Mayor’s Response to Wildfire Smoke Was Sluggish, New York Officials Say
As a carpet of acrid smoke darkened New York City’s skies and turned them orange last month, many New Yorkers looked to their city’s leaders for immediate guidance on how to stay safe, but were frustrated when they received none.
Mayor Eric Adams and other officials have reacted defensively to accusations that they were not proactive enough during a crisis that brought historically unhealthy air to the city. They have repeatedly said that New York had never faced anything like the smoke conditions, and that they did their best to respond to a threat they could never have anticipated.
Yet at a City Council hearing on Wednesday, the message from Council members and the city’s public advocate was clear: A city that has long been warning of the dangers of climate change did not move quickly enough to warn New Yorkers of the smoke or provide resources to mitigate its effects.
“This was the first of its kind,” said Gale Brewer, the chair of the Council’s Committee on Oversight and Investigations. “But it didn’t come out of nowhere.”
Source: The New York Times
