Wavy gravy, baby. (Wikimedia Commons)

We already know Mayor Bloomberg favors waterfront development, come hell or high water—literally—and so, too, does his former development czar Dan Doctoroff, now head of Bloomberg LP.

It was Mr. Doctoroff, in his capacity as deputy mayor for economic development, who thought up many of the schemes that have led to new apartment towers on the waterfront in Williamsburg and Hunters Point. Thousands of units have been built, tens of thousands have been planned. Mr. Doctoroff still believes that is a good idea, so long as appropriate measures are taken.

"I am obviously a believer in waterfront development," Mr. Doctoroff said, "but development that is buttressed by strong building codes and is done in conjunction with a smart adaptability strategy. That was a major reason why we made adaptation to climate change a pillar of PlaNYC."

Not that there is any kind of causation here, but in spite of PlaNYC, the city still got clobbered yesterday. There is only so much New York City, big and important as we like to think we are, can do about something like global warming, which is, you know, global.

Furthermore, for all the mayor has done, he made it clear there are some things he is not willing to undertake to protect the city, telling us, “We cannot build a big barrier reef off the shore to stop the waves from coming in, we can’t build big bulkheads that cut people off from the water that they’re trying to do."

We asked Mr. Doctoroff that even if the buildings were secured, wouldn't there be additional issues pertaining to evacuations, that encouraging people to live in flood zones is always a risk? "As for people who refuse to leave when warned, they are just fools," he responded.