it natural or man-made, and many city agencies have emergency response plans for varying levels of crisis. On Wednesday, City Council Member Mark Treyger will introduce a bill to ensure that the Board of Elections, which administers voting in the city, joins these agencies in formulating its own disaster-preparedness procedures for conducting the polls.

    "We have to make sure that democracy perseveres through a crisis," Treyger told

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  • Time for NYCHA to Stop Wasting Our Money

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    photo via NYCHA


    In following the news over the past years, it has become readily apparent that the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) must either be severely underfunded or grossly mismanaged. Unfortunately it's the latter.

    There is no shortage of issues that have come up that demonstrate the ineptitude of NYCHA leadership. From failing to protect residents in advance of Hurricane Sandy to toxic molds to turning on the heat only if it gets to 25 degrees, NYCHA is failing its residents. To say that NYCHA is mismanaged and

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  • To Fix Penn Station, Think Smaller

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    Cuomo with a new Penn Station plan (photo: Kevin P. Coughlin, Governor's Office)


    Governor Cuomo deserves credit for jumpstarting the Moynihan Station project this week, albeit under a different moniker. After decades of neglect, commuters and long-distance travelers deserve light, air, and dignity.

    But Cuomo's plan neglects the deeper problems that have long plagued Penn

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  • The Week Ahead in New York Politics, October 26

    New York City Hall

    New York City Hall


    What to watch for this week in New York politics:

    This week will be dominated by the World Series, we know that. The New York Mets begin their quest for the title against the Royals in Kansas City on Tuesday night, followed by another game in KC on Wednesday and then games in Queens on Friday, Saturday, and, if necessary, Sunday. If the series continues, games six and seven would be the following Tuesday and Wednesday (Nov. 3 and 4) back in Kansas City. On Sunday,

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  • The Week Ahead in New York Politics, October 19

    New York City Hall

    New York City Hall


    What to watch for this week in New York politics:

    Mayor Bill de Blasio was in Israel over the weekend, where he spoke at the Annual Conference of Mayors, met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, visited recent terror attack victims, and made several other stops, including at the Western Wall and at a school educating a diverse student population. De Blasio spoke against a new wave of anti-Semitism and ...

  • Hurting Homeowners Say Bank Settlement Funds Belong with Them

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    A home rebuilt after Sandy (photo: @NYCBuilditBack)


    More than two years on and David Velez's battle with Hurricane Sandy is far from over. But, thanks to some help from the Attorney General's office, Velez's fight with his mortgage lender may soon be coming to an end.

    The first floor of the retired NYPD officer's home in Gerritsen Beach, Brooklyn was destroyed by flooding during the hurricane, and without help from insurance he and his wife used their savings to rebuild.

    Unfortunately, after the

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  • Coastal Communities Risk Being Swept Away by Rising Insurance Costs

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    Homes in the Rockaways (photo: Samar Khurshid)


    New Yorkers were exposed to the harsh realities of climate change when Superstorm Sandy hit more than two years ago. Those living in coastal neighborhoods like Coney Island and the Rockaways are struggling to deal with the mounting impacts of climate change. But now it's not just the storms they fear, it's the rising cost of flood insurance that threatens to drown them.

    Come next year, revised flood zone maps issued by the Federal Emergency Management

    ...


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