MAYOR WALSH AND THE ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION’S
100 RESILIENT CITIES HOST “KICKOFF” WORKSHOP MARKING BEGINNING OF CITY’S
PARTICIPATION IN INNOVATIVE GLOBAL URBAN RESILIENCE INITIATIVE
Workshop Brings Together Key Stakeholders to
Develop City’s “Roadmap to Resilience”; Hiring of Chief Resilience Officer Will
Ensure Strategy Responds to Overarching Issues Facing Boston
BOSTON
– Tuesday, May 19, 2015 – Mayor
Martin J. Walsh today joined 100 Resilient Cities (100RC) - pioneered by The
Rockefeller Foundation - to kick off the process of developing a comprehensive
resilience strategy that will enable the city to better survive, adapt and grow
no matter what kinds of chronic stresses and acute shocks it experiences. The
workshop brought together local officials and civic leaders, as well as
engineers, architects, economists, faith leaders, academics and urban planners
from around the city to participate in discussions on shared priorities and the
essential elements for our preparedness plans.
“Thanks
to 100 Resilient Cities and The Rockefeller Foundation, Boston has a real
opportunity to address lingering social and economic impacts of our history,”
said Mayor Walsh. “This workshop is a first step towards creating a tremendous
resource and will move Boston towards a stronger, more resilient future.”
Boston’s
initiative includes a unique focus on social resilience. Forty years after the
busing crisis, Boston remains a city affected by divisions of race and class
that undermine community cohesion. Gaps in health, educational and economic
outcomes are evidence of how these fissures weaken resilience. The goal of the
100RC Initiative is to find ways to infuse the principles of resilience into
all aspects of local planning, ensuring the city's ability to weather and
recover from the physical, social and economic crises that are increasingly
prevalent in the 21st century.
In
the months following today’s workshop, the city will continue to engage those
stakeholders, resilience experts and 100RC staff in drafting the plan. As part
of the process, Mayor Walsh is seeking applicants for the position of Chief
Resiliency Officer (CRO) for the City of Boston to ensure Boston's resilience
strategy incorporates and responds to the overarching issues facing Boston,
including racial and socio-economic inequity, the lack of affordable housing,
unemployment and underemployment, violence, climate change, flooding and
terrorism. The position is funded through 100RC.
The
CRO will report directly to the Mayor and will support the development of a
resilience strategy and policy discussion in the city that includes an
assessment of our social resilience opportunities and challenges. The CRO will
also work with external stakeholders towards a shared vision on economic
development, transportation, housing, climate change and the arts. Boston
residency is required for this position. Interested applicants can apply at the
City of Boston’s website: http://www.cityofboston.gov/ohr/careercenter/
In
December 2014, Mayor Walsh announced that Boston had been selected as one of 35
cities from around the world to join the 100RC Network, which supplies its
member cities with tools, funding, technical expertise and other resources to
build resilience to the challenges of the 21st century.
“City
governments are on the front line of dealing with acute shocks and chronic stress,”
said The Rockefeller Foundation President Judith Rodin. “Boston is part of a
group of cities leading the way on resilience to better prepare for, withstand,
and recover more effectively when disruption hits. Through this type of
inclusive resilience planning cities can be better prepared for the unexpected.
T hey can also realize the resilience dividend, the economic and competitive
advantages that come from taking a resilience mindset. Boston’s commitment to
resilience thinking, planning and action will set a global example.”
“Boston
is helping fuel global momentum around building urban resilience, and leading
by example,” said Michael Berkowitz, President of 100 Resilient Cities.
“The agenda workshop will clarify the city’s needs, surface innovative
thinking, and give us a blueprint for engaging partners from across sectors to
bring Boston the tools and resources needed to become more resilient.”
About
100 Resilient Cities – Pioneered by The Rockefeller Foundation:
100
Resilient Cities – pioneered by The Rockefeller Foundation -- is dedicated to
helping cities around the world become more resilient to the physical, social
and economic challenges that are a growing part of the 21st century.
100RC supports the adoption and incorporation of a view of resilience that
includes not just the shocks but also the stresses that weaken the fabric of a
city on a day-to-day or cyclical basis. Examples of these stresses include high
unemployment; an overtaxed or inefficient public transportation system; endemic
violence; or chronic food and water shortages. By addressing both the shocks
and the stresses, a city can better respond to adverse events and is more
capable of delivering basic functions in good time and bad, to all populations.
The
100 Resilient Cities Challenge was launched in 2013 as a $100 million
commitment to build urban resilience. Officials or leaders or major
institutions from over 700 cities have applied to the Challenge. The first
cohort of 32 cities was announced in December 2013, and 100RC announced their
second cohort of 35 cities in December 2014. Information on the Challenge
itself is available at www.100resilientcities.org/challenge.
Media
Contact for 100 Resilient Cities: Maxwell Young – Myoung@100RC.org
