Tom Campanella is an assistant professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and a Visiting Lecturer Harvard University Graduate School of Design and China’s Nanjing University Graduate School of Architecture. He is co-editor of the book The Resilient City - How Modern Cites Recover from Disaster and author of Republic of Shade: New England and the American Elm as well as Cites from the Sky: An Aerial Portrait of America.  In this dispatch he discusses reslilient cities, the loss of the American Elm tree, the American suburb and current developments in China. May 13, 2006