[elmo2you]

I don't know anything about this particular situation, so please consider the following purely speculative in regards to this case.

I have lived for a long time in a country where insane bureaucracy and corruption are the norm. Probably up there with some of the worst on this planet. I've also seen quite a bit of what happens behind the scenes, from relationships with what someone might call the more privileged section of society. One thing I can say with a high degree of certainty from those experiences (no, I won't talk details): there usually are strong connections between the interests of powerful corporations/entities and insane bureaucracy and corruption, whenever the latter two exist. Even if they might not be directly the source or reasons for the existence of the latter, powerful corporations certainly know how to use their influence to maintain a dysfunctional status quo and use it to their advantage wherever they see an opportunity for it.

While NYC bureaucracy no doubt exists for other reasons, it does not rule out there be something else going on here as well. Not a chance in hell anyone but a whistle-blower could ever prove that though. But that's exactly why it's so tempting for powerful entities to nurture and support corrupt/dysfunctional systems (as for them they work just fine, if not better).

I can not speak for NYC (or anywhere inside the USA for that matter), but I have seen powerful entities work officials so that the function of governments would not improve.

Of course, every American is free to believe no such things ever would take place in the USA .. however, that would certainly make the country exceptional (for a change), compared to how things works pretty much everywhere else on the planet.