Historically stable Lake Michigan has seen its water levels fluctuate dramatically over the last decade, posing increasingly urgent threats to lakeside property and causing severe droughts and flooding.

Although it "stands a half-continent away from the threat of surging ocean levels" and "hugs the shores of one of the grandest expanses of freshwater in the world," writes Dan Egan, Chicago is not immune from threats caused by climate change. Built on a swamp, the city faces the looming threat of rising water levels in Lake Michigan. High-rise buildings on the edge of Lake Superior, says Josh Ellis, former vice president of Chicago's Metropolitan Planning Council, are "just teetering on the edge of the lake" with "water lapping at their foundations."
"Lake Michigan’s water level has historically risen or fallen by just a matter of inches over the course of a year, swelling in summer following the spring snowmelt and falling off in winter. Bigger oscillations, a few feet up or down from the average, also took place in slow, almost rhythmic cycles unfolding over the course of decades." But "[i]n 2013, Lake Michigan plunged to a low not seen since record-keeping began in the mid-1800s, wreaking havoc across the Midwest." Then, "[j]ust a year later, in 2014, the lake started climbing at a stunning rate, ultimately setting a record summertime high in 2020 before drought took hold and water levels started plunging again."
This pattern is "threatening to upend centuries of relative stability along the Great Lakes’ 10,000 miles of shoreline, including the 22 miles that define Chicago’s eastern edge," writes Egan. "Beginning in fall 2019, a series of storms ravaged the neighborhoods that pocket Chicago’s mostly public shoreline. Nowhere has the lake been more menacing to lakefront property owners than the working-class neighborhood along South Shore Drive, about 10 miles south of downtown." As these extremes intensify, "the speed and uncertainty of the changes underscore how Chicago, in some crucial ways, is perhaps more immediately exposed to the dangers of global warming than cities on the ocean."
FULL STORY: The climate crisis haunts Chicago’s future. A Battle Between a Great City and a Great Lake

Alabama: Trump Terminates Settlements for Black Communities Harmed By Raw Sewage
Trump deemed the landmark civil rights agreement “illegal DEI and environmental justice policy.”

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

The 120 Year Old Tiny Home Villages That Sheltered San Francisco’s Earthquake Refugees
More than a century ago, San Francisco mobilized to house thousands of residents displaced by the 1906 earthquake. Could their strategy offer a model for the present?

In Both Crashes and Crime, Public Transportation is Far Safer than Driving
Contrary to popular assumptions, public transportation has far lower crash and crime rates than automobile travel. For safer communities, improve and encourage transit travel.

Report: Zoning Reforms Should Complement Nashville’s Ambitious Transit Plan
Without reform, restrictive zoning codes will limit the impact of the city’s planned transit expansion and could exclude some of the residents who depend on transit the most.

Judge Orders Release of Frozen IRA, IIJA Funding
The decision is a victory for environmental groups who charged that freezing funds for critical infrastructure and disaster response programs caused “real and irreparable harm” to communities.
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