New Playbook Details Minutiae of Resilience
In the midst of a climate emergency already thrusting wildfires, drought, and flooding upon us it is easy to feel helpless and lost. The Greenbelt Alliance’s newly released “Resilience Playbook” seeks to combat that resignation by offering a motivating vision and practical steps for building local climate adaptation and resilience. Worried about heat and how it disproportionately affects certain neighborhoods where you live? This resource gives a step-by-step guidance on how to integrate urban greening into general plans, along with a menu of policy examples, budget priorities, and model climate action plans to catalyze resilience action for citizens, municipalities, and community organizations. Critically, the playbook offers advice on effectively partnering with underserved populations and communities who are often left out of the budget and infrastructure conversations where priorities are decided.
Recommendations and “critical actions to take now” come from the Greenbelt Alliance’s six plus decades of land-use policy advocacy and regional collaboration. Executive Director Amanda Brown-Stevens and Director of Climate Resilience Zoe Siegel also bring experience from shepherding the implementation of the 2018 Resilient by Design competition that spurred fantastic visions of South Bay Sponges, Grand Bayways, and Estuary Commons. This playbook focuses on the more mundane minutiae of resilience: city budgets, general plans, and regulations. A decidedly less sexy, and more Sisyphean task — yet also one that is more achievable, and no less important. Whether the intended audience, ranging from local citizens to government planners to political leaders, uses the plays from this book will be up to all of us.
Other Recent Posts
Regional Housing Agency Invests in Affordability
The Bay Area Housing Finance Authority is launching a loan program to support the construction of mixed-income rental properties.
The End is Coming for California’s Untouchable Grass
The law, which applies to grass that isn’t used for recreational purposes, could cut urban water use across California by more than 20% says Oakland thinktank.
Sonoma Vineyard Workers Burn toward a Better Future
A group of immigrant farmworkers are forming a worker-owned cooperative to bring back Indigenous burning practices that used to revitalize the soil.
Los trabajadores de los viñedos de Sonoma queman por un futuro mejor
Un grupo de trabajadores agrícolas inmigrantes está formando una cooperativa de propiedad de los trabajadores para recuperar las prácticas indígenas de quema que solían revitalizar el suelo año tras año.
New Voices Shape Design of Berkeley’s North Basin Strip
Twenty acres of parkland between the highway and the Berkeley shore are slated for a coast-resilient makeover, with input from locals and stakeholders.
It’s Always Sunny In North Fair Oaks
Residents of the unincorporated community launched their second campaign in two years to get the county to care for dying street trees.
Siempre está soleado en North Fair Oaks
Los residentes de la comunidad no incorporada lanzaron su segunda campaña en dos años para lograr que el condado se ocupe de los árboles de la calle que se están muriendo.
Can Nature Help California’s Coast Fight Fire and Floods?
Local and state leaders gather for September summit on how to mainstream nature-based infrastructure.
Guide to Nature-Based Infrastructure Around the Bay Area
Regional leaders are testing eight types of climate adaptation and shoreline flood protection projects that work with nature instead of against it. Here’s an overview.
How Can I Get Clean, Green, Climate-Forward Job Training in the Bay Area?
Looking for a hands-on job working outdoors that actually pays? Here’s a list of training programs.



