Resilience Building in Action

City of Tampa

Creating a More Resilient Tampa

The City of Tampa is at a critical moment in its history. After unprecedented population and economic growth over the past decade, Tampanians are now experiencing higher sea levels and more extreme weather due to climate change, the economic and social impacts of long-standing inequities, and of course, the effects of the global pandemic. Under the leadership of Mayor Jane Castor, the City is meeting these challenges by strengthening its resilience: building back in a way that tackles underlying vulnerabilities while advancing other urgent city-identified priorities.

In May 2021, Resilient Cities Catalyst partnered with Mayor Castor and Tampa’s Sustainability and Resilience Officer to release Resilient Tampa. This tactical roadmap builds upon Mayor Castor’s pioneering vision, with concrete actions that address the City’s most pressing challenges at all scales. RCC co-designed the Roadmap’s 58 initiatives through an extensive series of workshops, surveys, and direct engagement with key stakeholders across the City, including City officials, nonprofits, businesses, philanthropy, and academia. RCC coupled the priorities and ideas surfaced by Tampanians with global best practices, and also built upon existing efforts set forth in the mayor’s Transforming Tampa’s Tomorrow initiative. The resulting Roadmap is organized around aspirational visions and goals for Tampa’s future that span every scale, from individual Tampanians, to neighborhoods, to infrastructure systems, to the City as a whole. To achieve these visions and goals, the Roadmap specifies actions that achieve multiple benefits—addressing multiple shocks and stresses in order to maximize limited resources.

The Tampa Bay Times Editorial Board heralded the Roadmap as ambitious and breathtaking in scope, leaving “few policy stones unturned.” Since the release of the Roadmap last year, RCC has continued to partner with the City on implementation, with most initiatives already underway. RCC’s partnership in developing the Roadmap has also helped catalyze new philanthropic funding and implementation partners who are working with both RCC and the City to advance the Roadmap’s equity and climate goals and to build resilience at the regional scale. Finally, the City is also using the goals outlined in the Roadmap—Opportunity for All Tampanians, Thriving Neighborhoods, Climate-Ready Infrastructure, and Growing and Connected City—to align its upcoming budget. With Resilient Tampa as a blueprint, Tampa is now stronger and more prepared to face its future challenges.