Farrell responds on Rosedale flooding, DEP town halls, and Strengthening Communities
Farrell says the nor'easter was mostly coastal but acknowledges Rosedale's summer flooding and says she will bring DEP town hall requests back to that agency. She says Strengthening Communities is funded for several years through Hurricane Ida disaster recovery money, with start-up, maintenance, and activation payments to networks like FRANK.
So all very good questions.
So for this weekend, you know, looking at the nor'easter, it was mostly coastal, but then we know what happened this summer.
And I know you were sending and your chief of staff was sending me the videos and the pictures of what was happening in Rosedale.
DEP, I won't speak for them, but they have been doing the town halls, the flooding town halls.
And so if there hasn't been...
been one in Rosedale in that area, we can bring that back to them.
I was at one in Hollis last week where they gave out about 150.
But we went nice in there too.
We come.
We go when they go.
I was there last week, and we're doing one in Forest Hills in a couple weeks with Councilwoman Shulman, and so I will bring that back.
I will also say since emergency management is reporting to the deputy mayor for operations now and many of the agencies you mentioned, such as DEP, parks, fire, transportation, we all report in there.
You know, they have been.
Looking at a lot of this infrastructure, that's the deputy mayor's background, is large infrastructure projects.
You know, what can be pushed forward?
What can we do in the interim?
All of that.
And so, you know, definitely something we can follow up on.
And then your last question.
So for right now, Strengthening Communities is funded through the next several years.
It's funded through disaster recovery money that the city received after Hurricane Ida.
So it is stable for the next few years.
We are working with City Hall and OMB for how that program will be funded when that disaster funding is concluded.
And so we fund, the model is that we fund when networks join, we give them, you know, several thousand dollars to build their plan, to train their staff, to bring in their partners.
And then there is maintenance funding to keep that up.
And then the model is that we will activate them and pay them for that activation when they do the outreach.
We did that several times during the winter weather in January and February.
And I will give all the networks a shout out that they actually were out putting up flyers through those extremely cold
temperatures in subway stations, in bodegas, liquor stores, laundromats, houses of worship, anywhere where people might have gone that needed assistance, needed a warm place.
They did the same thing in the reverse over July 4th weekend because when it was so hot, getting people into cooling centers and other safe locations.
And then this weekend, we looked specifically at coastal areas, and we are able to activate them and then pay them for their effort.