Research: Efforts to Rebuild After the Hurricane

So I flipped through a Powerpoint presentation from the Department of Planning and Urban Studies at the University of New Orleans entitled "Planning Efforts in Post-Katrina New Orleans" about the City's approach to rebuilding after the hurricane. The Mayor's first plan (from the Bring New Orleans Back Commission) created an uproar because it recommended turning former neighborhoods into parks (such as Broadmoor--more details later), shrinking the city's footprint overall. The uproar sparked community-based initiatives across the city. City Council then proposed the Neighborhoods Rebuilding Plan. Then the Unified New Orleans plan finally sought feedback from neighborhoods, so some improvements.... Planning planning planning and not too much action on the part of the city.

Part of the city's Road Home project to bring former residents back to their rental units is evaluated in "Bringing Louisiana Renters Home: An Evaluation of the 2006-2007 Gulf Opportunity Zone Rental Housing Restoration Program" (PolicyLink June 2007). The study only looks at renters--supposedly initiatives to help homeowners were more successful, but don't quote me on that. Basically the renter portion of Road Home was way underfunded and was not initially targeted towards poorer neighborhoods and only found/built housing for something like one fifth of the need. Fail.

Something that has been successful, however, is more community-based, community organizing-type approaches. The Broadmoor Guide for Planning and Implementation takes lessons learned from the Broadmoor neighborhood, just north of Freret where I am, and turns them into a handbook on how to organize a community after a disaster. It's a really impressive piece, basically describes how community organizing should work to work well. It seems that it's groups like The Broadmoor Improvement Association and The Broadmoor Development Corps, and Neighborhood Housing Services, that can really make a difference.

This does not mean that I agree with everything said in Local Knowledge, published by the Mercatus Center (re: conservatives!, albeit intelligent conservatives that make a lot of very good points... good enough to almost convince me, but not quite!). It's an interesting publication, though, focusing on how entrepreneurs were able to make real improvements in their neighborhoods after the disaster. Someone needs to "build a box" around those entreprenuers so they can grow (borrowing from LeAlan Jones' ideas, as presented in Chad's class last quarter).