Dear New Yorkers, 

Ten years ago today Superstorm Sandy slammed into our shores. Taking the lives of 43 New Yorkers and causing over $19 billion in damages, Sandy changed New York City’s landscape forever. As government agencies scrambled to respond, formal and informal community organizations mobilized quickly to provide critical services to those in need.

A decade later, community organizations remain essential to the strength of our city and our people, and have been building the social cohesion necessary to prepare for, respond to, and recover from worsening climate impacts, including extreme heat, rising seas, and more intense coastal storms and flooding. 

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For the 10-year anniversary of Superstorm Sandy, my office partnered with Urban Ocean Lab on an assessment of community-led climate resilience initiatives that developed in the wake of the storm. We spoke with leaders of community organizations across New York City, as well as other community resilience practitioners, to document the evolution of their work—from response and recovery to resilience–to identify best practices and successful models and put forward actionable recommendations for the City to better support and scale their efforts.  

The Red Hook Initiative, where we held a press conference on Thursday, is a great example of how community organizations can create resilient communities. After Sandy the Red Hook Initiative provided power, Wi-Fi, food, and other resources to one of the hardest hit parts of New York City. Community organizations were leaders in response and recovery after Superstorm Sandy, and in the decade since, have stepped up and evolved to meet the moment and the needs of the neighborhoods they serve.

New York City’s ability to withstand the impacts of climate change will rely on our social infrastructure as much as on our physical infrastructure. Ten years after the superstorm, we still have a lot of work to do to shore up both. 

My office reported earlier this month on the slow pace of recovery and resiliency spending. The City of New York yes yet to spend 27% of the nearly $15 billion of federal grants for recovery projects. Many coastal resiliency projects remain years from completion, and New York City is at risk of losing a quarter of a trillion dollars in real estate to coastal flooding by midcentury, as well as significant swaths of our public housing, transportation, recreation, and industrial spaces.

Without significant improvements to infrastructure design and delivery, New York City will fail to get ready in time for the next storm. We must accelerate the pace and complete the lifesaving infrastructure that communities from the Rockaways to Southern Brooklyn to Staten Island urgently need–and use new federal infrastructure and climate funds to protect vulnerable communities from the even wider range of climate risks that we’ve seen grow in the decade since Sandy.

Superstorm Sandy was a wake-up call for the devastating risks that climate change poses to our city—and the climate crisis is moving far faster than we are at getting ready for the next storm.

In resilience, 

Brad