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 | Nov 23, 2019 | Activism, Business, Disaster, Disaster policy, Emergency Management, Government, History, Politics, Public health, Public policy, Public safety, Technology, Urban Planning
That headline is a quote from Mayor Tommy Muska of the town of West, Texas, in the Dallas Morning News of November 21, regarding the Trump administration’s rescission of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards for disaster prevention in chemical facilities,...
by admin | Sep 22, 2019 | Activism, Civil rights, Crime, Immigration, National security, Politics, Public policy, Public safety, Racism, Terrorism, Volunteerism
National Park Service photo We have become so accustomed to a certain Homeland Security phrase since the events of September 11, 2001, that we have never seriously contemplated its larger meaning. “If you see something, say something,” for most people simply means...
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 | Apr 9, 2019 | Activism, Books, Chicago, Climate, Drought, Environment, Floodplain management, Infrastructure, Natural Hazards, Public policy, Resilience, Science, Water
I grew up near the shores of Lake Erie, in suburban Cleveland. After a seven-year stint in Iowa and Nebraska, I ended up in Chicago, where I have lived since 1985. The Great Lakes have been part of my ecological and geographic consciousness for essentially 90 percent...
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...
