On December 3, 2014, Radio Boston (WBUR) announced that Boston had been chosen as one of the Rockefeller Foundation's "Resilient Cities." This program provides funds to cities around the world, a list of which can be found here, to fund measures to bolster resilience in the face of all manner of natural or man-made disasters.
If you have been keeping up with the news lately, you may have noticed that it is almost impossible not to hear about the record-breaking winter weather slamming Massachusetts this season. Being here in Charlotte and having had not so much as a snowflake this winter, it is incredibly hard for me to imagine how crazy the over six feet of snow dumped on the Boston area must be. However, as this article from Radio Boston (WBUR) points out, Boston has had a relatively smooth encounter with Mother Nature, primarily due to plans the city made to plan for emergencies and disasters.
The radio segment included in that article is also quite an interesting segment. Judith Roden, who is the president of the Rockefeller Foundation, the organization that granted Boston the opportunity to join its Resilient Cities program, participates in an interview discussing the similarities among many of the disasters Boston faces, even between the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and the most recent record-breaking string of winter storms. Roden points out that during the Boston Marathon bombings, the Mayor of Boston was actually in the hospital, and the appropriate city and state officials knew exactly what was needed to respond effectively. They had participated in various drills, gone through ample training; essentially, it all came down to the investment of time and money the city and state had made in times when disasters and emergencies were not necessarily imminent. As Roden puts it, "preparation turns luck into opportunity."
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| The National Preparedness Cycle, as published by FEMA. |
This is not to say that Boston is not without its fair share of challenges to its resiliency. Roden brings up issues of economic inequality, poverty, and the availability of affordable housing, issues which plague major metropolitan areas across the country, including Charlotte. However, it was as a result of this planning on the part of the city of Boston and the state of Massachusetts that the city and state have been able to deal with everything from a major terrorist attack to a season of winter storms surpassing all written records.
While this need to prepare exists at all levels, from the individual household to the nation as a whole (and further, as a united planet), Boston provides an amazing example, along with many other of the Rockefeller Foundation's chosen Resilient Cities. And for that reason, I would love to honor their work with some of the amazing work from the Queen of Pop (and as my roommate and I would say, the Queen of Everything), the god and legend, Ms. Britney Spears.
Stay safe, y'all!
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