Good thing “climate proofing” won’t make the already much more expensive liberal cities even more costly, eh? Of course, there needs to be some Trump Blamestorming, because he’s apparently at fault for not just future Democratic Party run cities being expensive, but the past as well
It Doesn’t Matter if Cities Are Climate Change–Proof if No One Can Afford to Live in Them
This hurricane season, people struggling to keep a roof over their heads are again dreading having their communities shaken by another political perfect storm. That’s because from Puerto Rico to Texas to Florida and beyond, Trumpism is poised to hit public housing hard.
The Poverty Race Research and Action Council (PRRAC), a civil rights coalition focused on urban policy, has chronicled the Trump administration’s steady degradation of environmental protections over the past year, starting with the dismantling of the basic core of Obama-era EPA regulations. More recently, President Trump’s announced, just weeks ahead of Hurricane Harvey, that his administration planned to upend Obama’s flood risk mitigation standards for federal infrastructure projects. Now, whatever rebuilding does take place in the wake of disasters like Harvey will likely rebuild communities unevenly, leaving poor neighborhoods and communities of color more exposed to climate catastrophe than ever before.
See? Trump
Public housing in flood-prone areas can’t afford to wait for the next catastrophe. After Superstorm Sandy struck New York and exposed stark inequalities between richer and poorer neighborhoods, the city got serious about disaster preparedness by foregrounding environmental justice in its climate adaptation planning. Housing authorities laid out a plan to build for equitable resilience: for example, housing authorities can ensure that when the next storm hits, seniors and people with disabilities living in public housing projects are prioritized in evacuation plans. Working-class neighborhoods should be guaranteed safe access to back-up public transit, so they’re not isolated when subway and bus lines are flooded. To prevent the next Sandy from pushing the city onto the same backward slide that post-Katrina New Orleans has undergone, housing authorities in cities like New York should institute a democratic planning and risk communication system, so that reconstruction projects do not become taxpayer-subsidized vehicles for gentrification.
Whoa! Some serious Progressive talking points going on. One has to wonder why Dem cities have so much trouble, and so much inequality. And the solution. Get this. More Government control! Shocking, is it not?
