by admin | Oct 29, 2019 | Activism, Books, Chicago, Christianity, Civil rights, Crime, History, Identity, Immigration, Personal history, Public safety, Racism, Religion, Terrorism, Volunteerism
Last week was for me an eventful time, including a four-hour trip to Dubuque, Iowa, on Thursday for the Growing Sustainable Communities conference, an event the city sponsors every year. I spoke in a session that afternoon, October 24, on community planning for...
by admin | May 13, 2019 | Activism, Books, Chicago, Civil rights, Education, History, Housing, Politics, Public policy, Racism, Social Science
In 2013, the board of education of the Chicago Public Schools succeeded in closing 50 neighborhood schools, an action fully supported by Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Of these, 90 percent had a majority of African American students, who comprised 80 percent of students in the...
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 | Jan 23, 2019 | Books, Crime, Government, History, Journalism, Public safety, Uncategorized, Writing
Cover photo provided by Random House It is hard to know where to start in describing why the privatization of prisons is a terrible idea. The effective abandonment of public responsibility for the fate and welfare of people sentenced to incarceration after being...
by admin | Jan 12, 2019 | Activism, Careers, Disaster, Disaster policy, Education, Government, Gratitude, History, Natural Hazards, Personal history, Uncategorized, Urban Planning, Volunteerism
GRATITUDE ON PARADE #gratitudeonparade Today’s late-night entry has no photo because I have none from so long ago, certainly not digitized, anyway–or easily found. That makes Lynn Saunders’s contribution to my career no less seminal or memorable. An...
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...
