Friday, November 2, 2012

read more: after sandy

Much has already been written about Hurricane/Superstorm Sandy. Here are a few pieces covering design, community building, and adapting to a changing world.

Airbnb may not have read my reflections but they, along with several other companies, have been responsive according to Fast Company. Citizens are banding together to assist the overwelmed disaster relief teams in FastCo Exist. My former boss wrote about preparing for climate change in The Nation and Next American City covered what this means for designers.

"Airbnb is to waive its fees on all properties in the areas devastated by Sandy, after one of its homeowners offered up her rooms for free to victims of the disaster. The offer stands until November 7 and covers New York, the Hamptons, Providence, New Haven, and Atlantic City. It also urged its hosts to lower prices."
- Andy Dugdale for Fast Company

"We’re not from the Red Cross, FEMA, New York Cares, the public housing police or any other city agency. We’ve never met before and we aren’t affiliated with any one organization, school, or group. We come from all corners of the city: Elmhurst, Crown Heights, Cobble Hill, and even downtown neighborhoods like Chelsea and the West Village, where the power’s still out. Each of us showed up this morning for the first time, after we saw a notice on a website, got an email, or saw a Tweet that volunteers were needed at 46 Hester Street on the Lower East Side, where a local Asian community organization called CAAAV has become the hub for an almost completely self-organized aid effort."

- Anya Kamenetz, FastCo Exist

"What can we do? Three major options: (1) abandon our coastal cities and retreat inland, (2) stay put and try to adapt to the menacing new conditions or (3) stop burning planet-warming fossil fuels as fast as possible."
- Mike Tidwell, The Nation

"For architects, designers and planners, this means stepping up. We need to redesign and rebuild our infrastructure, and we need to do it sooner rather than later. Sandy gave many of us a few days out of the office. Now it’s time to get back to work for a shared future." 
Eric Corey Freed, Next American City

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