4
BROOKLYN WEEKLY, MAY 19, 2019
SPEED IT UP: Comptroller Stringer held a press conference on May 9 criticising the city’s slow spending on storm resiliency.
Offi ce of the New York City Comptroller
2019 * plus tax and season pass.
BY AIDAN GRAHAM
He wants the city to open the fl ood
gates.
New York’s top money man
blasted city leaders for failing to
spend enough on storm-proofi ng
fl ood-prone neighborhoods.
A new report released by Comptroller
Scott Stringer details the
sluggish pace that city offi cials
have taken in allocating funds to
protect low-lying communities
from future storms. Stringer called
the need for swift, extensive action
“a moral obligation” at a May 9
press conference announcing the
report.
“Lives are at stake, and the horizon
is not 20 or 30 years,” said
Stringer. “Any politician who talks
about 20-, 30-, or 50-year plans isn’t
matching the urgency of the moment.
Time is running out.”
Most egregiously, Stringer said
the city has failed to appropriate
almost half of the federal funds
earmarked for protecting shoreline
communities over the last six
years.
“After Superstorm Sandy, New
York City received $14.7 billion to
spend on recovery and future resiliency,”
he said. “Six years later,
New York City has only spent 54
percent of that money.”
The $14.7 billion was allotted to
the city after Superstorm Sandy,
during which 35,000 people lost
power in the borough and seven
Brooklynites died, according to a
city study.
Stringer warned storms like the
one that rocked the northeast in
2012 would become more frequent.
“Scientists now estimate that
Sandy-like fl ooding could be a onein
fi ve-year event by mid century,”
he said.
Large portions of the fl oodproofi
ng money, which was detailed
by the Federal Government
for specifi c uses, has thus far gone
unspent, according to Stringer.
“We’ve managed to spend only
20 percent of the FEMA dollars
earmarked to repair our local hospitals,”
he said. “We’ve only spent
14 percent of $417 million allocated
for coastal resilience projects.”
Leaders have also been slow to
spend funds meant for the city’s
housing authority, which Stringer
called “unbelievable.”
“Of the $3 billion allotted for
NYCHA, only 41 percent has been
spent, leaving public housing residents
dangerously exposed,” he
said.
Stringer attributed the slow
pace of spending to the challenges
of federal “red tape,” and the nature
of government construction
projects, but called on city offi cials
to fundamentally rethink the processes.
“We are in this line of work to
do what is hard, especially when
it is right,” he said. “Which means
that our current approach, across
the board, is too slow. We have begun
to accept that projects cannot
or will not move.”
Spending money faster would
be an “economic imperative,” according
to Stringer’s report, as
every dollar spent on fl ood mitigation
would save $6 in future disaster
costs , largely due to the fact that
$101 billion in property value is located
in the most fl ood-vulnerable
areas in the city.
Offi cials needed to accelerate
the pace of investment, demanded
Stringer, who characterized the
city’s coastline vulnerability in no
uncertain terms.
“This is an emergency,” he said.
“We’re here today to sound the
alarm.”
‘Lives are at stake’
Comptroller blasts city for
its slow safety spending