by admin | Mar 20, 2020 | Aging, Business, Chicago, Coronavirus, Disaster, Emergency Management, Healthcare, Medical, Parks, Public health, Public policy, Public safety, Restaurants, Sports, Urban Planning
If the doctor’s office had not called, I would not even have been here writing. I would perhaps have been on the CTA Blue Line on the way to my appointment, or more likely walking from the train station to his office. But they called less than an hour before the...
by admin | Mar 8, 2020 | Environment, Geography, Nature, Parks, Travel, Uncategorized, Wildlife
Last week, I was in Kearney, Nebraska, for three days, attending and speaking at the Nebraska Planning and Zoning Association annual conference. But that is merely an excuse for being in the right place at the right time, for once in my life, to see one of nature’s...
by admin | Dec 2, 2019 | Climate, Disaster, Disaster policy, Economics, Environment, Floodplain management, Natural Hazards, Parks, Politics, Public policy, Public safety, Resilience, Water, Wildfire
Warning to readers: This is not my usual single-focus essay. It is a collage of news from two coastal states with an assortment of serious natural hazards challenges—Florida and California. In recent years, their politics has tended to diverge widely, but perhaps we...
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 | Mar 26, 2019 | Art, Environment, Geography, Parks, Recreation, Uncategorized, Water, Weather
Two weeks ago, I spun a narrative about hazard mitigation in Hillsborough County, Florida, based on both prior knowledge and a personal tour conducted by long-time colleague Eugene Henry. Today, a full month or more after that visit, I add notes about touring the...
by admin | Mar 13, 2019 | Careers, Disaster, Emergency Management, Floodplain management, Government, Natural Hazards, Parks, Public safety, Resilience, Restaurants, Urban Planning, Water
Hillsborough County is a dense metropolitan area, anchored by the city of Tampa. Tampa and nearby St. Petersburg, in Pinellas County, sit on opposite shores of Tampa Bay, a 400-square-mile expanse of water connected to the Gulf of Mexico. Across that gap sits the...
