The state rep who sparked Colorado’s fire recovery
Politics tamfitronics Hello, and welcome back to State of Emergency, a limited-run newsletter about how disasters are reshaping our politics. I’m Jake Bittle, a reporter for Grist, and I’ll be writing this newsletter along with my colleague, Zoya Teirstein.It’s almost a truism that disasters offer an opportunity for positive change. That’s the idea behind President Joe Biden’s promise to “build back better” after the coronavirus pandemic, and it’s also the reason FEMA has poured billions of dollars into post-disaster adaptation projects. But in the five years I’ve spent covering climate disasters, I have almost never seen a place change for the better after a big flood or wildfire. Displaced victims scatter to hotels and rental apartments, developers and local lawmakers rush to rebuild everything the way it was, and...
