THE FUTURE OF NYC IS (NOT) NOW; FROM THE SKYLINE OF FINANCE TO THE SHORELINE OF DEMOCRATIC RESILIENCE

On October 22nd, an elongated area of low pressure emerged in the Western Caribbean begetting storms and churning the seas. By Oct 24 what started as a tropical wave had morphed into a hurricane, crossing Jamaica, battering Haiti, then the Bahamas. 2 days after that Sandy was sucking up the warm waters of the Gulf Stream sending fear up the spines of coastal residents who had been gearing up for Halloween and/or the presidential election. And on oct 29th, this “freak” megastorm made that infamous hard left turn and came ashore in NJ and NY bringing with it record setting storms surges. All in all 286 people were killed in 7 countries.

Superstorm Sandy forever changed the way that NYC thinks about climate change and itself. Well, not exactly. And that’s the confusing part. No retreat = No future? NYC has no future. That’s really the only way to read SIRR report. The future is just an extension of the present, THIS present shaped by the needs of capital intensive growth: finance, tourism, hi tech. The consequences of this model: increasing economic inequality and vulnerability to rising sea levels.

It’s not that the Bloomberg administration denies climate change (their position on economic inequality will be addressed in a subsequent post). Indeed, back in 2007 they released PLAN NYC which created a blueprint for the city to reduce its carbon emissions--“mitigation” in the climate change parlance--and become more sustainable in ten areas: Housing and Neighborhoods; Parks and Public Spaces; Brownfields; Waterways; Water Supply; Transportation; Energy; Air Quality; Solid Waste; and Climate Change. transportation, energy use, water use, housing and public buildings. It’s pretty good. (Again, bracketing for the moment the extraneous issues of inequality, and well, democracy.)

The SIRR plan, however, is about adaptation. Because we didn’t reduce emissions quick enough, we have to adapt because the climate has already changed. When the climate has already changed so much that’s it’s smacking our infrastructure in ways that shock the core of our system, then we don’t just adapt, we gotta be “resilient.” We’ve got to bounce back and upgrade while doing it. So in 6 years we’ve gone from the feel good sustainability of Plan NYC to the urgent reconstruction of “A More Resilient NY” (what will the plan look like in 2018!?) One of the scariest aspects of the plan, the second most disturbing (we discussed the first last post), is that it doesn’t give up an inch of real estate. “We will not retreat from the waterfront.” The mayor has said this over and over. That property is just too valuable. (For whom?) Instead, we (who??) will show the world (again, who: New Orleans? Bangladesh) how to dwell on the coast. How to be resilient as the seas rise. SIRR doesn’t give up an inch. It’s incredible. Couldn’t we make a small donation somewhere in acknowledgement that sea levels are already rising? Some small slice of lower Manhattan, an island in Jamaica bay? Maybe a dune in Coney Island?

What about the ecological virtue of humility: giving way, making space and acknowledging the power and interests of nonhuman others? No. Instead we will build back even better. Build what? Luxury condo’s with Duane’s Reade’s on the bottom floor but 6 feet higher to accommodate the surf? Look at the details of the plan--there are lots of details. Indeed, Bloomberg is so committed to the reclaiming of the waterfront that union pension funds have been tapped to help Related and Co. build--what exactly we don’t know--in Zone A. (A deal brokered by John Liu BTW, see my post from March 19th, 2013) And for all those homeowners who want to stay in Zone A (I know it’s been renamed, more on that later) but can’t afford the new insurance premiums the city will use public funds to help them stay! (see the SIRR report.)

From the Skyline to the Shoreline 
For many NYC is and has been defined by its skyline. Can we imagine NYC without finance capital pouring into the waterfront? What would NYC politics look like with the real estate sector dominating it? Bloomberg says “No retreat” because the SIRR can’t break the spell of finance capital and real estate: SIRR literally can’t see the future so there is none, there’s only the present. And what is “present” is the configuration of forces that made the skyline. But the future of NYC is tied to a different line. It’s called the SHORE line. And it’s receding, that is, sinking into the past. As the tide changes, what politics will emerge? That’s what wednesday’s march is all about: articulating the topography of democratic resilience.

TURNING THE TIDE: NYC's PLAN FOR SANDY AND WE MARCH!

Protecting subway tunnels from future floods, installing backup power generators for senior centers so they can run air conditioners and medical equipment during a blackout, building new dunes to absorb bigger waves from higher seas.  These are just some of the proposals scattered across 400 plus pages of “A Stronger More Resilient New York.”  The attention to detail is tremendous, both in terms of the technologies involved and geographically.  There are separate sections on sectors such as insurance, utilities and transportation as well as on the different coastal areas of NYC: South Queens, South Brooklyn.  Geographically what is missing is the South Bronx.  True, it did not get hit like the Brooklyn and Queens Waterfronts and Staten Island and Lower Manhattan (all these locales get separate sections), but it houses what is arguably the most important piece of coastal infrastructure in all of NYC: Hunts Point Terminal Market.  That’s where most of our food enters the city.  If it is knocked out, there’s only about 2-3 days of food in the city at any given time.  

The other element that is missing is, well, people.  Yes, there is some great demographics in the report on race and income, and age and ethnicity.  But there isn’t much about communities, or community organizations, or resident associations, or religious operations.  The focus is city agencies and technical infrastrastructure: on sea walls and docks, sewage treatment plants and power lines, on the Departments of Transportation (DOT) and Housing Preservation and Development (HPD).   LOTS of acronyms.  The two most frequently cited agency acronym are the US Army Corp of Engineers (USACE) and the NYC Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC).  We shall have more to say about them in a couple days.  But the point for now, our first point, is that what is missing are the people in their myriad social forums and associative formations.  CITES?   As NYC Environmental Justice Alliance put it at their regional meeting shortly after Sandy’s devastation, “communities themselves were the first responders.”  (Check out their report here:

http://nyc-eja.org/)

This is a point both obvious and counter-intuitive.  The goal is for a “stronger more resilient New York.”  Yes.  But what is being protected and what is being made resilient?  It’s one thing to make a subway tunnel resilient, it’s another thing to the people who ride the trains resilient.  When Sandy hit, and in the chaos afterwards, in many neighborhoods it was community leaders, from organizations or resident associations, who were the first responders.  (for more on this , read the VillageVoice’s Nick Pinto’s excellent “Hurricane Sandy is New York’s Katrina”  http://www.villagevoice.com/2012-11-21/news/hurricane-sandy-is-new-york-s-katrina/

and the Alliance for Just Rebuilding’s report. )  The SIRR report doesnt really take this seriously.  And that is an undoubtedly deadly omission.  

The best way to make NYC resilient is to support the organizations who work directly with the peoples of NYC on the ground, in the neighborhoods.  They know the needs and capabilities of the people there, and they know the “there” because its theirs.  They know the literal landscapes.  

SIRR fails to fund the “infrastructure” that is most critical for people’s well being: the social infrastructure, the community organizations and associations, the networks of residents who knew who needed help, who knew what people were trapped, who needed medications, who hadn’t been feed or needed help getting out and so on.  In many situations they instructed official first responders and told the Red Cross and others were to go.   This was perhaps most evident in the Rockaways with Occupy Sandy and others, but also the case in Staten Island and the Lower East Side during its extended blackout.   

This theme is a big part of what Wednesday’s MARCH is about: “TURNING THE TIDE”: 10:45 am SI Ferry Terminal at Whitehall, Lower Manhattan.  We will march uptown to the NYC EDC and then City Hall.  more at

www.rebuildajustny.org

Bloomberg's Plan

On June 11th, NYC released its plan for reconstructing the city in response to climate change in general and Superstorm’s Sandy (and Irene too) in particular. (and let’s not forget that snowy Noreaster the weak after Sandy!) The plan is called the Special Initiative for Resilience asnd Reconstruction (SIRR). http://www.nyc.gov/html/sirr/html/home/home.shtml It will cost 19.5 billion (about 10 billion of that is allocated, 5 billion is around, needs another 4 billion). Over the next couple days I will be posting re: the following: 1) what does the plan cover? Why does it not include the most critical piece of NYC infrastructure in Zone A (hint: where most of our food comes in)? 2) what two agencies are the key players in the implementation? (hint: one is city, and not a public agency; the other is federal and just had its budget cut) 3) what sort of model of economic development does the plan utilize to (re)develop so many vulnerable NYC neighborhoods? (hint: you've seen it before and it failed.) 4) is there an existing model of economic development that can promote a sustainable resilient NYC metropolitan region in a way that is equitable, inclusive and genuinely democratic? (hint: you betcha!) MORE TO COME AND SEE YOU JULY 31st at South Ferry station 10:30am!