Metropolitics

A Construction Boom in an Urban Floodplain: Long Island City, Queens, NYC

Christopher Ryan — 2020-02-11T06:00:00Z

New York City has encouraged development in Long Island City, Queens, even as the neighborhood has not recovered from damage due to Superstorm Sandy in 2012, and remains vulnerable to future flooding.
A high risk for flooding
With four of its five boroughs located on islands off the coast of the continental United States, New York City is particularly vulnerable to coastal impacts of climate change. The New York City Panel on Climate Change (2019) outlines multiple climate-change risks,

- From the Field / New York, Queens, resilience, vulnerability, flooding, natural risks, disaster, ecological disaster, catastrophe, environment, sea-level rise, climate change, transport, public transportation, Long Island City

Rio de Janeiro: Storms, Militia, and Urban Development

Leandro Benmergui & Rafael Soares Gonçalves & translated by Oliver Waine — 2019-11-08T06:00:00Z

The dramatic consequences of storms at the beginning of 2019 in a favela in Rio de Janeiro reveal the ongoing evolution of informal urbanization in the city. The development of militias, as a result of security problems and the withdrawal of public authorities in these neighborhoods, also affects building construction. Leandro Benmergui and Rafael Soares Gonçalves highlight the dangers of these developments.
At the beginning of 2019, in Rio de Janeiro, two violent storms caused a significant

- From the Field / Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, favela, militias, informal housing, vulnerable housing, informality, precarity, catastrophe, disaster, Latin America, safety

Planning for the Unimaginable: Puerto Rico and Strategies for Climate-Change Adaptation

Cecelia Walsh-Russo — 2018-05-01T05:00:00Z

The damage from the two hurricanes that struck Puerto Rico was multiplied by US austerity plans that deprived the island of resources to implement its carefully crafted climate plans. Public debt and calls for privatization are further hampering Puerto Rico's recovery. Repairing damaged housing, utilities, and creating greater resilience requires major investment and community-based adaptation initiatives.
---- Series: Climate Change and Social Change During late September 2017, the island of

- From the Field / catastrophe, disaster, environment, inequalities, United States, hurricane, climate change, climate action plans, austerity, environmental justice, climate justice, storm recovery, social change, Puerto Rico, weather

Storm Recovery: Local Efforts, Municipal Constraints, and New Ways Forward

Michael P. McCabe — 2017-11-28T06:00:00Z

Climate change-induced storm surges and rising sea levels will steadily cause more damage to homes in low-lying urban and metropolitan regions, in turn creating profound new challenges for local governments. In this paper, Michael McCabe reflects on the lessons to be learned from a housing recovery program aimed at assisting owners in one- to four-family residential buildings in New York City.
Rising waters and more frequent and ferocious storms propelled by climate change make it imperative

- Debates / catastrophe, housing, disaster, recovery, New York, resilience, hurricane, climate change, sea-level rise, Community Development Block Grants, Department of Housing and Urban Development, storm recovery, Federal Emergency Management Agency, capacity building, program design and implementation

After Fukushima: The Silence of Environmental Organizations on Nuclear Catastrophe

Michael Dreiling & Nicholas Lougee & Tomoyasu Nakamura — 2015-09-22T05:00:00Z

The nuclear catastrophe at the Fukushima plants in Japan in 2011 raised global awareness of the massive dangers inherent in nuclear energy and led to the shutdown of almost all reactors in the country. Today, Japan is reopening reactors despite public opinion against it. In this article, the authors show that the silence of most environmental organizations reveals their widespread co‑optation by a political and industrial establishment that has, since the Kyoto Protocol, promoted nuclear energy

- Essays / catastrophe, disaster, environment, energy, nuclear, Japan, global warming, mobilization

Constructing Crises

Marla Nelson — 2015-02-23T05:50:00Z

A new book by Kevin Fox Gotham and Miriam Greenberg foregrounds the disturbing parallels between two seemingly distinct crises: Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast and the 9/11 attacks in New York City. Marla Nelson reviews their arguments and asserts that activists can draw on the authors' insights—particularly their exposure of the importance of “crisis framing”—to advance visions of more just and inclusive urban redevelopment.
In the nearly 10 years since Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf

- Reviews / catastrophe, New Orleans, Katrina, disaster, recovery, United States, New York, crisis, resilience, Community Development Block Grants, private-activity bonds, community development

Looking Backward into the Future of New York

Ted Steinberg — 2015-01-12T05:50:00Z

Can the lesson of Hurricane Sandy dampen the enthusiasm of New York City's growth machine? Ted Steinberg, author of Gotham Unbound, an environmental history of New York City, gives an overview of the historical developments that make the city one of the most vulnerable to floods in the United States.
How should those who rule over New York City plan for its future? Sketching out elaborate plans has long been a cottage industry in the nation's largest city. To date, however, historical

- Essays / catastrophe, disaster, environment, United States, urban ecology, land, water, New York, history, sustainable urban planning, Sandy, sea-level rise, flooding, vulnerability, wildlife

New York's Two Sandys

Daniel Aldana Cohen & Max Liboiron — 2014-10-30T06:00:00Z

According to New Yorkers, two different Hurricane Sandys hit their city in 2012. The first was a one-time indiscriminate exceptional catastrophe. The second was an extraordinary acceleration of inequalities affecting the poorest New Yorkers. Daniel A. Cohen and Max Liboiron promote the second perspective as a systemic approach susceptible of helping New York City face the challenges of environmental distress both locally and globally.
On October 29, 2012, Hurricane Sandy flooded New York

- From the Field / catastrophe, disaster, environment, New York, resilience, hurricane, Sandy

Fighting for Retreat after Sandy: The Ocean Breeze Buyout Tent on Staten Island

Liz Koslov — 2014-04-23T04:50:00Z

On October 29, 2012, Staten Island, a borough of New York City, was on the front line when Hurricane Sandy ravaged the coast. Today, residents of the East Shore, directly exposed to the ocean, show how inhabitants can mobilize to transform vulnerable parts of coastal cities into a natural protection for the rest.
It's a warm and sunny morning in early October 2013, almost a year after Hurricane Sandy struck the east coast of the United States. As I walk down Seaview Avenue, navigating

- From the Field / catastrophe, public space, disaster, United States, New York, resilience, hurricane, Sandy

Haiti after the earthquake: camps, shanty towns and housing shortages

Gerry L'Étang & translated by Oliver Waine — 2012-05-02T09:14:17Z

In Haiti, in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake, public squares became the sites of makeshift camps to provide shelter to victims made homeless by the disaster. Since then, their status has changed to become places of hope of justice in the face of the inequalities of a nationwide housing shortage. As in other contexts, occupying public spaces appears to be a means of fighting for the right to housing.
On 12 January 2010 at 4.53 p.m., Haiti suffered the most devastating natural disaster in

- From the Field / camps, catastrophe, refugees, public space, housing, disaster, risk, shanty town, displaced population, Haiti, natural risks