Feb

4

What kind of growth increases resilience?

Filed Under Development, Land Use, planning, Policy, Zoning 

What’s the difference between growth for growth’s sake and growth that increases resilience? Gensler’s Lewis Knight suggests this concept is a key issue in proposing long-term solutions to future threats that make Hurricane Sandy seem mild in comparison.

It is clear our settlement patterns globally must confront a more dynamic energy regime in our biosphere — there is more energy in the atmosphere that needs to be dissipated by climate shifts. Even in the first few weeks of this year, Australia has dealt with record heat, China has record pollution above 800ppm (which is 32 times the maximum recommended levels for public health), and California is dealing with a record warm January that is permanently altering snow pack…

Seattle Transit Blog starts there, and goes beyond sustainability to talk more about what we get when we encourage investment inside the city:

Furthermore, there are huge non-environmental benefits. The associated transportation choices are good for public health. Although individual projects may result in short-term displacement, provision of affordable housing in the long-term aggregate requires increasing supply. More residents place the city in a better fiscal position and new businesses create jobs…

The Congress for the New Urbanism talks about one of those transportation choices under construction now; the Seattle Streetcar.

Historically, urban morphology patterns are linked to streetcar or cable car lines.With stops at short intervals, the streetcar created walkable, continuous corridors. Early residential and commercial establishments were within a 5 – 10 minute walk from a stop…

CNU’s observations about the city we used to be inspire visions of the city we are on the path to becoming. Building a more vibrant city can make us an attractive home for those in search of resilience, give us better options for public investments that make us healthier, knit communities together, and increase opportunities for all.

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Nathan Daum

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Nate was born and raised at the intersection of Seattle’s Central District and Capitol Hill neighborhoods. He earned his BA in History from Western Washington University but it was a summer in New York City that sparked a passion for urban planning, livability, development and transportation issues. He volunteered with the Downtown Renaissance Network in Bellingham and Futurewise (back when it was still 1000 Friends of Washington) in Seattle. He has worked for Downtown Seattle’s Metropolitan Improvement District (MID), the Seattle Monorail Project and since 2004, as a consultant for housing and health care non-profits, mortgage and commercial real estate companies, hospitality and aviation brands as well as government and consumer technology businesses. He is a former member of the Uptown Alliance where he briefly served as the Co-Chair of the Transportation Committee (in reality, more of an understudy to D. John Coney). An employee of Great City Nate is also a former board member and one of the organizations earliest volunteers. He has also served on the executive committee of the Leschi Community Council. He is a cycle commuter, occasional bus rider and resident of Eastlake.


Comments

One Response to “What kind of growth increases resilience?”

  1. Bill Bradburd on February 12th, 2013 12:20 am

    perhaps this could help with getting there
    http://www.amazon.com/The-Resilience-Imperative-Cooperative-Steady-state/dp/0865717079/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1360657211&sr=8-1&keywords=resilience+imperative

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