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100 Resilient Cities

Achieve Global Recognition

By on Jan 20, 2015 in News

Is your city resilient?challengedcities2

The Rockefeller Foundation is in its second year of a global initiative to identify the world’s toughest cities – urban centers that have gone up against challenges of all sizes and refused to back down.

In most cases, the impetus for resilience is ongoing. Athens, Greece, continues to recover from perilously high unemployment and resulting stress on its welfare system. Dakar, Senegal is growing so fast that public services and infrastructure cannot keep up. In the U.S., initially selected cities include Berkeley, Calif., Boulder, Colo., El Paso, Texas, Jacksonville, Fl., Los Angeles, Calif., and New Orleans, La., among others.

A few might appear surprising choices. Boulder might seem like an affluent college town next door to the Rocky Mountains. But the city has faced natural challenges: drought, flooding, and wildfires. Berkeley resonates with most as a center for liberal education and free speech. But similarly, earthquake, heat wave and wildfires have been disruptive and caused problems. New Orleans, of course, continues to recover from Hurricane Katrina. El Paso battles both natural and social challenges.

32 cities were chosen in the first round of awards in December 2013. A second round of 35, chosen from 330 applicants, was announced last month. From the U.S., Dallas, Pittsburgh, Chicago, St. Louis, Boston, Tulsa and San Juan, Puerto Rico were added to the roster for 2014.

A final round will be selected in 2015. Cities selected receive:

  • Funding to hire a Chief Resilience Officer;
  • Assistance in developing a resilience strategy;
  • Access to a platform of innovative private and public sector tools to help design and implement that strategy;
  • Membership in the 100 Resilient Cities Network.

“We can’t predict the next disruption or catastrophe. But we can control how we prepare for and respond to these challenges. We help make our cities better at adapting to the shocks and stresses of our world and transforming them into opportunities for growth,” explains the non-profit’s website.

See profiles of all 67 of the chosen cities online, or learn how to nominate your city in 2015, at http://www.100resilientcities.org