“As anyone in the construction industry can tell you, one of the biggest challenges of building in New York City is dealing with the bureaucracy, even in normal situations,” says New York Building Congress president Richard T. Anderson. “These issues only get magnified in the aftermath of an extreme weather event, which requires brand new government aid and recovery programs.”

Anderson points to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's “Build it Back” program as an example of a program that can be made more efficient if the political will for reform is there. “The goal right now is to create mechanisms for the more expeditious distribution of promised federal aid to the government agencies, businesses, and residents who need it—both to enable continued recovery from the previous storm and to better protect against future weather events,” Anderson says.

In April of this year, Mayor de Blasio committed to kick-start the Build it Back program, which was launched during the Bloomberg administration. On Oct. 20, the mayor reported that, to date, 6,400 owners had been accepted into the program. He also reported that work had begun on 727 homes and 878 homeowners had been reimbursed to date. At that press conference, the mayor issued his goal of starting construction on at least 1,000 homes and issuing reimbursement checks to 1,500 residents by the end of the year.