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A bipartisan group of Council members who’ve pushed the measure for 2 years have lengthy expressed frustration that the administrations of Mr. de Blasio and his predecessor, Michael R. Bloomberg, haven’t moved extra shortly to guard New Yorkers who reside in much less rich, working-class neighborhoods.
Metropolis officers and lawmakers have taken plenty of steps to deliver post-Sandy plans to fruition, like pension-fund divestments from fossil-fuel firms, measures to curb town’s emissions of planet-warming gases and efforts to shore up elements of Decrease Manhattan, Staten Island and Queens from storm surges.
However by 2019, town had spent simply 54 p.c of the $15 billion the federal authorities allotted after Sandy struck in 2012 to guard in opposition to climate-related risks, and day-to-day climate-related insurance policies had been nonetheless within the arms of an alphabet soup of metropolis, state and federal companies.
That yr Costa Constantinides, Mr. Brannan’s predecessor on the helm of the Council’s resiliency committee, and different metropolis lawmakers launched the primary model of the invoice.
It didn’t instantly win assist from the mayor or Council leaders, however Ida, and the deaths of 15 New York Metropolis residents, most of whom died as basements flooded, modified the calculus, proponents of the measure say. Since Ida, Mr. de Blasio has launched an up to date local weather resiliency plan that commits $2.7 billion in new funding and stresses the urgency of addressing issues like basement flooding. However along with his time period ending, a lot of the work will fall to his successor.
Eric Adams, the Democratic candidate and certain subsequent mayor, additionally launched a brand new local weather plan — much more detailed than any he had introduced throughout the major marketing campaign — after the Ida floods.
The Council measure has been expanded from earlier variations to cowl a wider vary of local weather results: not simply waterfront flooding however excessive rainfall, warmth, and wind and even wildfires. It requires the mayor to ship the primary plan by Sept. 30, 2022.
“It’s lastly dawning on folks, the scope of what local weather change means for this city particularly,” Mr. Bautista stated.
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