NEW YORK CITY — Call it a smoky tale of two cities.
In one city, Mayor Eric Adams last month mounted a “whole-of-government” response to unprecedented smoke from Canadian wildfires that turned New York City’s sky orange and sent city dwellers gasping indoors.
Meanwhile, the other city saw Adams watch stuff happen rather than get stuff done, leaving city dwellers “unprepared” and gasping in the world’s worst air.
So, which city did New Yorkers find themselves last month? A City Council oversight nearing next week seeks to find the answer.
“The question we want to answer is were we prepared, and if not — and I think we were not — then what do we have to do to be prepared for the next one,” Council Member Gale Brewer told the New York Daily News, which first reported on the hearing.
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New Yorkers could be excused if they were caught by surprise June 7 when the sky turned a downright Martian hue.
But many officials, such as Council Member Lincoln Restler, have argued they shouldn’t have been. Restler, in a long Twitter thread that day, blasted Adams for effectively taking no consequential action.
“We are 36 hours into an air quality emergency & other than a late night suspension of outdoor DOE activities, our city government has not taken a single proactive step to protect New Yorkers,” Restler wrote, before calling for an oversight hearing.
Adams has defended his administration’s response, as have City Hall officials who argued public messaging about deteriorating air quality began days ahead of time.
“The city mounted a whole-of-government response to keep New Yorkers informed and protected during last month’s smoke event,” a spokesperson said in a statement to Patch. “While forecasting air quality is difficult to do and forecasts are available only 24 hours in advance, public messaging around potentially bad air quality began a week before the worst of the smoke.”
The Council’s hearing is scheduled for July 12 at 10 a.m.
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