Janelle Irwin Taylor
St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman is meeting with Michael Bloomberg to make an announcement concerning his administration’s efforts to combat climate change.
Kriseman is meeting with the former New York City Mayor for coffee Thursday morning and then the two will deliver a news conference at Albert Whitted Park at 10 a.m.
The two will also meet with the group Moms Demand Action, a gun reform advocacy coalition.
Bloomberg, who is considering a 2020 presidential run as a Democrat, has been vocal on climate change issues. In a recent Meet the Press interview Bloomberg said the issue should be the top platform for 2020 candidates.
“I think that any candidate for federal office better darn well have a plan to deal with the problem that the Trump science advisers say could basically end this world,” he said.
Bloomberg has been critical of President Donald Trump’s administration’s lack of effort to tackle climate change and other policies that blatantly undo previous efforts to mitigate effects, including pulling out of the Paris climate agreement.
“It would be a lot more helpful if we had a climate champion rather than a climate denier in the White House,” Bloomberg told host Chuck Todd.
Locally, climate change is a front and center issue. Much of St. Pete is in low-lying coastal areas and is already at risk for flooding. As seas rise, it’s expected that flooding will only become more intense.
The Washington Post singled out the Tampa Bay region in a 2017 climate analysis that portrayed the entire region as one of the most vulnerable nationwide to a major hurricane. A map of the region shows downtown Tampa and downtown St. Pete underwater as well as all of the coastal areas along Tampa Bay and the Gulf Beaches in the event of a Category 5 hurricane.
The expose referenced a Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council hypothetical “Hurricane Phoenix” that would level much of the region.
Since taking office in 2013, Kriseman has made mitigation a priority, insisting that new development is built to withstand hurricanes and resist flooding.
