1. Provide a brief introduction about the city and why you chose it.
The city I chose was Las Vegas, NV that ranks 298 on the Building Resilient Regions website. The Spanish named this huge valley that was full of wild grass and minerals “The Meadows” that then translated into Las Vegas. Now, Las Vegas is very different among U.S cities for it is famous for the luxury casinos and the shows. It has the title of being the “Entertainment Capital of the World” and is very prosperous in cultivating a diversified economy. I chose this city because it is a city that truly never sleeps and always has some sort of resource going in or out. Another reason why I chose Las Vegas is because it is one of the strongest economic cities in the United States and certainly takes up a lot of resources to fuel this never stopping city. I was very interested in researching to see why Las Vegas wasn’t resilient and what could be improved.
2. What, if anything, makes this city vulnerable with regard to climate change and concerns about peak oil.
Las Vegas is very vulnerable with regard to climate change because of its location. Las Vegas is a flat dessert and is already in a dire scarcity of water supplies. With a major climate change all of Las Vegas would be vulnerable. Tourism, health and environmental impacts, and water supply will all be extremely susceptible. With a climate change could lead to an even bigger drought. Peak oil is also another major concern because Nevada has no oil refineries. All of the fuel comes from a pipeline from California, where the oil is processed into various grades. If the price of oil rose in California, it would almost double the price in Las Vegas because it only has one source. That alone could ruin the economy ...
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...g. The biggest thing is funding education. You have to start at the very base of things and education is there. With funding for future generations you can create a more effective resiliency plan because people have the knowledge to do so. For an example we can take the notorious wild fires that happens in Mt. Charleston about an hour outside of Las Vegas. It full of green pine tress that are also very try and very flammable. With more education we can have the knowledge to prevent fires, train more people to handle them, or even create a more effective plane that releases chemicals to put out the fire. Right now the only thing Las Vegas does is tell the pilot coordinates of the fire and then drop chemicals there. We can create a more effective plan that would improve the transportation of the planes along with the communication between the pilot and firefighters.
In the article “Outrage over Las Vegas must outlive news and election cycles” Don Kusler believes that strict gun control laws should be put into place. His reasoning behind this is that the 2nd Amendment was written a long time ago and they did not have police nor did they have automatic weapons that were easily accessible. Expressing his opinion on the 2nd Amendment, Kusler writes “The 2nd Amendment was written in a very different time: there were no public safety systems, like police, and there were no automatic weapons available.” In this excerpt from his article, you can see that Kusler claims the police are able to protect everyone therefore eliminating the need for people to have their own guns for self protection. Kusler criticizes
...he city and has suffered as a result of losing so much of its tax base to the 1967 riots. The event should be used as a cautionary tale to other cities in transition to be cognizant of demographic changes and represent all of your citizens living within your city.
In making the decisions to protect people’s lives from hazards and disasters, evacuations sometimes become necessary. Of course early in the reaction to the incident, or the response phase, this may become a decision for local and state emergency managers. The San Diego, California wildfire which occurred in October 2007 caused a large scale evacuation. This essay is an analysis, and identification of lessons learned from the evacuation incident. As well a plan of personal recommendations and improvements will be made based on information covered in the National Housing strategy, and Robert Stafford Act.
Since these were low income areas there wasn’t a high tax revenue to maintain the areas. This would cause in the infrastructures not being up to date or completely reliable. It is far to expensive to pay to renovate these areas and the issue also comes from who will pay for it. when there is a low income area that is heavily concentrated with people it becomes very difficult to upkeep that area which results in it becoming more and more rundown.
... dunes will hold off the wave that would be coming ashore. There are signs all over the city, and we have been going to Manzanita for over 15 years, our family has never talked about who to do, we don’t know where to go and we don’t have a emergency supply stored in case of any emergencies. I truly believe that the city has to educate their residents and run practices, like fire drills for schools. I think being prepared and educated will save many lives if and when we get the big one in the Cascadia region.
Scientists have always made predictions about climate change causing major disasters around the world. Florida is one of the areas being affected by climate change at this exact moment. It is experiencing a huge amount of severe flooding throughout the whole the state, but especially near the coast. The climate change is affecting the sea level in Florida to rise higher than it was before. Even with the flooding and sea level rising being a major issues in Florida, state officials are not taking any type of action because they fear that if they do, they will show that they can’t control it or find a solution. In the article “The Siege of Miami,” by Elizabeth Kolbert, she talks about her trip down to Florida. While Kolbert is in Florida, she meets with the University of Miami’s chairman of the geological science department, Hal Walness to talk about climate change and how it may or may
There are many examples of cities reforming itself over time, one significant example is Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. More than a hundred years after the discovery of gold that drew thousands of migrants to Vancouver, the city has changed a lot, and so does one of its oldest community: Downtown Eastside. Began as a small town for workers that migrants frequently, after these workers moved away with all the money they have made, Downtown Eastside faced many hardships and changes. As a city, Vancouver gave much support to improve the area’s living quality and economics, known as a process called gentrification. But is this process really benefiting everyone living in Downtown Eastside? The answer is no. Gentrification towards DTES(Downtown Eastside) did not benefit the all the inhabitants of the area. Reasons are the new rent price of the area is much higher than before the gentrification, new businesses are not community-minded, and the old culture and lifestyle of the DTES is getting erased by the new residents.
This state is full of more cities besides just Los Angeles and San Francisco, for example, my city Richmond, California. I wasn’t born there, but I have lived there most of my life, and there is a certain appeal is there, but its not the stereotypical beauty you see in any infomercial. This city isn’t celebrated nor is it world recognized for its accomplishments, but it is a small city with hidden treasure. The hidden treasure are the success stories that the community does not expect, and that can create a sense of empowerment for everyone around us. That empowerment is something that should be seen nationally, especially since Richmond is not the only impoverished city in
Earth’s average temperature has increased about 0.8 degrees Celsius since 1880 and another degree could cause even more problems than there already are. Climate change is an important issue to be aware of because it is real and it affects you and the things around you each and every day. Every day animals lose habitats and die because climate change caused there home to burn, or their food sources started to deplete, etc. Along with these, more and more CO2 is being released into the air due to wildfires burning which is causing the atmosphere to heat even more. With the temperature increasing the oceans will become warmer and evaporation and rainfall patterns will change which will affect humans and animals, because we all work together in a system. There are many consequences of climate change like human health issues, and more animals becoming endangered, but the most important consequence is the rising amounts of wildfires.
Location, location, location -- it’s the old realtor 's mantra for what the most important feature is when looking at a potential house. If the house is in a bad neighborhood, it may not be suitable for the buyers. In searching for a house, many people will look at how safe the surrounding area is. If it’s not safe, they will tend stray away. Jane Jacobs understood the importance of this and knew how cities could maintain this safety, but warned of what would become of them if they did not diverge from the current city styles. More modern planners, such as Joel Kotkin argue that Jacobs’s lesson is no longer applicable to modern cities because they have different functions than those of the past. This argument is valid in the sense that city
Leaving Las Vegas, directed by Mike Figgis and based on the autobiographical novel by John O’Brien, is an emotional story about an alcoholic who rejects life and wants to drink himself to death in Las Vegas, and an unselfish prostitute who loves him the way he is. Ben, played by Nicholas Cage, was a former movie producer in Los Angeles and has obviously crumbled in the glamour world of Hollywood which is shown in the opening scene. Here Ben is already an alcoholic when he disturbs former colleagues that are embarrassed of his appearance at the restaurant. Ben is unstable and a mess when one of the men give him money and tell him not to contact him again. Ben then gets fired and ultimately decides to drink himself to death in Las Vegas, a city constructed on greed, crime and moral negligence. We are never certain of the cause of Ben’s alcoholism, especially when he says “I don’t remember if I started drinking because my wife left me, or my wife left me because I started drinking.” In a last attempt and hope of human interaction, Ben pays the hooker Sera, played by Elisabeth Shue, 500 dollars to spend a night with him. Sera is magically attracted to the loser type of man, as Figgis shows us with her boyfriend Yuri, her abusive pimp and boyfriend. This drama is about the absolute love between two people that live on society’s border who need each other to know that they exist.
Climate change is a major issue that is only going to get worse. Climate change is a change in global or regional climate patterns. It has become more apparent since the mid to late 20th century onwards and is attributed largely to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels. Climate change has been an important issue for decades that has effects on the environment and people of the world with the end result potentially being catastrophic. Although many believe that prolific use of fossil fuels is the direct cause of climate change, there are many more underlying causes including population expansion as well as irresponsible consumption of natural resources that have
Finally, this paper will explore the “end product” that exists today through the works of the various authors outlined in this course and explain how Los Angeles has survived many decades of evolution, breaking new grounds and serving as the catalyst for an urban metropolis.
Climate change will have significant impact and serious consequences to population health. Temperatures are predicted to rise 1.8 to 5.8 C over the next century impacting our health if interventions are not instigated (Shuman, 2010). Drought and heavy rainfall events will increase with climate change. In 1996, wildfires in Colorado contaminated drinking water due to excessive sediment and ask contaminating the surface water supply. In 1999, Lake Mead drought reduced water usage for Nevada, Utah and Arizona (CDC, 2012). USGRP (2016) cites vibrio (Cholera) cases