Almost two weeks after Sandy struck, my wife and I got our heat and hot water back; electric power had returned a few days earlier. Our apartment in Lower Manhattan relies on the Con Edison steam system, not a boiler; the utility's slow repair process was the source of the lag between the restoration of power and the return of heat. In both cases, though, we had relied on a centralized technology, rather than a distributed one, which raises fundamental questions about how we conceptualize and deploy necessary infrastructure. As we rebuild, we must be alert to the susceptibility of massive systems to massive failure.
Sandy's misery–and risk–were unevenly distributed. Of course, the greatest damage occurred in the lowest-lying areas of the city, where homes were flooded and swept away. Up on the 16th floor of our apartment building, we were inconvenienced; but having to travel uptown to shower and use the Internet was hardly comparable to the real tragedies suffered by so many. And, because we live in a zone of privilege, the police were everywhere. The situation was very different in the city's public-housing projects–where more than 400 buildings were affected and where, two weeks after the storm, over 15,000 apartments remained without heat, hot water, or power.
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