Bay Area Students Offer Solutions To Sea Level Rise

BERKELEY, CA — Floating cities and wetland buffers designed to tackle the threat of flooding and sea level rise are two ideas that student leaders presented at the first-ever Y-PLAN Youth Challenge Regional Summit in Berkeley. The Summit served as a continuation of a youth-led movement to re-imagine communities in the Bay Area to be stronger and safer by solving complex urban planning issues before disaster strikes.

The student plans go beyond typical K-12 school learning and could serve as a real blueprint for planners looking to address the multiple socio-economic and environmental threats that climate change is bringing to the Bay Area.

“We are the future and will be the ones most impacted by climate change,” said Rosa, an 11th-grader from Kennedy High School in Richmond. “Richmond is my home and today gave me the platform to make my voice heard and make my city safer and more affordable.”

The Y-PLAN Youth Challenge is in partnership with Resilient by Design | Bay Area Challenge, which challenges architects, designers, community leaders and more to come together and work in a similar fashion to the students.

Student leaders showcased interactive proposals for East Palo Alto, Richmond, San Francisco, Oakland and San Rafael, detailing their findings about the local impacts of climate change and painting their visions for making the future of the Bay Area more resilient and equitable.

Student interactive presentations were followed by a panel discussion with local student leaders, civic leaders, educators, and regional design, planning, and environmental experts about creating a youth leadership pipeline for resiliency and what it means to have a resilient Bay Area.

“This is a chance for students, design experts and civic leaders to push their thinking about what is possible here in the Bay,” said Deborah McKoy, Executive Director of the Center for Cities + Schools at UC Berkeley. “Students, often marginalized or invisible in urban planning processes, are acting as consultants for change by sharing their insights and lived experiences in their own communities. It’s a real-world opportunity for youth to plan the future they want to see and for designers to listen to community priorities from people who know these communities best.”

Over the next month, student leaders from San Rafael, East Palo Alto, Richmond, San Francisco, and Oakland will continue their engagement in regional urban planning by co-collaborating with local and global Designers participating in the Resilient by Design | Bay Area Challenge. Since January, student insights have helped to mold the design solutions imagined by the Challenge’s Design Teams and will continue to play a major role in determining what the future of resilience looks like in the Bay Area.

“With rising rents and rising flood levels across the Bay Area, young people and their communities know all too well that there is increased climate risk and urgency,” said Diana Sokolove, Principal Planner with the City and County of San Francisco. “I’m so impressed by the presentations showcased today and by student’s tenacity to take on the Bay Area’s most pressing and difficult challenges.”

“Resiliency speaks to the heart of the people,” said Krisna, a 12th grader at Kennedy High School. “It’s how we rise up, how we get back up from whatever situation we are in.”

Particiants in the Program:

• Over 50 Student Leaders from East Palo Alto, Richmond, San Francisco, Oakland and San Rafael
• Jennifer Wolch, UC Berkeley Dean of the College of Environmental Design
• Prudence Carter, UC Berkeley Dean of the Graduate School of Education
• Deborah McKoy, Executive Director of the Center for Cities + Schools, UC Berkeley
• Amanda Brown-Stevens, Managing Director, Resilient by Design
• Diana Sokolove, Principal Planner, San Francisco Planning Department
• Daniel Hamilton, Director of Sustainability, City of Oakland
• Sequoia Erasmus, Mayor’s Office, City of Richmond
• Cynthia Wong, Executive Director, LISC Bay Area

About Y-PLAN:

The Y-PLAN Youth Challenge is a regional initiative comprised of over 800 students working together in close collaboration with civic leaders and design teams from the Resilient by Design | Bay Area Challenge. For the past 9 months, students in 22 public schools around the Bay Area have been building the tools to examine the social impacts of climate change and are now ready to present solutions and lead the way forward. In the classroom, on field trips to the project sites, and at events like the Flood Fair in San Rafael, students and Design Team members have been working together to bring to life their visions for a Bay Area that is more resilient and equitable. As a part of its commitment to building real resilience in the Bay Area, the Resilient by Design | Bay Area Challenge has partnered with the UC Berkeley Center for Cities + Schools (CC+S) to launch a sister effort to the design challenge currently taking place across the Bay Area. In January, Resilient by Design and CC+S launched the Resilient by Design | Y-PLAN Youth Challenge, a multi-month student challenge to envision and imagine a more resilient and equitable Bay Area, led by student thinking and learning. Y-PLAN is committed to working with low-income communities of color in the Bay Area. Their work acknowledges that these communities are historically and currently furthest from opportunity due to structural and institutional injustice.

About Resilient By Design:

Resilient by Design | Bay Area Challenge is a collaborative research and design initiative that connects design leaders to community members, local leaders, and national experts. In a year-long challenge, Design Teams of landscape architects, engineers, designers and other experts will work alongside community members and local government to identify critical areas along the San Francisco Bayfront and propose exciting new solutions that will strengthen our region’s resilience to sea level rise, severe storms, flooding and earthquakes. The Challenge will result in 9 new implementable solutions designed to help communities adapt to the future effects of climate change. These solutions will be designed to improve public access to recreation areas, address housing issues, protect vulnerable infrastructure and strengthen transportation systems. The Challenge was also modeled on New York Rebuild by Design, a partnership of The Rockefeller Foundation and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The Challenge will forge close ties with 100 Resilient Cities, a network pioneered by The Rockefeller Foundation, of which San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley are members. 100 Resilient Cities is seeking to help 100 cities build resilience to thrive in 21st century. The Resilient by Design Executive Board is made up of leaders around the region representing governments, agencies, nonprofits and advocacy groups throughout the Bay Area. The Rockefeller Foundation is providing major funding for this effort, along with other generous funders including The California State Coastal Conservancy, Bay Area Regional Collaborative, The Seed Fund, Santa Clara Valley Water District, City and County of San Francisco, Resources Legacy Fund, Marin Community Foundation, Pacific Gas and Electric, and Metropolitan Transportation Commission. Learn more at www.resilientbayarea.org. A calendar of additional Resilient by Design public events is available here.

-Announcement from UC Berkeley; Image via NASA