New Jersey Public Radio’s Scott Gurian and WNYC’s Matthew Schuerman’s report that New Jersey has gotten less than half as much Sandy aid from the Department of Housing and Urban Development as New York State and New York City combined. Their report, “How Did New York Get So Much Sandy Money?” Plus, see detailed interactive charts and tables of expenditures here.
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NY-area TV Magazine Show Spotlights AdaptNY
Public TV news magazine MetroFocus interviewed AdaptNY founder Adam Glenn.
Public TV program MetroFocus this week turned its attentions to AdaptNY and founder/editor Adam Glenn, in a nine-minute package on the year-old project.
Rafael Pi Roman, Emmy-award-winning host of the WNET TV news magazine, interviewed Glenn at length about AdaptNY’s approach, which combines social media curation, primary source documentation and its own reporting, in order to create sustained coverage of and public conversation around the climate adaptation topic.
“I really started this experiment after the devastation of Sandy, when I was seeing a lot of coverage and attention to recovery, and also to how we would adapt to future extreme weather,” Glenn told Roman. “But my journalistic instincts told me that after some short time that that attention would wane. The effort was really to see if we could sustain the conversation and focus on this issue of climate adaptation and find better solutions by keeping the dialog going.”
The Metrofocus package on AdaptNY included a video report on an AdaptNY climate resilience workshop at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism school last February. The day-long workshop, run by Glenn with partners Online News Association and the Center for Community and Ethnic Media, helped local participants brainstorm ways to inspire local communities to embrace the necessity for climate adaptation.
The success of that workshop provided the inspiration for a similar half-day climate workshop that ONA recently announced will be run by Glenn as part of the organization’s annual conference in Chicago Sept. 25-27.
The Metrofocus program aired the AdaptNY segment June 11 on WLIW-21, and is scheduled to air it again today, June 12, at 8:30 p.m. ET on WNET at 10:30 p.m. ET on NJTV.
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An Experiment in Climate Conversation
It was a year ago today that former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg issued the city’s roadmap for how to adapt to the future risks of climate change – a massive post-Sandy report called A Stronger, More Resilient New York.
It was also that day that we launched AdaptNY, a unique experiment to improve media coverage of and participatory decision-making in the climate adaptation process. Our aims:
- To track relevant reporting and information through our social “front page” and Twitter.
- To document and report the story, including with a major investigative report in partnership with Gotham Gazette and ongoing collection of primary-source materials.
- To encourage virtual and face-to-face conversation, including with a grant-funded resilience design workshop
Ultimately, AdaptNY’s work is to ensure New York’s stakeholders have a real and informed voice in this massive urban planning initiative (more here, here and here)
One way we started this process a year ago was by working to analyze that 438-page Bloomberg resiliency report. With the aid of sister publication City Atlas, last summer we rolled out a series of summaries that we hoped would make it possible to quickly take in its most important findings and recommendations.
But we didn’t stop there. We wanted to keep putting the city’s planning under close scrutiny so it could be better understood and improved upon. To do that, we asked your help and made it easy for you to weigh in with your views. With partner DocumentCloud, we developed an innovative way for you to make your own notes directly on the Bloomberg report. Here’s more about how our public annotation system works.
It’s easy to share your thoughts – just go to the resilience plan, log in using one of your usual social networks and let everyone know what you think!
We continue to develop new ways for you to take part in the conversation, and to let the current de Blasio administration hear your voice about this all-important issue. In the near future, for instance, we hope to introduce a new and improved version of our document annotation tool, as we continue to track reports and initiatives from City Hall, such as updates on the ailing Build It Back housing recovery program, or annual reports on resilience planning. Watch this space for more news.
Make your voice heard on the climate adaptation debate. The future of our city depends on it.
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CURATION: Climate Impacts on Northeast, Approaches to Adaptation, Are Key Elements of Just-Released National Climate Assessment
The White House this morning released its latest national climate assessment, a massive report detailing regional impacts of climate change across the country. Our ongoing curation will help you track news coverage and reaction, especially on affects on the New York region and on how communities can adapt.
AdaptNY news partner Gotham Gazette this week published an extensive interview with Daniel Zarrilli, one of New York’s top resiliency officials. Zarrilli, who had been serving in the Bloomberg administration, was recently named by Mayor Bill de Blasio as director of the city’s new Office of Recovery and Resiliency. In the lengthy interview with reporter Sarah Crean, Zarrilli talks of de Blasio’s views on resilience and implementation of the Bloomberg resilience plan, the new administration’s take on rising sea levels around the city, and how City Hall will work with affected local communities, including his thoughts on buy-out programs and flood zones. Also, see Zarrilli’s October interview with AdaptNY as part of a special investigative report on the disconnect between City Hall and many local community boards in the city around resiliency issues. Mayor Bill de Blasio released a new report April 17 in an effort to revitalize the Sandy home reconstruction and recovery program Build It Back. That followed a City Council hearing last month where council members and homeowners affected by the storm criticized the lack of rebuilding progress. AdaptNY reporter Matt Surrusco curated news coverage and social media commentary on the news. Watch for further updates. Katherine Bagley of InsideClimate News (photo courtesy Katherine Bagley) Katherine Bagley of Pulitzer Prize-winning web news site InsideClimate News has been closely watching the changing dialogue on climate in New York and around the nation. AdaptNY reporter Matt Surrusco recently spoke with Bagley, co-author of the e-book “Bloomberg’s Hidden Legacy: Climate Change and the Future of New York City.” She spoke about what New Yorkers can, and perhaps should expect, from new Mayor Bill de Blasio when it comes to climate policy and the need to adapt to climate risks. She also addressed why she thinks states aren’t collaborating much on resiliency planning, and how the media has changed the way it talks about climate risks. The edited interview, along with select audio quotes, follows. Participants at an AdaptNY workshop brainstormed how they might help end users understand climate adaptation. – Photo by Eddie Vega Can New York be made more resilient to the risks of climate change with pipe cleaners, markers and sticky notes? That’s what a diverse group of several dozen journalists, climate specialists, community organizers and product design experts set out to discover at a creative brainstorming workshop organized by AdaptNY. Using the principles of human-centered design – and some of those imagination-sparking tools – participants worked in teams throughout the day-long gathering to answer a central question: How might we inspire our community to get more involved in climate resilience solutions? The workshop featured a power panel of top-flight climate experts from the worlds of media, science, government and environmental advocacy, addressing the problems of adapting to the impacts of climate change and extreme weather. Then throughout the day, usability experts and coaches guided participants through a process of understanding what their users need, brainstorming solutions, prototyping projects and then sharing them for feedback from other workshop attendees. Learn how the teams answered the adaptation challenge, and the unique process by which they developed those ideas, in our special report on the workshop. AdaptNY partnered with the Online News Association and the Center for Community and Ethnic Media at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism to offer the all-day workshop Feb. 22. Teams brainstorming climate resilience solutions at AdaptNY workshop on Feb. 22, 2014 One of the key takeaways from AdaptNY‘s Feb. 22 climate resilience workshop was not just the use of human-centered design for resiliency solutions, but the resiliency solutions the workshop teams themselves brainstormed. From art murals to street fairs, mobile resilience trucks to children’s education programs, quizzes to TV shows, each of the half-dozen teams that day produced some imaginative and worthwhile results. We’ve collected material on each project for your perusal – including a video overview, a brief project description and team summary, and live coverage from the day of the workshop itself. We’d also love to know what you think about any of the projects, so please comment and we’ll share your thoughts more widely. Here’s a guide to each proposed project:Standard
GOTHAM GAZETTE: Resiliency Planning Post-Sandy: An Interview with Daniel Zarrilli
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CURATION: De Blasio Releases New Sandy Report, Sets Goals for City’s Build It Back Recovery Efforts
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Q&A: Reporter Katherine Bagley Gauges Shifting Winds of Climate Beat
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CURATION: City Council Hears Criticism from Homeowners on Sandy Relief Program
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AdaptNY Workshop Participants Brainstorm Solutions for Climate Risk
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Resilience Workshop: Teams Brainstorm Climate Solutions
