The recent flooding in Detroit, Michigan brought up some memories and experiences of my own. Unlike Detroit, Chicago proper per my recollection has never seen such a disaster that shut down multiple freeways and flooding resulting in the loss of life. Some things came to mind as I began reading the stories about the history of Chicago and how our water system both sewage and storm came to be as we experience it now. The outdated systems have resulted in floods over the years and I am one of the people that lost EVERYTHING in the storm of 2011 where myself and my three kids were living in a garden apartment.
I feel as though as an urbanite I have to address this entry to those whom are rebuilding cities and let them know that there are consequences to the inadequate design of these systems that impact all people but really creates anxiety for the cities poorest. While those who live along the Des Plaines deal with this as a consequence of living near a water way, those of us who assume we are living in the safety of the boundaries of the city away from water don't expect it to flood us out of our homes.
As we think about water, infrastructure, flooding, equity we must be mindful of all the players in the game. While I have my own private thoughts on policy makers I will say that amidst the conversations of water issues and climate change in the Black community not one...NOT ONE conversation has included a piece on policy and elected officials that hold our communities in high regard. With the upcoming races in Cook County I would strongly suggest locals to look into who is running for Metropolitan Water Reclamation District and what their positions are relative to the issues of water and people of color....of course not just our communities but looking at what the ideal candidate for managing water policies for our entire city actually is.
Yes our communities are under water and yes we are over it. When I was thinking about flooding of segregated communities and whose hit hardest and what recovery looks like I began to feel sick. The reality of poverty is lack of resources and preparedness. Then I considered simple things such as flooding for me is no big deal because I can swim. When I read the accounts of people stranded and at risk of losing their lives in the water. Data shows that minorities are more at risk for drowning, as well as children within minority communities.
The data below is from a Special Report on Minority Drowning
So not only are we being flooded from our homes in severe events for me I'm not only considering the loss of real estate and material things but fundamentally what this also means for Blacks if too much water were to hit too fast how much more likely it will be for us to survive considering being prepared through swimming or at least life vests. To realize that up to 75% of Black women in this survey reported they can't swim was mind blowing. I am a competitive swimmer, life guard, WSI and I played water polo I am an aquaholic. I hope we as a community begin to recognize that while we can not say that one event is climate change but that there are some interesting relationships between access, race, class, income and peoples abilities to survive any weather or climate related event.
Let us hope our society begins to think with a survival lens of wanting all our residents regardless of culture, income or age can be protected through a thoughtful approach to building better cities and better access to live in them.
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