ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I hone in on the long-term recovery process and describe how Rockaway residents were both empowered and disempowered in working with the Occupy Sandy activists. Some of the residents felt empowered by participating in the Occupy Sandy hub. They learned new skills and increased their knowledge on political issues that were of importance to their lives, and they became more experienced in organizing meetings, exercises, demonstrations, and events. Others were less enthusiastic, some even outright angry. They pointed at how the activists, in their attempts to break patterns of inequality ended up essentializing identities and noted that the activists failed to acknowledge the situated marginalization of being a storm survivor. Some expressed harsh critique to what they saw as non-transparent agendas hidden behind a rhetoric of local ownership, especially with regards to the organizational setting and the finances of the organization. The residents also articulated that some of the activists acted in paternalistic and belittling ways toward the residents and noted that critical residents were subtly silenced.
