by admin | Jun 21, 2023 | Activism, Blogging, Books, Careers, Climate, Coastal Management, Disaster, Disaster policy, Floodplain management, Florida, Hazard Mitigation, Journalism, Movies, Natural Hazards, Personal history, Philanthropy, Public policy, Public safety, Resilience, Travel, Urban Planning, Weather, Wildfire, Writing
One reason I have long loved being an urban planner is that, ultimately, planning is about imagining a better future. Or should be, anyway. Although I was in my early thirties before I returned to school for a pair of graduate degrees in Urban and Regional Planning...
by admin | Nov 27, 2022 | Aging, Blogging, Coronavirus, Hazard Mitigation, Healthcare, Medical, Personal health, Personal history, Public health, Resilience
Now I know what it feels like, or may have felt like. Kind of. Sort of. I will never experience, in all likelihood, the very worst the COVID-19 virus can inflict on human beings. I was lucky in many ways. First, the virus just never found me as a target until early...
by admin | Oct 8, 2021 | Books, Chicago, Climate, Disaster, Geography, Hazard Mitigation, History, Journalism, Natural Hazards, Public safety, Resilience, Science, Weather, Wildfire
Back on August 11, during a family vacation that involved circumnavigating the shores of Lake Michigan, my wife and I and two grandsons visited the small town of Peshtigo, Wisconsin, and spent an afternoon at the Peshtigo Fire Museum. It is housed in a former church...
by admin | Jul 6, 2021 | Disaster, Floodplain management, Government, Hazard Mitigation, Housing, Infrastructure, Natural Hazards, Public safety, Resilience, Urban Planning
The recent collapse of the Champlain Towers in Surfside, Florida, has cast a spotlight on numerous issues concerning building maintenance, private and public decision-making processes, potential (but highly uncertain) corrosive impacts of sea level rise, and even the...
by admin | Jun 2, 2021 | Careers, Coastal Management, Disaster, Disaster policy, Earthquake, Emergency Management, Environment, Government, Hazard Mitigation, Information technology, Natural Hazards, Nature, Parks, Personal history, Resilience, Urban Planning
I first met Ken Topping at the American Planning Association (APA) office in Chicago on a cold day in January 1994. Chicago was suffering one of its classic Arctic blasts at something like -20°F. Ken, a tall, very polite, and articulate gentleman, had his heavy winter...
by admin | May 12, 2021 | Activism, Disaster, Disaster policy, Hazard Mitigation, Natural Hazards, Public safety, Wildfire
It is evident with each increasingly serious and increasingly long wildfire season in the West and South that American still has serious public policy work to do in confronting this hazard. Recently, the National Fire Protection Association unveiled its new policy...
