by admin | Jul 7, 2024 | Business, Chicago, Climate, Cooking, Economics, Energy Conservation, Environment, Government, Public health, Public policy, Technology
Just a month ago, I encountered a problem my wife had previously experienced in April while I had been out of town. At that time, puzzled by why our gas oven seemed not to work, she had to wait until I returned from a conference in Minneapolis and teaching a FEMA...
by admin | May 25, 2023 | Activism, Aging, Blogging, Disaster, Floodplain management, Journalism, Medical, Natural Hazards, Personal health, Personal history, Public health, Resilience, Urban forest, Urban Planning
I was lying half awake in bed at 4 a.m., unable to return completely to sleep after using the bathroom. My mind kept rolling over various competing obligations and necessities, and the thought hit me: “You must catch up while slowing down.” Frankly, that made about as...
by admin | Dec 19, 2022 | Activism, Chicago, Crime, Government, Politics, Public health, Public policy, Public safety
On Friday, December 16, our grandson Angel was attending a biology lab class at Malcolm X College, one of the City Colleges of Chicago, where he is currently aiming to lay the foundation for a health care career. In his first quarter in college, he has not yet...
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 | Jan 1, 2022 | Coronavirus, Education, Healthcare, Medical, Personal health, Public health, Urban Planning
I am proud to announce that I started the New Year on a negative note. Having had a very mild fever Thursday evening and a very mild nagging cough, I thought the better part of wisdom these days was a COVID test, even though I would have bet serious money that it was...
by admin | Mar 10, 2021 | Activism, Books, Careers, Climate, Environment, Housing, Infrastructure, Nature, Public health, Renewable Energy, Resilience, Technology, Transportation, Urban Planning, Volunteerism, Water
About six weeks ago, as the Biden administration was first asserting its priorities regarding climate change and the environment, I reviewed a book about the positive actions already being taken by cities around the world in addressing the climate crisis. The...