Resilience and justice: planning for New York City

New York City has developed recent policy initiatives under the rubric of resilience. I consider the implications of extending the concept of resilience beyond the physical environment, analyze the effect of planning for adaptation rather than prevention, and finally examine the positive role played by community groups organized for environmental justice in responding to resiliency planning. My argument is that use of the term resilience tends to obscure distributional impacts and, even under a progressive mayor, supports neoliberal policy initiatives.