Final Paper: Assessment Plan Phoenix, A Resilient City?

Phoenix, A Resilient City?

Community Assessment Plan

Phoenix Arizona can trace is heritage back to 300 CE, in the form of the Hohokam people. The Hohokam people were located in the present-day Arizona from as early as 300 BCE and called this land their home for over 2,000 years. The Hohokam are known for their large-scale irrigation networks, and the creation of ancient canals. These canals later established the foundations on which Phoenix would build upon. In 1868 Jack Swilling an early pioneer stopped to rest his horse at the foot of the White Tanks Mountains, as he looked down upon the Salt River Valley he saw the untouched lands and knew with a little water this area could be prosperous. Swilling returned home to Wickenburg formed the Swilling Irrigation Canal Company and returned to valley, Phoenix Arizona. Swilling Irrigation Canal Company began digging a canal to divert water from the Salt River into the Valley. By March 1868 with water flowing from the Salt River, a few members of the company were able to raise small farms and begin producing crops. In 1868 Phoenix Arizona was established and obtained national recognition as a city on May 3, 1881.  Jump forward 151 years, today Phoenix is the 5th-largest city, with a total population of 1,615,017 spanning over 517 square miles. Phoenix sits nestled between the North and South Mountains, with multiple mountain peaks residing within the city boundaries. Phoenix is immensely diverse, with historical ties to Native and Latin America coupled with Wild West influences. Years later, Mexican-American influences contribute to Phoenix’s expansive diversity. Today you can see these historical influences in the city’s structural designs, artwork, religion, and community.

          Phoenix provides a unique living opportunity, while it does reach well above 100 degrees for several months, to the North you can find refuge from the heat in Flagstaff, and to the West, the cool breezy climate of California. With the job market striving to bring in new companies and provide new opportunities to young professionals and its relatively affordable housing costs, Phoenix has become an epicenter for culture, music, food, and experiences. With more than 16 million visitors a year, Phoenix is quickly becoming a hot spot for transplants. The local population is a mixing pot of ethnicities, with approximately 2.2 million people residing within the metropolitan area. English is the predominate langue in Phoenix, however Spanish and the ability to speak Spanish is quickly becoming not only the norm but also required by many employers.

Growing up in West Virginia is a 360-degree opposite from Phoenix. Where trees are everywhere, access to water is never a concern, and you don’t worry about heat as a disaster. Myself and many of my family members now call Phoenix home, I also work for the City of Phoenix, which is why I feel it is vital to research and understand heat and its effects.  Arizona is susceptible to an array of natural disasters and emergencies, ranging from drought, dust storms, and extreme heat. “The frequency and intensity of extreme heat events already are increasing in the state and this trend is expected to continue. Likewise, under some future climate scenarios, ozone formation and accumulation are expected to increase” (Weaver et al. 2009; Kim et al. 2015, p.11). Further reports show a link between high temperature hazards and human health outcomes and identified at risk or vulnerable populations. In 2005 Maricopa County formed the Heat Relief Network in partnership with service providers, faith-based groups, municipalities, businesses and other non-profit organizations to address the issue of heat and heat related incidents. In 2018, 181 people lost their lives to extreme heat. Maricopa County Association of Governments (MAG) shows the ever-growing number of heat related deaths.         

The Heat Relief Network was formed to combat heat incidents and inform community members on the dangers of heat. According to the Weather Channel the average temperature in Phoenix in July is 106 degrees, with highs of 116 degrees. Furthermore, the National Weather Service reported that the Phoenix area averages 110 days of temperatures above 100 degrees. These high daytime temperatures coupled with high nighttime temperatures make the summer a dangerous time for local residents and visitors. As of January 2018, Arizona had an estimated 9,865 residents experiencing homelessness on any given day, with an estimated 25,832 people within Maricopa County experiencing homelessness in 2018. Thirty-seven percent of those experiencing homelessness are families, with that number on the rise. These numbers of people represent a large population of people that are vulnerable to heat related incidents.

Masterson tells us that hazardous risks can be “based on geographic area, specific and predictable hazards can be expected” (Masterson et al., 2014, p.1333). Communities are also vulnerable on both a social and physical/structural level. Phoenix is approximately 220 miles from the nearest coast, Puerto Penasco, leaving it less susceptible to hurricanes, and earthquakes. However, as pointed out in Masterson chapter five, Assessing Physical Vulnerability, “physical of structural vulnerability, is a function of the location of the population and the built environment relative to the hazard” (Masterson et al., 2014, p. 1542). Which includes but is not limited to structures, homes, infrastructure, and the natural environment. Arizona State University and Arizona Department of Health Services observed and projected detrimental public health outcomes in relation to increasing temperatures. Air quality, emission rates, and volatile organic compounds are a few factors increasing temperatures and contributing to the environmental vulnerabilities to those living in Phoenix.

If heat is Phoenix’s natural disaster, then it stands to reason that lack of natural or manmade shade structures is a point of physical vulnerability. Community members and municipalities contribute to an area’s vulnerability because they determine how a community is built. Quality of construction and location of facilities should also be considered when assessing a community’s susceptibility to physical vulnerabilities according to Masterson. The downtown metro area in Phoenix, is composed of high-rise buildings like most cities, however most cities don’t experience 110 days above 100 degrees. Fred Pearce writes “it has long been known that installing white roofs helps reduce heat buildup in cities. But new research indicates that making surfaces more light-reflecting can have a significant impact on lowering extreme temperatures – not just in cities, but in rural areas as well” (Pearce, 2018, ? 1). Adapting such methods could reduce the level of physical vulnerability in Phoenix, and aid in protecting its citizens.

Phoenix is also susceptible to social vulnerabilities, due to its large number of homeless and vast diversity. “Development patterns characterized by sprawl, concentrated poverty, and segregation shape urban environments in ways that isolate vulnerable populations so that poor and rich, white and black, owners and renters, primary residents and vacationers, are separated from one another in clusters and pockets across the community” (Masterson, et al. 2014, p. 1775). Phoenix has become the 10th fastest-gentrifying area in the United States. With neighborhoods averaging a median price of $315,000 Phoenix has become a highly popular place for new residents. However, in a recent report by the U.S. Census Bureau nearly 18 percent of Phoenicians live in poverty. This forces these community members to live in what locals call SoDo, or South Downtown, where jobs are scarce and access to public transportation is limited. Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego recognizes this issue and in her 2019 inauguration speech stated, “I know that not everyone has experienced the promise of Phoenix that I have, and I want to change that,” she said. “Every part of our city deserves investments to transform areas that need help” (Gallego, 2019, ? 21). Arizona Republic’s Jessica Suriano writes “Phoenix artists are feeling the effects of gentrification downtown, where they say increased development is pushing out communities that made some of the neighborhoods trendy in the first place” (Suriano, 2018, ? 2). As a result of exacerbating rental prices in California, more and more people find themselves calling Phoenix home while working remotely for companies in California. This along with the ever-growing expansion of high rises, social vulnerabilities are inevitable. Local Phoenicians are moving further away from the downtown areas and buying homes in the surrounding city’s such as Mesa, Glendale, and Gilbert where land is still affordable.

As mentioned above, Maricopa County in partnership with other community organizations, non-profits and municipalities has created the Heat Relief Network. Phoenix is committed to addressing what they’ve deemed is their natural disaster, heat, and allowing municipal funding to aid community members resilience to heat. Part of the Heat Relief initiative is to coordinate distribution of the Heat Relief Networking maps. The City of Phoenix teams up with the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), AmeriCorps VISTAs, faith-based groups, and other volunteer groups to distribute maps which contain locations for heat refuge, hydration centers, and water donation sites. Town of Buckeye City Councilmember and Chair of the MAG Human Services and Community Initiatives Committee member Michelle Hess reports that “this is a true community effort that brings together cities and towns, nonprofit agencies, faith-based organizations, businesses, and individuals who mobilize to provide resources to those who are vulnerable. We are hoping that many more steps forward this year to help us in these efforts, so that we can see a drop in the number of deaths."  The Heat Relief Network provides an example of strong social capital in Phoenix’s Community, where cross-sectoral partnerships work together to address the cities natural disaster and create a more resilient community. 

Wilson tells us that the different characteristics that make up a resilient community involve “interlinkages between economic, social and environmental processes as a basis for understanding community transitions” (Wilson, 2012, p. 14). There are seven community capitals, community development, natural, cultural, social, political, financial, human, and built capital. Understanding the various capitals (assets) allows us to understand how the community works, interacts, and uses their resources to achieve higher levels of sustainability and resilience. Let us consider social resilience, the “preemptive change which sees resilience as a desirable state, rather than simply a process to avoid disturbances,” and is “strongly focused on human learning pathways and how these may affect the resilience of communities” (Davidson’s, 2010, p. 1146). Addressing community resilience provides and opportunity to understand how a community anticipates change and reacts to it, allowing for an opportunity for innovation. Wilson chapter two shows us that the three main capitals that conceptualize community resilience are economic, social and environmental. Additionally, “capitals are community resources that are strategically invested in collective endeavors to address shared community objectives” (Magis, 2010, p. 406).

Creating, understanding and utilizing social capital is extremely important in terms of community resilience. A community with more social capital is more interconnected, shares information with haste and effectiveness, making it more resilient to disaster. Creating bonding and bridging forms of communication and creates a broader community spectrum. Whereas a community with less or little social capital supports and every man for himself mentality. The City of Phoenix utilizes toolkits, digital and in person resources to disseminate disaster relief information. The creation of the ReslientPHX handbook was a great step forward for the city and is available in both hardcopy and digital. If each community had a community leader, high social capital, and those leaders were provided the ReslientPHX handbook Phoenix as a whole would have more community resilience. The availability of this resource bridges the gap between communities economic and environmental capital which are resource-based attributes.

(ASSESSMENT)

AmeriCorps VISTA members were brought into the cities Emergency Management Office to collect information, develop new disaster response skills, create actions plans, connect with the community and launched the ReslientPHX Community Leader Handbook. It is through their experiences and methods that we can gain an understanding of the community’s strengths and vulnerabilities, and assess what actions were successful and where more work should be completed. AmeriCorps VISTA members formed steering and ad hoc committees to engage the community, implementation of both would be a good starting point to ensure that the community begin working together in forming the necessary strong relationships necessary for building a community resilience plan. As stated in Vitalyst Health’s Creating Resilient Communities Workbook “realizing goals and objectives requires identifying and implementing actions that move the community towards its vision” (Aldrich et al, 2015, p. 28). These actions plan should include but are not limited to statement of the goal, specific and measurable objectives, strategies and activities assigned to community members, and a framework for communication between the community and other working groups. Moreover, referencing other resilient tools and resources to see where the gaps are, and address specific vulnerabilities. Resources such as the Climate Health Assessment, Arizona Climate Resilience Heat Report, Phoenix US Climate Resilient Interactive Explorer, and Resilience in Action by RAND provide a bases for understanding Phoenix’s specific vulnerabilities and needs.

Creation of resilience and skill-building workshops and online community forums in tandem with the Steering Committees will provide input for future workshops. These would be presented by the VISTA who has worked closely with that community and would serve as a volunteer to connect residents to the resource. These volunteers will help to connect other residents to City services, non-profit organizations as well as serve as connectors during times of extreme heat, power outages, flooding or other emergency situations. Focusing on long term, broad actions will create a more cost-effective and impactful change. VISTA volunteers will take part and participate in workshops with elected citizen volunteers to amplify the message by connecting it back to their families, neighborhoods and communities. Vitalyst Health recommends utilizing the SMART Tool, specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely, along with events such as meet you’re your neighbor to establish interconnectivity and communication. Messaging through the council offices, the city Neighborhood Services Department and large organizations will spread the information about Resilience Workshops, to ensure large attendance. The Resilient Workshops in addition to the community ad hoc Heat Ready committee will provide the necessary community platform to express their needs to the City of Phoenix officials.

Phoenix is strong in locally owned businesses and has a tremendous amount of resources. Well organized community groups, with strong community ties and cohesion provide higher social capital. However, there are still many communities lack the support and leadership to create an equal amount of structure. This inequity is one of the Phoenix’s weaknesses. Mayor Kate Gallego recognizes that there are still large areas of underserved communities, dealing with poverty, high eviction rates and lack of affordable housing. Her plan is to “to build a city that works for everyone” (Gallego, 2019, ? 22). Along with the implantation of community-based committees, utilization of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (BRACE) framework “to provide local health officials with a mechanism for addressing climate-related public health effects and to support the creation of regional public health adaptation and mitigation efforts” (Weaver et al.2009; Kin et al. 2015, ? 3) would be pivotal.

The City of Phoenix in partnership with Maricopa County and other jurisdictions around the valley, form, update, and uphold the multi-hazard mitigation plans. On April 14, 2010 the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors adopted the Multi-jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan (MJHMP), which was approved by FEMA and deemed in compliance with Title 44 Code of Federal Regulations Park 201.6 Local Mitigation Plans. Through cross-sectoral partnerships, community committees, and nationally recognized disaster mitigation plans Phoenix can create a more livable city for everyone.  Using tested tips, tools, and strategies will help build community resilience in Phoenix. Most importantly the implementation of a community created, and government supported disaster mitigation plan to increase resilience and decrease community vulnerabilities.

References:

1.    Aldrich et al, (2015). Creating Resilient Communities: A hot-to resource guide for cultivating resiliency in local communities.

2.    Chuang, W-C., A. Karner, N. Selover, D. Hondula, N.Chhetri, A. Middel, M. Roach and B.Dufour. 2015. Arizona Extreme Weather, Climate and Health Profile Report. A report prepared for Arizona Department of Health Services and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Climate-Ready States and Cities Initiative.

3.    Figure A Heat-Associated Deaths in Maricopa County By Year: Source Maricopa Association of Governments: Programs. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.azmag.gov/Programs/Homelessness/Heat-Relief-Regional-Network

4.    Figure B Conceptual Pathways of Climate and Health. Source: CDC Climate E. ects on Health – www.cdc.gov/climateandhealth/e. ects/

5.    Figure C The five-step BRACE framework. Source: Adapted from Marinucci et al. (2014).

6.    Masterson, et al. (2014). Planning for Community Resilience: A Handbook for Reducing Vulnerability to Disasters (3rd ed.). Washington DC: Island Press.

7.    Pearce, F. (2018, March 17). Urban Heat: Can White Roofs Help Cool World's Warming Cities? Retrieved June 24, 2019, from https://e360.yale.edu/features/urban-heat-can-white-roofs-help-cool-the-worlds-warming-cities

8.    Suriano, J. (2018, August 05). Phoenix artists say gentrification of Roosevelt Row is pushing them out. Retrieved from https://www.azcentral.com/story/entertainment/arts/2018/07/23/phoenix-artists-say-gentrification-downtown-roosevelt-row-pushing-them-out/722210002/

9.    Wilson, G. A. (2012). Community resilience and environmental transitions (1st ed.). New York: Routledge