My Chat with Portland, Maine’s Sustainability Coordinator
Community resilience in the face of climate change has been on my mind even more than usual as I just returned from the National Adaptation Forum in Minneapolis where I was part of a session about how to "mainstream" adaptation into other planning frameworks.
But, as Troy noted, they are just getting into the adaptation game (this report from a 2015 conference gives an overview of their resilience timeline). Portland isn’t wasting any time making a name for itself in climate resilience/adaptation circles. Their first major initiative is called “Bayside Adapts” (this local news story from the community forum launch in late 2016 has a nice overview, as does this conference presentation from March 2017). Here’s an excerpt from the Portland Phoenix article:
“In response to the increasing anxiety that bigger storms, king tides and nuisance flooding bring to the area, the city of Portland has launched a new initiative that aims to discuss and eventually exercise strategies to make the Bayside Neighborhood more resilient to climate change. It’s called 'Bayside Adapts,' and it aims to bring scientists, engineers, sustainability experts, city officials and community members together, to explore ways that the neighborhood can face, what many consider to be, a very urgent issue.”
One of the remarkable things about Portland’s “Bayside Adapts” endeavor that Troy noted was that it’s the first time the City is putting its own resources -- to the tune of $100,000 for an engineering study they are calling a “data gap analysis” and community outreach -- into climate resilience. The City was also one of the ten pilot cities in the National League of Cities’ (NLC) Leadership in Community Resilience Program that has meant $10,000 in direct support and additional technical support. The other cities are: Annapolis, Maryland; Des Moines, Iowa; Providence, Rhode Island; Riverside, California; San Antonio; Saint Paul, Minnesota; South Bend, Indiana; Tempe; and West Palm Beach, Florida.
The City had announced the winner – Aceto Landscape Architects – the day before I chatted with Troy, so he discussed some of the features that stood out to the judges: a focus on recreating natural systems (like using an old mill pond as a water feature -- their entry was titled “Back to the Mill: Unearthing Portland’s Emerald Necklace”), increasing open spaces, utilizing natural interventions and incorporating infrastructure that can live with water.
Troy told me that two keys to Portland’s success thus far have been community support and collaboration between departments -- a theme we keep hearing more about. Bayside Adapts has brought together Planning, Public Works, Sustainability (which is in the City Manager’s office) and Economic Development. Troy has no additional staff in his department so he certainly can’t do it alone. He has worked closely with the Waterfront Coordinator in Economic Development and the Planning Director.
There are plenty of impressive -- and replicable -- parts of Portland’s climate resilience story, so I encourage you to take a listen to Troy’s SAS Talk with Kim podcast.