Urban Resilience: New Realities — Insights from My Talk at USF's Urban Resilience Panel
Beyond the Lone Wolf Myth: How NYC Preppers Build Community Resilience
In my research on New York City's prepper community, I've discovered how urban resilience manifests during times of crisis. My book "Bracing for the Apocalypse" concluded just as the pandemic was beginning, but what we've learned about community resilience during COVID-19 offers valuable insights for cities facing future challenges.
For me, the core of urban resilience is love—the power that sustains our cities throughout periods of tragic change. This perspective aligns with how New York preppers approach community resilience.
Prepping involves planning to independently survive disasters without government assistance, based on the philosophy that in a real crisis, the government may be overwhelmed or incapable of helping.
As Jason Charles, leader of the New York City Preppers Network, explains:
"Zombies aren't real, neither are aliens. This isn't about science fiction stuff. Preparedness is about preparing for real things. Real things we've already been through like 9/11 and Hurricane Sandy."
Contrary to popular imagination that depicts preppers as white male lone wolves, New York's prepper community reflects the city's diversity. Many preppers are people of color, and many are women. As one African American female prepper explained:
"This isn't about being the individual lone wolf. This involves mothers and children. This is about the city."
Prepared Before the Crisis
Since the start of the 21st century, New York has experienced a series of disasters and disruptions. The pandemic's impact on New York far exceeded the combined devastation of both 9/11 and Hurricane Sandy in terms of public health and economic consequences.
All preppers interviewed in my study reported being prepared for the pandemic by the end of January, nearly two months before the shelter-in-place order in New York City. They demonstrated resilience in several key ways:
Early acquisition of personal protective equipment by January 2020
Development of neighborhood support networks
Distribution of supplies to vulnerable community members
Organization of medication and grocery delivery systems for elderly residents
The first impact of COVID-19 was a confirmation of preppers' belief system—that they needed to be self-reliant because the federal government might be unwilling or unable to help.
As Marlon, an experienced prepper, stated:
"I said a long time ago that there was no cavalry coming. The pandemic proves that I was right in my thinking."
Government-Community Partnerships
Shortly after Hurricane Sandy and September 11th, New York funded and trained volunteer responders across the boroughs—a fantastic role that local government played in supporting community response. Unfortunately, that program was later cut.
The pandemic has revealed areas where such programs need expansion, particularly for immigrant communities that struggled to access accurate information. This highlights the importance of government supporting community-based disaster response initiatives rather than viewing them as separate or competing efforts.
For urban preppers, the pandemic has been a lesson in endurance that allowed them to test their preparedness during a real-life disaster. Their knowledge, resources, and networks all served them well during this time.
One misconception about preppers is that they're isolated individuals. In reality, many are community leaders. Community resilience depends on understanding the complex interplay of social, economic, and health factors that shape disaster impacts across different communities.
#UrbanResilience #NYCPreppers #DisasterResponse #CommunitySupport
Urban Resilience: New Realities | Pandemonium
Transcript:
Starts at minute 27:10.
Thank you so much. I'm really enjoying the presentation. I'm so glad to be here. My talk today is titled New York Street Smarts and Survival Smarts During the Pandemic: Preppers and Community Resilience. So I'm excited to talk about what the preppers are doing right now because it's interesting because my book actually ended on day five of the start of the pandemic in New York.
But before we get there, first, I would like to thank SFU or the SFU Urban Studies Program and SFU Public Space for making space for us to have such an important dialogue tonight as we move forward toward recovery from the pandemic, building not just better, but building more justly.
28:08 We're called to consider exactly what we've been talking about right now: urban resilience, the core of urban resilience. What is that? For me, that core of urban resilience is love. Today I'm taking the advice of Professor Meg Holden and maybe Governor Cuomo, too, as I'm claiming my love for my city and my people and thinking about how we move forward.
This evening we're talking about how the power of love can sustain our cities throughout a period of tragic change. Tonight, I'd like to share the resilience highlights of my research on New York City’s preppers and their love of the New York community. And it's interesting because there's going to be a lot of intersection in terms of resilience as context dependent and general resiliency versus specific.
So what is prepping and who are preppers? And let me go ahead and move and begin to share my screen and we'll get started.
29:15 OK, All right, so who are preppers? Let me go ahead and move to the beginning. So when we think about prepping, prepping is planning to independently survive disaster without government assistance, with the philosophy that in the event of a real crisis, government will not be able to help you. You'll be overwhelmed, with the argument that the government will be overwhelmed or incapable.
As Jason Charles, the leader of the New York City Preppers Network, explains, zombies aren't real, neither are aliens. This isn't about science fiction stuff. Preparedness is about preparing for real things. Real things. Like we've already been through like 911 and Hurricane Sandy. New Yorkers need to be prepared.
30:10 My my project focuses is my qualitative project focuses on setting the impact of COVID-19 on preppers and their philosophy on their philosophy of self-reliance and practices. I take a look at their approaches to prepping, different experiences along class lines and surviving in New York and also strong local bonds. Ultimately, I discovered that preppers are an important existing resource for community resilience.
So what are preppers worried about? What are they? Why are they busy preparing? They're concerned about terrorist attacks, natural disasters, pandemics, technological failures and government or economic instability. And we'll see in New York, we've experienced all of those.
30:50 So who are preppers? Well, here's the interesting thing. On the left side, we have in the American popular imagination the stereotype of preppers on the white male lone wolf ready to protect his family against a dangerous unknown. However, reality often conflicts with imagination, and when we take a look at New York preppers, like their city, New York Peppers reflect diversity. Many preppers are people of color, and many preppers are also women.
As explained by Inshera, an African American female prepper,
“that cowboy idea doesn't apply to everyone in prepping. Preppers aren't necessarily those white guys in the backwoods and the guys were in tactical gear. This isn't about being an individual lone wolf. This involves mothers and children. This is about the city.”
30:49 So why do New Yorkers practice prepping? As one Prepper explained, living in New York is like living on the X, and we take a look at the top three. So since the start of the 21st century, New York has experienced a series of disasters and disruptions. The top three are the September 11th terrorist attack, Hurricane Sandy, and then now the pandemic.
And we take a look at COVID-19. Its colossal impact on New York as devastation of our city far exceeds the combination of both the 9/11 attack and Hurricane Sandy in terms of our public health and our economy. However, these three disasters aren’t the only things that have occurred since the 21st century. When we take a look at a real breakdown of this of disasters and disruptions, we see that these three have just been are just a sample of the many things that have happened.
32:38 So when we think about urban preppers in the pandemic and we think about resiliency exercises, the first impact of COVID-19 was a confirmation of preppers belief system in terms of believing that they needed to be self-reliant because the federal government was unwilling or was unable and are unwilling to help them.
With the Trump administration, we saw no clear and coordinated national policy. Instead, we saw reluctance, confusion and a lack of transparency, as well as a lack of regard for the American people. So in terms of resiliency, self-reliance was reaffirmed for preppers.
33:25 And I think they say it's best. Marlon, a seasoned prepper and taking a look at both federal, state and local, said,
“Look, I said a long time ago that there was no cavalry coming. The pandemic proves that I was right in my thinking. The president exaggerating claims while people are dying. Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio squabbling and holding things up while people are dying. Stop having faith in these people. We have to take care of ourselves.”
33:45 Another prepper argued that the federal government's inability to manage the COVID crisis resulted in a game of whack-a-mole, where problems related to the virus and the confusion kept popping up. Indeed. So for urban preppers, the pandemic has been a lessons and endurance that has allowed them to test their mettle during a real life disaster.
34:25 In terms of their strengths, knowledge, resources and networks, all serve them quite well. An important example would be the use of the prepping closets. All preppers interviewed for this study — which was 40 — reported being prepared for the pandemic by the end of January, nearly two months before the shelter-in-place order in our city.
In addition to having things such as food and first aid resources, they already had personal protective equipment, including masks and gear and suits if needed. Now, in addition to protecting their families, preppers also engage in resilient building activities for their communities, such as helping neighbors with preparations for the pandemic, providing supplies such as masks and gloves to communities to neighbors in need, organizing or participating in neighborhood networks to deliver medication and groceries to the elderly or disabled residents.
35:17 One of the things that people don't really understand about preppers is that they're actually very much community, community leaders. The idea of isolated individuals isn't incorrect.
35:33 So I'm going to end on this quotation. A long term prepper from Brooklyn Light explained.
“We are vindicated, not that we want to be. We want to help people. That's what this is about. You can't survive without community.”