I can’t really comment on repairs and rebuilding done post-Sandy because I wasn’t in New York for the event. But it doesn’t really surprise me that it was slow. Everyone was fairly impressed with how quickly the trains got running again, but even last year there were still Sandy route changes in effect as the MTA was still repairing tracks and tunnels. The NYCHA has about a fifth of the employees that the MTA has, and, as the HuffPo journalist reported, is working with incredibly outdated models for boilers and generators. The NYCHA employees seemed just as harried as the residents, and I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. After all, it’s never a simple fix and employees were stretched incredibly thin.

I had mixed feelings on the Times article. It was heartening to know that people stepped into the breach when the organisations were slow to respond. But at the same time, it read like a love letter to the Occupy movement. I don’t know if it was by design of the movement or the author, but the politics of charity written into the piece unnerved me.

Question: Why do you think response to Sandy was slow in some areas and faster in others?