NEW YORK—On Oct. 29, exactly two years after Superstorm Sandy tore into New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio sent out a personal note touting the “incredible progress” his administration has made on rebuilding homes destroyed by the storm.
“When I took office, I found a stalled recovery program that, more than a year after the storm, had yet to begin construction on a single home,” he stated, referring to the city’s Build it Back program, which is funded with $1 billion from the federal government.
Ten months later, the city has started construction on 762 houses and over 1,000 homeowners have received reimbursement checks for repairs they did on their own.
And that’s not all. Two weeks ago the mayor announced a “Build it Back local hiring initiative” to give “Sandy-impacted New Yorkers priority for recovery and rebuilding jobs,” but where are the jobs?
Affected residents said they feel disconnected from all the fanfare. They are focused on results that can be seen on the ground, but there hasn’t been much to see.
“Build it Back did absolutely nothing,” said Rosanne Shevlin, standing in front of her house in Broad Channel, a scenic strip of land connecting Rockaway with the rest of Queens. Her house was inundated by 5 feet of storm surge water.
