By Stephen Witt
When Mayor Bill de Blasio and his wife led a bevy of political big wigs to Coney Island on the second anniversary of Superstorm Sandy yesterday to rebuild retired U.S. Postal worker Marguire Batts’ home, City Councilman Mark Treyger was already there hammer in hand to greet them.
“You’re serving your community hands on,” de Blasio told him as Treyger handed the mayor and his wife paintbrushes.
Treyger, who is chair of the City Council’s Committee on Recovery and Resiliency that oversees the City’s rebuilding and preparedness initiatives, has been a major player in de Blasio’s successful overhauling of “Build it Back”, the city’s housing recovery program.
Since floundering under former Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s watch to administrate the $235.4 million in federal dollars for the Sandy recovery, the de Blasio administration has overseen nearly 800 homes being rebuilt and another 1,100 receiving reimbursement checks for work they completed themselves.
And Treger, who partnered with Habitat for Humanity New York City to coordinate the event in which Borough President Eric Adams, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, State Senator Diane Savino, Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, Assembly member Alec Brook-Krasny, Deputy Council Leader Brad Lander, and Housing Recovery Office Director Amy Peterson also helped to rebuild Batts’ home, is showing real leadership for all the constituents in his district.
This includes fighting just as hard that residents living in public housing receive their fair share of recovery money for improvements to their buildings as well.
A former history and global studies teacher at working-class New Utrecht High School, Treyger additionally shows a toughness that while generally supporting de Blasio, he is no shrinking violet when he is opposing him on some issues. For instance during the budget negotiations, he strongly endorsed the city hiring more police when even though de Blasio said they weren’t needed.
But it is in Treyger’s role as the go-to guy in the Superstorm Sandy recovery effort that has electeds taking notice and constituents realizing they have an accessible representative on the street and a competent lawmaker in City Hall.
“Councilmember Treyger has consistently championed the cause of residents impacted by Superstorm Sandy,” said Jeffries. “His leadership in bringing the community together to repair the Batts home is greatly appreciated, and I look forward to working together to make sure that all of the residents of Coney Island knocked down by the storm get back on their feet.”
