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Author Archives: unifythemississippi
Mississippi River Clean Water Depends on Citizen Support
Last December, a U.S. District Court ruled the Environmental Protection Agency has broad discretion in its application of its Clean Water Act. The upshot: the EPA’s CWA places primary responsibility on states to protect water and the federal government isn’t responsible … Continue reading
Merry Christmas Mississippi River Style
The Mississippi River provides a backdrop to many American holiday traditions, but my favorite is Louisiana’s Christmas Eve bonfires on the levees. The story goes that the bonfires light the way for “Papa Noel”, the Cajun Santa Claus. Others say … Continue reading
Mississippi River Stakeholders: Let’s Get Organized
INFRASTRUCTURE: A word that’s finally getting much needed attention. What will all this attention mean for the Mississippi River? Specific interest groups are already organizing. While the Mississippi River may seem like an automatic recipient for strong infrastructure upgrades, based … Continue reading
Mississippi River as a Connector
In a recent New York Times opinion piece, Parag Khanna, a senior fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore, outlines how social and economic development increasingly pivots around infrastructure corridors rather than arbitrary boundaries like … Continue reading
What to do about a Failing Mississippi River Grade
This is an old Pogo cartoon who’s caption, “We have met the enemy and he is US” came to mind when a report card for the Mississippi River showed a D+ grade for its infrastructure. Ironically, a major newspaper story … Continue reading
Launching A Unified Mississippi River
What if it was possible to agree on a unified approach to the Mississippi River? I know, it’s a BIG river and a complicated one. It’s different on the upper end and the lower end. There are so many stakeholders … Continue reading
Embracing Mississippi River Tourism
Last week’s announcement by European cruise giant, Viking, sent shivers up the collective spines of tourism offices up and down the Mississippi River. The highly successful river-cruising giant will put two cruise vessels on the Mississippi River in 2017, its … Continue reading
Take the Great River Road to Glimpse America
If you want to get a feel for what it means to be America’s great river, travel it via the Great River Road. We didn’t do the whole thing, but we got a taste in October when we meandered four … Continue reading
Planning For The Birds
Bird vs. Stadium. The builders of the new Minnesota Vikings stadium forgot to take winged creatures into account when they designed a see-through, glass-plated façade sitting smack in the middle of the North American Mississippi River Flyway. As a dangerous … Continue reading
The Mississippi River & Africa’s Congo Share a Lack of Context
Anjan Sundaram weaves a personal tale in his book, “Stringer: A Reporter’s Journey in the Congo”. In a recent New York Times article he sums up how “We’re Missing the Story”. “The Western news media is in crisis and is … Continue reading
