Grade Mayor Bloomberg’s Sandy Response!

Hurricane Sandy was an unstoppable storm, affecting so many residents throughout our city. Mayor Michael Bloomberg is a figure many looked to for leadership and guidance during this critical time.

The opinions of his efforts or shortcomings, depending on any given perspective, vary greatly. WNYC asked several New Yorkers how they would rate Bloomberg in the wake of Sandy.

Interestingly, of those interviewed in the piece, the three leaders representing the private sector graded the mayor fairly high, while the two public sector leaders gave Bloomberg an “F”.

Ed Jaworski, president of the Madison-Marine-Homecrest Civic Association, was one of the interviewees who gave Bloomberg a failing grade. He said:

Sandy’s impact reflects Mayor Bloomberg’s obsession with real estate-development: seeking taller buildings and more densely packed population than other cities worldwide. Three weeks before the hurricane, he announced that he’d seek a major up-zoning on Manhattan’s East Side. Did he address all the component infrastructure consequences, including safety? How about when he encouraged dense development on the Brooklyn and Queens waterfronts? Now, because we have a Department of City Planning that doesn’t plan — it rezones — the mayor had to appoint a director of housing recovery operations and community restoration directors.

We’d like to hear your take on Bloomberg’s efforts. On your standard grammar school scale of A to F, did he do well by our neighborhood before, during and after Hurricane Sandy?