BIOGRAPHY
Jim Schwab is a senior research associate with the American Planning Association in Chicago. His career reflects his double penchant. At the University of Iowa, he obtained master's degrees in both Urban and Regional Planning and Journalism (1985). Earlier, he earned a B.A. in Political Science at Cleveland State University (1973). He has combined these skills in his writing, using the analytical skills of the planner and the narrative skills of the journalist to probe major social, economic, and environmental issues facing American society.
His most recent work is Landslide Hazards and Planning (Planning Advisory Service Report No. 533/534), released in September 2005, for which he was project manager and one of three project editors. With Stuart Meck, he also co-authored Planning for Wildfires (Planning Advisory Service Report No. 529/530), issued by APA in March 2005.
These reports and his other work related to natural hazards build upon a foundation created in Planning for Post-Disaster Recovery and Reconstruction (PAS Report No. 483/484), published in April 1999. That guidance document has become virtually a bible for local planners on the preparation of local plans for implementing recovery after natural disasters. He was the principal author, with contributions of case studies from four other authors, and a model ordinance prepared by one of them, Kenneth C. Topping, the former planning director of Los Angeles. Co-published by the American Planning Association and the Federal emergency Management Agency, Planning for Post-Disaster Recovery and Reconstruction is, in the words of one of its prepublication reviewers, "likely to be the definitive work in this field for at least the next ten years." At the same time, APA also published his monograph, Planning and Zoning for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations(PAS Report 482). He is currently beginning work on a new project for APA, funded by the U.S. Forest Service, to produce a new PAS Report on urban and community forestry.
Jim's two books to date are Raising Less Corn and More Hell: Midwestern Farmers Speak Out (University of Illinois Press, 1988) and Deeper Shades of Green: The Rise of Blue-Collar and Minority Environmentalism in America (Sierra Club Books, 1994). The first was essentially an oral history of the farm protest of the 1980s that challenged widespread farm bankruptcies and liquidations. The second examined the growing movement within African-American, Hispanic, Native American, and other minority communities, as well as white blue-collar neighborhoods, to fight industrial pollution and protect public health.
Jim has written dozens of articles for national journals and magazines like The Nation, The Progressive, Country Journal, and Historic Preservation. From 1992-1996, he edited APA's environmental planning newsletter, Environment & Development. Since 1990, he has also edited APA's Zoning News, a monthly newsletter on zoning issues. From 1985-1990, he was the assistant editor of APA's monthly magazine, Planning.
Jim is a past President of the Society of Midland Authors (1997-99), and has served in many other capacities, including treasurer, membership secretary, and vice-president. He is currently a member of the board of directors. He is also a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists, Investigative Reporters and Editors, the American Institute of Certified Planners (a subsidiary of APA), and the Society of Professional Journalists.
Seeking to spread his literary wings, Jim in 1997 participated in the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference as a fiction contributor in a section led by novelist Thomas Mallon. While he has not yet had time to complete his great American novel, he is working on it, as well as trying to complete a nonfiction memoir about adoptive parenting, the object of his work during a four-week residency in 2003 at the Ragdale Foundation in Lake Forest, Illinois. He and his wife, Jean, have adopted two girls, Jessica and Anna, and have served as foster parents for two others, Linda and Patricia.