The City of Atlanta announced that Mayor Kasim Reed and 100 Resilient Cities – Pioneered by The Rockefeller Foundation officially unveiled the city’s Resilience Strategy. The unveiling came after a year’s worth of collecting input from more than 7,000 residents from 40 public events, 25 Neighborhood Planning Unit meetings and with the help of a 100-member advisory group comprised of the business, faith-based, nonprofit, academic and civic engagement communities.

Entitled Resilient Atlanta: Actions to Build a More Equitable Future, the strategy serves as a roadmap to better prevent and adapt the city to the challenges of the 21st century, which include extreme climate events such as major floods or heat waves, terrorist threats, and long-term chronic stresses such as income inequality, lack of affordable housing, or the effects of climate crisis. The strategy composes more than 55 short-term and long-term actions.

“We are proud to release the Atlanta Resilience Strategy, which will help guide the City of Atlanta in its efforts to create more socially-responsible policies and programs aimed at protecting the environment, advancing our infrastructure and driving our economy,” said Mayor Reed. “Resilient Atlanta represents more than just the input of thousands of community members, business owners, students, entrepreneurs, faith leaders, and local activists. It is a cohesive roadmap with ambitious, yet practical, initiatives that position Atlanta to be a global leader in the urban resilience movement.”

Led by Atlanta Chief Resilience Officer Stephanie Stuckey and the Office of Resilience, Resilient Atlanta proposes an integrated vision in response to various urban vulnerabilities – an approach inclusive of residents, public institutions, and the private sector.  

“Resilient Atlanta has a host of initiatives that can help maximize the city’s assets, like strengthening Atlanta’s arts and culture sectors to promote economic development, connecting residents to new careers and skill development opportunities, as well as revamping city policies and systems to encourage civic participation from all residents,” said Stephanie Stuckey. “I look forward to implementing this comprehensive strategy.”

Resilient Atlanta includes an actionable set of visions, targets, and actions that addresses the region’s most pressing stresses and seeks to build capacity among residents and city systems alike to better withstand future shocks. The Strategy is organized into four leading visions which reflect residents’ and stakeholders’ aspirations for Atlanta’s future. The collaborative set targets supported by actions that detail specific programs and policies to realize each vision. The visions include:

Preserve and Celebrate Who We Are: With these Actions, Atlanta can become a national leader in addressing structural racism while at the same time commemorating our rich cultural assets and hard-won reputation as the “City too busy to hate.”

Enable All Atlantans to Prosper: We envision a city in which all Atlantans have equal and equitable access to the resources, education, livable wages, and beyond-income-earning opportunities that will prepare them for success.

Build Our Future City Today: Facilitate the development of an equitable and inclusive city while preserving and expanding Atlanta’s natural environment. We envision a region that enhances transportation options, supports economic mobility, and improves the quality of life for all Atlantans.

Design Our Systems to Reflect Our Values: Adapt Atlanta’s civic systems to enable the City to become a leader in equity, sustainability, and resilience.

As a living document, the Strategy is fluid and the Mayor’s Office of Resilience will conduct full updates to the Strategy every four years, supplemented by report cards assessing progress. The assessments will be released at the beginning of each fiscal year, starting July 2019.