Preparing Boston for Future Floods

The office of Boston Mayor Martin Walsh released a climate preparedness report on December 8, 2016. "The 400-page report outlines an array of options for 'climate-proofing' the city, including the creation of a decentralized energy grid, the construction of a barrier in Boston Harbor to protect against storm surges, [and] expanded flood insurance coverage," according to reporting from Rob Deleo in Next City.

Still, Deleo worries that the plan may be easier to construct than to realize. "Anticipatory policymaking is political kryptonite. Voters reward politicians for projects that procure immediate benefits, not long-term and potentially intrusive planning projects that take years to produce clearly observable outputs," he writes. While Deleo argues that preparation will be much less expensive than later repair, preparation can be difficult to sell to voters who can be more easily persuaded by immediate problems than looming disasters.