The path to a walkable, livable urban future is filled with hurdles. Take, for instance, the public transit battle being waged in Hawaii.

Washington, take note: if our nation physically crumbles, our status as a world leader crumbles too. It's time to take action.

When neighbors plant food together, or find jobs improving buildings on their own block -- when they create reliable, safe infrastructure and common green space -- they increase their odds of surviving all kinds of hardships, from storms, to divisive politics, to economic recession.

We ended the Dust Bowl by returning much of the landscape back to its native state and changing how we treated the land we continue to occupy. And we will end disasters like Hurricane Sandy the same way.

Once considered one of the most conservative cities in the country, and known largely for its industrial manufacturing history, Indianapolis may seem like an unlikely leader in the movement to create more vibrant, healthy, equitable communities.

If we're smart, we won't wait for another wake-up call like Sandy before we start doing the work to protect our communities. We need to put our federal dollars where they count: Building and fixing the infrastructure that will protect us from the ravages of climate change.