Andrew Rumbach

YouTube video by NYT Cooking The Only Chocolate Cake Recipe You'll Ever Need With Claire Saffitz | NYT Cooking

This cake rules www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oz3j...

Sourdough post of the week: sesame and sunflower loaf.

Where Can Solar Investments Reduce Energy Burdens? Rooftop solar offers households an opportunity to bring down energy costs and improve quality of life, but not all communities are well-positioned to act on …

In a resource constrained world, where can solar investments maximize equity by reducing energy burdens? The Solar Opportunity Index from my Urban climate colleagues takes into account factors like minority homeownership and roof suitability to target investments: www.urban.org/research/pub...

Wow crypto is in an absolute free fall

Searching for Silver Linings: Decentralization and Experimentation in U.S. Disaster Policy The turmoil at FEMA could usher in a new era of curiosity around disaster programs

There aren’t many things to be optimistic about right now in the disaster arena. But decentralizing policy could create opportunities for rigorous research and evidence-based decision-making: open.substack.com/pub/andrewru...

Ok, housing policy hot shots...dream job opportunity just dropped: www.jchs.harvard.edu/nicolas-p-an...

Trump Wanted to Abolish FEMA. His Own Advisers Disagree.

The pieces of the FEMA reform puzzle are starting to come together. Not a ton of detail here but it is notable that the draft recommendations from the advisory committee include potentially restoring cabinet level status to FEMA. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/19/c...

FEMA to Texas? Disaster agency mulls move to Lone Star State The state's top emergency official also is under discussion to lead FEMA. The agency's acting chief resigned Monday after a six-month stint.

www.politico.com/news/2025/11...

FEMA chief steps down as Trump administration prepared to oust him | CNN Politics The embattled acting chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency will step down after hurricane season following months of public controversy and internal frustration.

Best piece so far: www.cnn.com/2025/11/17/p...

Acting FEMA Administrator Is Out, Injecting Uncertainty at Agency in Limbo

When everyone's phone at the resilience-focused luncheon buzzes simultaneously:

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/c...

I take offense to the Daily’s description of ‘changing how zoning works’ as unsexy.

SearsHouses.com The National List

One of the neatest early examples of pre-fabricated housing in the U.S. were kit homes, most famously made by Sears...people would order their home from the catalog and the parts would be delivered by rail and they would assemble them on-site.

www.searshouses.com

I’ve lived in DC for several years and still am getting used to that some of the best restaurants anywhere are in a strip mall somewhere in northern Virginia

3. Not surprisingly, levels of disaster damage predict participation in recovery meetings. This is important for thinking about recovery decisions that have community-wide implications and who is most actively involved in shaping elected officials thinking and decisions.

Lots more in the article!

1. The level of disaster damage was inversely related to that person's support for sustainability and resiliency policies post-fire, reflecting (we believe) concern over the economic cost of recovery.
2. People who experienced higher levels of disaster damage had less trust in the recovery process.

Disaster Damage as a Driver of Climate Resilience Policy Support | Natural Hazards Review | Vol 27, No 1 AbstractThe 2021 Marshall Fire, the most destructive wildfire in Colorado’s history, destroyed over 1,000 homes and damaged many others in the communities of Louisville, Superior, and unincorporated B...

New article from our Marshall Fire research team, led by Katie Dickinson and including @deseraicrow.bsky.social and @enviropolicy-prof.bsky.social, among others not on Bluesky.

We surveyed 823 people in the aftermath of the disaster. Some key findings:

ascelibrary.org/doi/10.1061/...

‘Between the devil and the Bay of Bengal’: the Ford Foundation and the politics of planning in post-Independence Calcutta From 1960–1973, the Ford Foundation and the Calcutta Metropolitan Planning Organization (CMPO) engaged in a unique partnership that produced the Basic Development Plan, a bold strategy for the deve...

Everyone has that publication that is a labor of love, one that won't get cited much but will be useful for just the right person. Here is mine, a detailed history of the Ford Foundation's efforts to help Calcutta create its first master plan after Independence: www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Occasional note that I repost and share a lot of disaster/climate/policy research/academic job openings on LinkedIn. Please follow or connect there!

This story 🤯https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/11/12/cia-afghanistan-heroin-poppy-seeds/

(and that is where policy really matters. In some disasters, the cavalry arrives and offsets those transitional housing costs or provides assistance to help homeowners float their mortgages until insurance settlements. In others, the cavalry never arrives.)

It depends. In some instances having a mortgage (which you continue to pay) can become a financial anchor that really complicates recovery because of an inability to pay that + transitional housing costs. So we find mortgages positively associated with long-term displacement, in some disasters.

Though ironically a lot of people with paid off mortgages (including those in generationally owned homes) drop their insurance coverage.

In the floodplain management world there is a really common communication phrase about there being a 25% chance of a 100-year flood during the life of a 30-year mortgage. Not sure how effective it has been but we keep saying it.

It is not about making it better or worse, but helpful to understand risk probabilities in terms that people understand. Having a mortgage or not certainly connects with vulnerability though.

(compound probabilities add up differently, my limited math brain reasons)

Yeah, that is even a less fun fact

For the same reason that the chance of a 100-year flood in 100 years isn't 100%

Trump just floated a 50-year mortgage. Is that a good idea? | CNN Business Most first-time homebuyers in the United States take out 30-year mortgages. Under a new proposal from the Trump administration, they may soon have an even longer loan option.

Fun fact: a homeowner in the 100-year floodplain with a 50-year mortgage would have a 39.5% chance of experiencing at least one 100-year flood during their mortgage period.

www.cnn.com/2025/11/11/b...

We hope the findings will inform recovery policy conversations and help financial organizations to design new supports for communities. If you know folks who might share our study invitation, could you DM me? As always we will compensate participants and share our study results far-and-wide.

Are you connected with recovery efforts after Hurricane Helene? If so, a request...we are beginning a new study on household financial recovery after the hurricane and hoping to interview several dozen households across all of the affected states.