by admin | Sep 2, 2019 | Chicago, Environment, Floodplain management, Infrastructure, Parks, Uncategorized, Urban Planning
It is possible to live in a city as large as Chicago and be blissfully unaware of some wonderful things. Chicago, after all, includes 2.7 million people spread over 227 square miles. My wife and I have lived here since 1986, but we do not spend much of our time...
by admin | Apr 9, 2019 | Activism, Books, Chicago, Climate, Drought, Environment, Floodplain management, Infrastructure, Natural Hazards, Public policy, Resilience, Science, Water
I grew up near the shores of Lake Erie, in suburban Cleveland. After a seven-year stint in Iowa and Nebraska, I ended up in Chicago, where I have lived since 1985. The Great Lakes have been part of my ecological and geographic consciousness for essentially 90 percent...
by admin | Mar 3, 2019 | Books, Careers, Disaster, Emergency Management, Government, History, Infrastructure, Natural Hazards, New Orleans, Personal history, Public policy, Public safety, Resilience, Transportation, Uncategorized, Urban Planning
GRATITUDE ON PARADE#gratitudeonparade The size of the American Planning Association’s loss when Stuart Meck departed can be measured easily by the size of Rutgers University’s gain when he joined their staff, a fact immortalized by the Rutgers decision to...
by admin | Dec 3, 2018 | Disaster, Disaster policy, Earthquake, Government, History, Infrastructure, Natural Hazards, Public safety, Resilience, Transportation
Ask Anchorage after last Friday’s 7.0 earthquake. Admittedly, this is not the biggest earthquake the area could have suffered. The famous 1964 earthquake registered at 9.2, triggered a tsunami, and killed an estimated 130 people. Still, by and large, things seemed to...
by admin | Sep 6, 2018 | Books, Disaster, Floodplain management, Government, Homeless, Housing, Infrastructure, Natural Hazards, Transportation, Urban Planning, Water, Weather, Wildfire
We learn from disasters as we recover from them, but each disaster teaches slightly different things. Sometimes the lessons are significant and historic; in others, one community is learning what others already know or should have learned from their own past events....
by admin | Aug 20, 2018 | Disaster, Disaster policy, Economics, Floodplain management, Government, Infrastructure, Natural Hazards, Resilience, Wildfire
I should have written this blog post six months ago, but better late than never. Last December, the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS), Multihazard Mitigation Council, issued Natural Hazard Mitigation Saves: 2017 Interim Report, a welcome update of its...
