ABSTRACT
In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy the Bloomberg administration named its plan for protecting New York City, A Stronger, more resilient New York. The plan largely avoided equity issues. Although it did recommend ways for adapting the city’s shoreline and infrastructure to the likelihood of further destructive events, it also used the catch-all term of resilience to justify the construction of a megaproject. In March 2014, Mayor Bill de Blasio, Bloomberg’s successor, announced the establishment of the Office of Recovery and Resiliency and revised the plan in accordance with a more general document entitled One New York: the plan for a strong and just city. De Blasio had based his campaign for election on a demand for greater equity and once elected attempted to insert considerations of equity into the city’s development programmes. At the same time, he relies on the growth machine for implementing his aims. This chapter examines the changing meaning of resilience within the context of America’s largest and most economically important city. It reveals how its planning supports the growth machine thesis and also shows the extent to which an explicit concern with justice affects planning for resilience.
