Bed-Stuy and Crown Heights were hit hard by yesterday’s violent flash flooding. Videos showed neighbors swept down our streets by floodwater. People stood on benches at bus stops because the water was too high to step into.

The climate crisis does not pause for an election. It does not disappear because the federal government and the robber barons of the world pretend it doesn’t exist. We experience flooding far too often, and this will remain our status quo. In just one hour, our pipes failed, and our streets became rivers.

I’m glad Mayor Mamdani and his administration have committed $108 million to replace catch basins citywide and $95 million for the Cloudburst stormwater project in Homecrest. Bed-Stuy and Crown Heights deserve to be next in line.

Residents are told to clean storm drains on their blocks before a storm, and many of them do. But not every working parent, every elderly neighbor, every person clocked into a shift across town has the privilege of dropping everything to prepare for a flash flood that arrives without warning.

We are ready to partner with the Mayor and DEP Commissioner Garcia to bring the Cloudburst program to District 36 and to prioritize Bed-Stuy and Crown Heights in the next phase of catch basin replacements.

Infrastructure work is hard, but the hardest work is exactly what our constituents deserve.

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