NYC Mayor Commits Millions to Combat Flooding

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Friday said he is expanding the Bureau of Coastal Resilience to protect the city from flooding during storm surges and coastal weather events. 

The mayor said he is committing $43 million to add staff to the bureau, which centralizes the planning, operation and maintenance of the city’s network of coastal flood-protection infrastructure. For years, the bureau has relied on a team of six staff and borrowed crew members from across the city Department of of Environmental Protection. The city will now focus on hiring nearly 70 positions, from engineers to city planners to field inspectors. 

“As climate change accelerates, so too must our efforts to protect our communities from flooding and extreme weather,” Mamdani said in a statement. “This investment ensures the bureau can keep pace with the billions of dollars in flood prevention and mitigation infrastructure being built and mobilized in the next few years."

So far, the administration has invested $108 million to upgrade and replace thousands of catch basins to improve the city’s street drainage network and $95 million to protect the flood-prone neighborhood of Homecrest from cloudbursts.

“Expanding the Bureau of Coastal Resilience strengthens our ability to safeguard our shoreline, prepare for climate impacts and protect the communities, businesses and critical facilities that power our city," said DEP Commissioner Lisa F. Garcia.