Economics - NY

submitted by Seth Golbey - January 21, 2014
Voluntary Agencies Group Supervisor
FEMA-4085-DR-NY

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submitted by Debbie Tiamfook

The Peninsula Library branch in Far Rockaway is one of the facilities that received funding in 2012 through the city's participatory budgeting process

nydailynews.com - by Ritchie Torres and Alexa Kasdan - December 8, 2013

Last month, New York City voters selected a new mayor and 21 new members of the City Council and, in January, a new City Council speaker will be selected, ushering in a progressive makeover to City Hall.

As part of this shift, 21 New York City Council members have committed to partake in Participatory Budgeting (PB) in 2014, allowing their constituents to directly decide how to spend millions of public dollars. This will more than double the size of the current PB process, which is now in its third year with nine council members allocating a collective $10 million.

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CLICK HERE - Participatory Budgeting in NYC

A man walks through flooded streets in Hoboken, New Jersey, after Superstorm Sandy | Emile Wamsteker/Bloomberg via Getty Images

As subsidized rates of federal flood insurance rise, property owners along the coasts get angry. But we need insurance that reflects the risks of a changing planet

time.com - by Bryan Walsh - October 1, 2013

Thousands of homeowners in flood-prone parts of the country are going to be in for a rude awakening.  On Oct. 1, new changes to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which offers government-subsidized policies for households and businesses threatened by floods, mean that businesses in flood zones and homes that have been severely or repeatedly flooded will start going up 25% a year until rates reach levels that would reflect the actual risk from flooding. (Higher rates for second or vacation homes went into effect at the start of 2013.) That means that property owners in flood-prone areas who might have once been paying around $500 a year—rates that were well below what the market would charge, given the threat from flooding—will go up by thousands of dollars over the next decade.