Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Innovative efforts make a difference. This chapter opens by examining the intersection of structural racism and climate change as a threat multiplier with a disproportionate impact on historically underrepresented and underinvested communities. The chapter’s contributors fight back against the city’s climate crisis image as the epicenter of “all events negative,” choosing to believe that solutions are within reach. While recognizing that established laws and practices perpetuate structural racism and impede environmental justice, they suggest ways to overhaul practices and policies with an eye toward a better future, and perhaps to serve as an example to other parts of the country. A chapter Spotlight laced with emotional outpourings explores the complexities around the word “resilience,” and offers “thriving” as an alternative word to describe the needs of communities that repeatedly face challenges and inequities linked to structural and systemic inequality and climate crises.</jats:p>