Environmental equity
A couple of blocks away from my home is a church that has a spire atop it. The spire reaches 10 or 12 stories. In the past several weeks we've been watching the renovation of that spire. Two guys, removing old panels piece by piece, replacing them with
newsletter
This past week I had the opportunity to officially launch a new publication project as part of the Evanston Environmental Justice Coalition. I'm pulling together a team of folks to publish the first edition of what we hope to be a biannual publication on the state of environmental
Environmental equity
On July 14, I officially opened a project for the Evanston Environmental Justice Coalition: Producing the first edition of a new biannual publication on the state of environmental justice in Evanston. The start-up edition project will take 3 months beginning in September. The publication I envision should have voice
Environmental equity
Build community connections and power. Grow more trees, plants and food. Nurture parks and open spaces. Make transit options green, safe and accessible. Invest in affordable, sustainable housing. Eliminate man-made environmental hazards. Reduce waste, increase reuse and sharing. Design severe weather safeguards. These draft statements are designed to define
Community listening
When I first started exploring community listening, I worked at defining what it means. To me. And while I keep adding nuance to the language I use, it basically boils down to three things. How we listen with other people, how we make sense of what we are all hearing,
Environmental equity
One of the bits of wisdom I learned as an educator was to think about the design of a course as guided by a kind of story. The basic arc of the story in my case always started by first defining a big, complex challenge, then exploring some ideas, each
Community listening
Note: This is a long post - much longer than I usually write. But it lays out the full current state of the work I am doing, and how I think about community listening, co-creating local solutions, and learning what those activities mean for environmental equity in my home city.
Thinking out loud
The end game for this curriculum: Folks have the power and resources to invent their own ways to create healthy neighborhood communities. I started thinking about this curriculum as involving two types of folks: Those who live in the neighborhoods impacted by historical injustice and environmental inequities. And those who
Thinking out loud
At the upcoming April 2026 meeting of Environmental Justice Evanston I am due to propose a curriculum for leadership development. The desired outcome is to increase the number of people who can lead environmental equity efforts in Evanston. This need comes together for a couple of reasons. The Evanston environmental
Environmental equity
A lot has happened in the past several weeks on the environmental justice front and I want to document the moment as we move deeper into 2026. But I also do not want to ignore the current state of life as the US devolves into an autocracy. Minneapolis is under
Community listening
I'm going to take a break from this writing routine until early January. During 2025 I posted almost every week - 49 posts, amounting to 52K words - and it's been a great positive experiment. I plan to continue writing in 2026. But I want to create some
Community listening
I'm sitting here today contributing work on several things with the environmental justice folks in Evanston: A grant application, comments on a draft report from the Evanston Environmental Equity Investigation, and communications plans with a subcommittee team of a new coalition. It's a long way from