Climate change continues to become a huge issue in the United States, particularly in coastal cities. New York City has already seen evidence of this through Hurricane Sandy and “the winter nor’easters that have always posed a more common threat than hurricanes to New York City” (Murphy), as all the readings point out. Thus, it has become of utmost importance that New York City and other coastal cities assess their preparedness and relief plans for such instances. Following disasters, with a spotlight on Hurricane Sandy, a lot of action has been going on in New York City; the problem, however, is that the main focus of this action has not necessarily been on the people in need following the disasters, but on more economic and real estate related ventures.
In Disaster Inside the Disaster: Hurricane Sandy and Post-crisis Redevelopment, author Miriam Greenberg calls attention to lack-luster recovery efforts following major disaster by referencing events in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and New York City following Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Greenberg emphasizes that, while recovery efforts were not ideal, some areas received greater relief than others, linking this observation to socioeconomic status. She claims that “At each stage, low-income, disproportionately non-white communities, workers, and small businesses, the primary victims of disaster, were further disadvantaged in receiving aid, while wealthy, disproportionately white neighborhoods and high-end industries were privileged” (46). This is troublesome because it seems as though the people who need the aid the most are brushed aside, while those who could afford to invest more in their restoration efforts are rewarded for having more in the bank. This is not to say that the wealthy do not deserve any sort of financial help following natural disasters, but this disproportionate allocation of relief funds more deeply wedges a gap between the wealthy and poor.
But why are higher income neighborhoods being granted more funds for repair than lower income neighborhoods? It seems like the answer to this lies, once again, in the focus on real estate. Wealthy neighborhoods are being rebuilt at a much faster rate than poorer neighborhoods because it will help the economic status of the area. Contrastingly, lower income neighborhoods, like New Dorp (listed as one of the lower income affected areas after Hurricane Sandy in the Associated Press- NORC Center for Public Affairs Research Sandy relief report) in Staten Island, as mentioned in Criticism Continues of New York City’s Management of Sandy Recovery by Mara Gay and Josh Dawsey. This Wall Street Journal article comments that victims of the devastation of Hurricane Sandy are still waiting to see any sort of relief funds three and a half years after the disaster. It is appalling that a blind eye is being turned to people who need help the most, despite the fact that “the fate of $51 bullion in post-Sandy recovery aid is undecided” (Greenberg 46).
It seems silly for a city to focus on trying to develop new projects following disasters, rather than help its citizens clean up. With that being said, I was surprised that I was not already aware of Mayor Bloomberg’s attempts to build a super Ferris wheel on Staten Island, rather than discuss the city’s repairs before reading Green is the New Brown: “Old School Toxics” and Environmental Gentrification on a New York City Waterfront. The topics brought up in this article were quite perplexing; how could a city try to masquerade a bunch of real estate developments as protection for the city? It seemed completely ridiculous, especially being that another disaster like Hurricane Sandy would result in a whole new set of damages to these new constructions that would need to be repaired. The whole situation seems a bit analogous to the water contamination crisis in Flint, Michigan. I just feel that the city should focus more on better protecting itself and its citizens and providing any aid possible to the citizens, rather than focusing on economic gain.
The entire disaster relief system is very confusing to me, and these readings really made me question whether or not the city’s government has the peoples’ best interests front and center.
Outside Sources:
Associated Press- NORC Center for Public Affairs Research Sandy relief report: http://www.apnorc.org/pdfs/sandy/sandy%20phase%202%20report_final.pdf
Criticism Continues of New York City’s Management of Sandy Recovery
http://www.wsj.com/articles/criticism-continues-of-new-york-citys-management-of-sandy-recovery-1436464778
And these are some interesting articles on the Flint Water Crisis, in case anyone was interested:
https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline3/latest/embed/index.html?source=1XqND4uQnHT7o2u0URWuYQOeaUnsACVQnvxz8UlXvBGs&font=Georgia-Helvetica&lang=en&initial_zoom=2&height=650
http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/full/10.2105/AJPH.2015.303003
