Metropolitics

Blueprints of Hope: How Architects Shape a Brighter Future

Nasser Golzari & Yara Sharif — 2024-10-15T05:00:00Z

In a conversation centered around the ongoing injustices in Palestine, particularly in Gaza, and the need for reconstruction and resistance to create conditions for change, Yara Sharif and Nasser Golzari emphasize the importance of local involvement and long-term sustainability in approaches to reconstruction in post-conflict zones, and highlight the role of alternative frameworks in empowering local communities to reshape their own conditions and create sustainable solutions in the face of

- Interviews / Palestine, reconstruction, regeneration, resilience, alternative, genocide, urbicide, ecocide, Gaza, West Bank

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

Local Leadership and Global Goals: How City Sustainability Networks are Changing Progressive Policymaking

Emma French & Supraja Sudharsan & Jennifer Clark — 2018-09-18T09:47:41Z

While national governments often struggle to address global climate change, cities are in a better position to innovate, especially through peer networks that publicly value sustainability. However, challenges remain, notably in translating intention into action and building internal capacity. Here, we show how mayors have influenced policymaking in four southeastern US cities.
---- Series: Progressive Mayors and Urban Social Movements The global nature of environmental crises has

- Essays / urban policy, New Orleans, environment, United States, energy, networks, resilience, progressive urban politics, climate change, climate action plans, Atlanta, urban sustainability, capacity building, policymaking, Houston, Orlando, mayors, progressive mayors

The Territorial and Environmental Impacts of Climate Change in Germany

Dennis Becker & Stefan Greiving & Viola Schulze Dieckhoff & Thorsten Wiechmann — 2018-04-25T05:10:00Z

In Germany, the territorial and environmental impacts of climate change intersect in key ways with the nation's varied demography. In this pair of papers, researchers at TU Dortmund University urge spatial planners to synchronize their approaches to climate and demographic shifts at the city and regional levels.
---- Series: Climate Change and Social Change
A nationwide analysis by Dennis Becker and Stefan Greiving shows that population is growing in regions that are experiencing warming,

- From the Field / urban planning, Germany, resilience, climate change, sustainable urban planning, population, demographics, demography, capacity building, social change, demographic change, spatial planning, adaptation, adaptive capacity

Overcoming Climate Impacts Through Adaptive Capacity Building: Two Extreme Cases from Germany

Viola Schulze Dieckhoff & Thorsten Wiechmann — 2018-04-25T05:05:00Z

Climate change and demographic change interact. Impacts of climate change do not solely result from climate variability. Diverse settlement structures and a dynamic population development lead to heterogeneous, small-scale sensitivities in the face of climate variability and extreme events.
---- Series: Climate Change and Social Change Who is sensitive to these changes, at what time, and in which locations become central questions of spatial planning, with a view to fostering sustainable

Climate and Demographic Change: The Need for an Integrative Approach to Spatial Planning in Germany

Dennis Becker & Stefan Greiving — 2018-04-25T05:00:00Z

Climate change and demographic change are two megatrends that are often discussed without regard for their complex interactions. A nationwide analysis in Germany shows that population is growing in regions that are experiencing warming, while populations are declining in regions that are becoming more arid and thus more subject to water shortages. In both types of regions, the population is aging. Demographic changes can have different impacts on climate change and vice versa.
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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

Building a Resilient and Equitable City: How to Advance Environmental Justice Through the OneNYC Plan

Eddie Bautista & Annel Hernandez & Juan Camilo Osorio & Pamela Soto — 2017-03-01T16:33:39Z

Many of the challenges that cities face today stem from historic and entrenched systemic policies and processes that result in the inequitable distribution of environmental burdens. Eddie Bautista, Juan Camilo Osorio, Pamela Soto and Annel Hernandez explain the logic behind the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance's policy and advocacy work to strengthen their local government's climate-change adaptation efforts in response to particular risks affecting low-income neighborhoods and

- Debates / New York, resilience, Community Development Block Grants, environmental justice, climate justice, New York City Environmental Justice Alliance, Hunts Point, South Bronx SMIA, Rebuild by Design

This is Not How it Ends: Post-Election Immigration Organizing in the United States

Folasade K. Famakinwa — 2016-12-07T06:00:00Z

In response to a tense post-election moment in the US, the Metropolitics editorial committee has initiated Rapid-Response Peer Review, with a commitment to quickly reviewing and publishing articles that examine organizing and activism around crucial urban issues. Our first call was for papers related to immigration policy. Below, Folasade Famakinwa reports on what US pro‑immigrant organizations and pro‑immigrant mayors are doing, urging them to deploy more prosocial programming to strengthen

- Essays / immigration, United States, elections, resilience, community development, sanctuary cities

The Dangers of Security

Médéric Martin-Mazé & translated by Oliver Waine — 2015-05-22T04:30:00Z

In Against Security, Harvey Molotch highlights – through various examples, including the New York subway, airports, and post‑Katrina New Orleans – the way in which security agencies are increasingly replacing common sense with bureaucratic systems that, despite good intentions, in fact have numerous pernicious effects. In his conclusion, he makes a number of proposals for a more human and altruistic form of security.
No one was able to prevent Andreas Lubitz from sending the Airbus A320 he

- Reviews / public space, public transportation, New Orleans, Katrina, New York, security, mass transit, metro, subway, resilience, attacks, airport, bureaucracy, Featured