Tuesdays at APA: "Wetrofitting" Urban Neighborhoods

August 26, 2014


Until recently, climate change has correlated to polar bears and
melting ice caps — heart rending, but safely distant. Yet
climate-related extreme weather, combined with urban development,
is starting to show its force, as realized by the severe droughts
in California and the misery caused to millions of home owners
and businesses as a result of urban flooding. With these impacts
comes the potential for public mobilization and a renewed focus
on the way we plan our towns and cities. But can we channel
individual concerns over wet basements and leaky pipes into a
broader public participation and advocacy movement?


This July, the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) launched
Rain Ready (rainready.org), aimed at building an alliance of
individuals and communities working together to find solutions to
the problems of too much or too little water. Rain Ready is
inspired by the growing number of resident actions groups in the
Chicago region mobilizing as a result of the impacts of flooding
in their area. It seeks to offer a response to their question:
"What should we do?" In 2013, CNT launched Wetrofit — the
nation's first service for property owners affected by urban
flooding, and in 2014, CNT designed and promoted the Urban
Flooding Awareness Act, which was passed unanimously by the
Illinois General Assembly and requires the State of Illinois to
carry out a study on the solutions to urban flooding.


In this program, Harriet Festing of CNT presented an overview of
her organization's water-related work and discussed opportunities
and challenges for planners as they engage their communities
around the topic of urban water management.