by admin | Aug 9, 2015 | Activism, Books, Civil rights, Education, Literature, Personal history, Political philosophy, Resilience, Writing
Just in case anyone out there is unduly impressed with my intelligence, I have a revelation: I flunked calculus in my first quarter of my freshman year in college. I was attending Cleveland State University on Kiwanis scholarship money, no less. Not that I really...
by admin | Jul 28, 2015 | Blogging, Climate, Disaster, Disaster policy, Economics, Education, Geography, Resilience, Urban Planning
Interdisciplinary disaster studies are still relatively new, compared to long-standing fields like geology or even psychology. I spent last week (July 19-23) in Broomfield, Colorado, first at the Natural Hazards Workshop, sponsored by the University of Colorado’s...
by admin | Jul 12, 2015 | Chicago, Climate, Education, Environment, Public policy, Public safety, Resilience, Science, Urban Planning, Water
I grew up in suburban Cleveland. After a seven-year hiatus in Iowa and briefly in Nebraska, my wife’s home state, we ended up in Chicago. I am unquestionably a Midwesterner with most of my life lived near the Great Lakes. It will therefore not be surprising that for...
by admin | Jul 8, 2015 | Books, Chicago, Economic development, Education, Government, Political philosophy
A very curious op-ed article appeared Monday (July 6) in the Chicago Tribune. Tom Geoghegan, best known as a liberal lawyer who represents labor unions, made a plea for more taxes. Not just any taxes for any reason, but “Tax me, please, so Illinois can compete.” Let...
by admin | Jun 21, 2015 | Civil rights, Government, History, Public safety, Racism, Religion
Less than three weeks ago, on June 2, a Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) bus mysteriously crashed a red light on Lake St. during the evening rush hour, jumped the curb on the eastern side of Michigan Ave., and killed one pedestrian while injuring several others. The...
