Shelley Poticha leads the Urban Solutions team at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). The Urban Solutions team advances strategies that create strong, just, and resilient communities. Poticha works with local, national, and global leaders to make cities part of the answer to climate change while ensuring that all people can lead healthy, thriving lives. Previously she was a senior political appointee in the Obama administration, where she led the federal Partnership for Sustainable Communities and launched the Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. She also served as president and CEO of Reconnecting America and as executive director of the Congress for the New Urbanism following 10 years as an urban planner.
The Right Infra for a Changing Climate
There really is no conflict between saying you would like to have more infrastructure investment and saying that you’re an environmentalist. They’re one and the same. The challenge is that the plans and projects that are on the books in many states run counter to what we need in our communities to protect people. And that’s where we need to take a hard look at what kind of infrastructure we’re investing in, because the same-old, same-old as we just saw through these two big storms isn’t going to get us there.
Bridging the Political Gap to Build Infrastructure
We just did a poll over the summer that showed overwhelming support for public investment in infrastructure and addressing mobility options like transit, addressing the strength of our bridges and making sure that everybody has drinking water. And every one of those priorities received overwhelming bipartisan support. What I think is in the way is that our elected officials aren’t listening to people at the local level, and that’s one reason why I have chosen to work with mayors across the country who have an ability to take charge of the pathway that their communities are taking and show that there are solutions that are popular, that create jobs, that grow the economy, and make our communities more inclusive and resilient.
Creating the Clean, Green, Livable Cities of the Future
We believe that cities, and the places we all live, are very innovative opportunities to address environmental problems, to future-proof against climate change, and to address some of the historic inequities that have led to some people being burdened more than others by pollution or other environmental problems. So we work with communities all over the U.S. and internationally to help identify the policies and programs and financing strategies that would actually make our cities part of the environmental solution. There’s a lot of evidence that the clean energy economy is a huge job opportunity and business development opportunity for the U.S.
Download full transcript (PDF): Shelley Poticha on The Infra Blog
Tags: Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Irma, Natural Resources Defense Council, NRDC, Resiliency, Shelley Poticha, Urban Solutions
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