A year after Hurricane Sandy ravaged parts of the city, Mayor Michael Bloomberg is certain his administration did just about everything right during the recovery.
“Somebody will write a book about this,” he declared today during his weekly radio sit-down with WOR’s John Gambling.
In particular, Mr. Bloomberg touted Deputy Mayor for Operations Cas Holloway’s work after the storm.
“Nobody’s ever responded this way to a disaster than the group of people Cas put together” he said. “These people are world class people, they’ve actually fixed things … We haven’t just had press releases, we’ve actually done an enormous amount … We did exactly what we we promised and the public has a right to know where their dollars are going and be assured that their money is being well spent.”
The city’s Sandy response has been praised in some circles for its efficiency and foresight, but many–especially in the outer boroughs–decried Mr. Bloomberg in the months following the storm. Some residents in The Rockaways even booed the mayor during a visit for allegedly ignoring their plight.
“We’ve been dying down here, up to our ears in muck trying to rebuild, get back to a regular life,” a heckler told the New York Post at the time.
But Mr. Bloomberg insisted that the city “is back” after Sandy–despite the fact that some people remain displaced.
“Compared to other areas, that’s a minimal number,” he said of those still without homes. “For those people, it’s tragic. When you had tens of thousands, getting it down to a thousand is great. I don’t think other places have been as lucky or haven’t had the results we’ve had.”