by admin | Dec 4, 2016 | Disaster policy, Geography, Government, Natural Hazards, Public policy, Public safety, Science, Urban Planning
Nearly nine years ago, when I was invited to accept a three-week visiting fellowship in New Zealand with the Centre for Advanced Engineering in New Zealand (CAENZ) at the University of Canterbury, people began to ask me why the New Zealanders were so interested in me...
by admin | Sep 8, 2016 | Climate, Disaster policy, Floodplain management, Floodplain management, Government, Public policy, Public safety, Science, Technology, Urban Planning, Water
The American Planning Association has just posted today this article I wrote for its APA blog: https://www.planning.org/blog/blogpost/9111027/. Jim...
by admin | Jul 9, 2016 | Activism, Adoption, Civil rights, Crime, Immigration, Personal history, Public safety, Racism
Our nation is suffering from a terrible social disease. It is not a sexually transmitted disease, though it can be spread orally, through the things we say to each other and over the Internet and the air waves. Since everything seems to need a name, I will call it BJ...
by admin | May 30, 2016 | Climate, Disaster, Disaster policy, Environment, Government, Infrastructure, Public policy, Public safety, Urban forest, Urban Planning, Water, Wildfire
The subtitle to this headline for many people might be: Who Cares? As a term of art, green infrastructure may be popular with landscape architects, civil engineers, and urban planners, among a few other allied professions, but it does not often mean much to the...
by admin | May 22, 2016 | Chicago, Crime, Personal history, Public policy, Public safety
One of the more disquieting aspects of urban life is an occasional confrontation with the irrational. I have debated telling this story, but I decided that enough other people either have had or will share such experiences that sharing it may have great value. One...
by admin | Apr 22, 2016 | Disaster, Disaster policy, Government, Public safety, Resilience
In the U.S. federal system, states play a major role in what U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once called “the laboratories of democracy.” One role for state government that has unfortunately received far less attention than most others is...
