New resiliency investments for small businesses, jobs in Sandy-impacted neighborhoods

December 19, 2014 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Bill de Blasio announced that Sandy-impacted areas will get a boost through businesses and jobs. AP Photo/Seth Wenig

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Mayor Bill de Blasio on Friday announced new targeted resiliency and infrastructure investments that will support businesses and jobs in neighborhoods impacted by Superstorm Sandy. The investments include Business PREP (Preparedness and Resiliency Program), a new program to help small businesses better prepare for emergencies and enhance the resiliency of their operations, assets and physical space.

The new programs — which will focus on Coney Island, Hunts Point, the Rockaways and Staten Island — are part of the city’s proposed Action Plan Amendment (APA) to the $4.21 billion in federal disaster aid it has been allocated by the Department of Housing and Urban Development through the Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery program. The Action Plan Amendment was released Friday ahead of a community engagement process that will take place over the coming weeks throughout Sandy-impacted communities. More information is available at www.nyc.gov/CDBG.

“We’ve focused on reshaping ineffective programs to deliver real results for communities who need them, and that’s exactly what we’re continuing to do through today’s Action Plan Amendment,” de Blasio said Friday.

The APA reallocates funds from the inactive Neighborhood Game Changer program and the Business Resiliency Investment Program to more effective business-related programs and targeted key resiliency investments that will protect small businesses and commercial corridors and benefit entire neighborhoods, as well as to the Build it Back program to ensure all homeowners will be served.

The business and coastal resiliency programs include $15 million to enhance ongoing green infrastructure work along commercial corridors in Coney Island, including the installation of right-of-way bioswales. The new infrastructure, generally between West 8th and West 37th streets — between Coney Island Creek and the beach — will improve stormwater retention, filter and maintain water quality in local waterways, and enhance business and retail areas through beautification.

The project will protect more than 830 local businesses and 9,000 jobs, complementing the city’s ongoing programs to make Coney Island more economically resilient and increasingly attractive to businesses and consumers.

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams said he is “particularly pleased to see the attention to resiliency in efforts such as the $15 million investment in green infrastructure that will help address long-standing flooding issues in Coney Island, as well as the extension of temporary housing assistance for low-income renters that still need a helping hand.”

“This is great news for the people of my district still rebuilding in the communities of Gerritsen Beach, Sheepshead Bay and Manhattan Beach,” Sen. Marty Golden said.

-Information from the Office of the Mayor