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New York Times: Housing Agency's Flaws Revealed by Storm
The article compiles an overwhelming list of failures that, it seems to me, were not so much a result of a lack of funding as of slothful managment, corruption, and incompetence. They screwed up big time and then tried to cover their rears, holding heart warming press conferences detailing their deeds, just flat out lying to the people of New York.
All bureaucracies exist mainly to provide employment to the middle class. All else is purely secondary, and is often poorly done or neglected entirely. The agency said that they would take care of these people, 77,000 people, and then they didn't.
The city, which did not enforce its mandatory evacuation order, could not assess the medical needs of residents stuck atop darkened, freezing towers until nearly two weeks after the storm. It relied on ragtag bands of volunteers who quickly found themselves overwhelmed by the task of reaching, comforting and caring for trapped residents. And the seemingly simplest things, like towing portable lighting towers into the Red Hook public housing complex, took 11 days, all because the housing authority had not properly prepared for a major disaster.
The article compiles an overwhelming list of failures that, it seems to me, were not so much a result of a lack of funding as of slothful managment, corruption, and incompetence. They screwed up big time and then tried to cover their rears, holding heart warming press conferences detailing their deeds, just flat out lying to the people of New York.
All bureaucracies exist mainly to provide employment to the middle class. All else is purely secondary, and is often poorly done or neglected entirely. The agency said that they would take care of these people, 77,000 people, and then they didn't.