Connection
At a climate crisis crossroads— Envisioning an equitable future One Rust Belt town’s EcoDistrict roadmap to resilient, healthy, and inclusive community building Robert Tuñón, AIA, NOMA, EcoDistricts AP Tuñón is an associate at Rothschild Doyno Collaborative and the board chair of the Etna Community Organization. As a professional, he specializes in the adaptive reuse of existing buildings and its intersection with community development and affordable housing. In his service role, Tuñón volunteered as a community organizer throughout the Etna EcoDistrict planning process and continues to serve today in its implementation
Anna Rosenblum, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP EB O&M, EcoDistricts AP Rosenblum is an associate at evolveEA. She specializes in sustainability consulting, community planning, and stakeholder engagement design, with a focus on high-performing communities such as EcoDistricts. Rosenblum served as project manager for several projects that have won national planning and design awards, and she guided certification efforts for the first three certified EcoDistricts in the world. Rosenblum holds a Master of Science in Sustainable Design and a Bachelor of Architecture from Carnegie Mellon University.
MB: Etna’s history as a quintessential Pittsburgh-area mill town and flood-prone geographic positioning have established it as a particularly vulnerable community economically and environmentally. In the wake of increased calls for social justice and threats of climate change, what challenges does Etna face in the years to come? RT: Etna is a place with a fluctuating history: There have been times of great prosperity and times of devastating crises, but we are most certainly on the upward swing again. When talking with residents, both young and old, there is a sense that we look at our challenges with optimism. Part of that spirit is because Etna has faced and still faces the threats of climate change “shocks” and socioeconomic “stresses.” We are resilient.
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These challenges have helped us focus on what is most important: our people and how we build a more inclusive and equitable world; our infrastructure and how we redevelop the built environment so that it benefits our health and wellbeing; our culture and how we strengthen relationships with one another to achieve a supportive, connected community. The other part of the optimism stems from seeing the transformative stormwater management projects from our municipal government. Etna Borough has completed multiple phases of streetscapes which remove millions of gallons of stormwater from our system, and doing it in a way that is both functional and beautiful. While we are making progress, the primary challenge we still face is continuing to fund the bold vision outlined in the Etna EcoDistrict Plan .
