I have just returned from a 3-day visit to New Orleans, as part of a small Portland delegation hosted by Mercy Corps, which has been on the ground in the devastated Gulf Coast region since early September of last year, helping people and communities recover from Katrina’s rampage.
Visiting New Orleans was particularly poignant for me, since I’ve been haunted by a vision of its vulnerability since my first visit years ago, when I looked up to see ships sail by. My trip to SE Asia in the wake of the deadly 2004 tsunami only reinforced my concern, prompting me to look introduce legislation to help communities deal with disasters last summer. Today, a year after Katrina, I am struck by how much of my initial reaction to the storm remains valid.
I could not help being overwhelmed by the enormity of it all; the devastation is stunning. Vast stretches of the city still lie virtually uninhabited, with debris everywhere. Yet I have been inspired by amazing stories of spots of individual determination and courage. Men and women of all ages, backgrounds, and ethnic origins are pulling their own lives back together and helping others who are in need. Churches, nascent neighborhood organizations, and individuals are all working to restore homes, churches, businesses, schools, and community centers in otherwise devastated neighborhoods. In the course of three days, I had hoped to assess the impacts of the various activities, but there were simply too many. Although I certainly didn’t see all there was in our brief trip, I did begin to gain a sense of the magnitude of the problems that New Orleanians still face, and had the opportunity to witness the promise of a new New Orleans in the many people I met.
New Orleans has attracted an unprecedented concentration of planning resources and expertise. In the past year, tens of millions of dollars -- as well as innumerable volunteer hours -- have been invested by both public and private interests from all parts of the country. I also saw evidence of an unprecedented grassroots planning effort in New Orleans, as returning residents struggle to rebuild their communities. Despite having spent a good deal of my life working with committed citizens and community groups on planning rules, zoning issues, transportation projects, and environmental regulations, I have seldom encountered the desire and commitment that I witnessed this past week in New Orleans. Residents there are demanding to be heard and incorporated into the future plans for their city and their communities.
What’s needed now is an open and accountable process that integrates local knowledge, concerns, and efforts into a comprehensive and coherent regional plan for New Orleans – a process that provides a sense of ownership and the assurance that everyone will be treated fairly. People will not be willing to tackle the most challenging task of all – implementation -- unless they have the confidence that the plan will serve all neighborhoods, regardless of race or economic level. Governments at all levels, as well as private interests, must agree to abide by the plan, rather than abandon it to pursue individual interests. Perhaps most importantly, the end product must be something that has sound legal footing and is enforceable.
For all the rhetoric and distrust surrounding the discussion about ‘shrinking’ New Orleans, the reality is that New Orleans has been shrinking for the past 50 years. A bustling city of 650,000 in the 1960s had less than 500,000 residents by 2000 – and was down to 171,000 last June. Its decline in population, however, didn’t keep it from consuming land. And rather than provide needed economic growth, this sprawl required new roads, sewers, and water lines.
Katrina has brought theses issues to a head, as roads, public transit, parks, schools, utilities, sewer, and water are all in disarray. (40% of New Orleans homes and businesses still lack power and those that have it are often paying exorbitant rates to private energy companies.) Environmental and economic forces are already redefining New Orleans’ footprint, creating the opportunity for focusing scarce resources. The question will be whether or not this the allocation of these resources will be aligned with a plan that shares both burdens and benefits broadly, or whether they will be handed over, in traditional fashion, to only the well-connected, the politically powerful, and the lucky. This is a difficult conversation in the free-wheeling politics of New Orleans, where mistrust has long dominated the allocation of resources to schools, public housing, transportation, public safety, and other infrastructure.
Certainly, Katrina’s devastation has introduced a complex and volatile mixture to these discussions, but these issues must be confronted head-on if the next year is going to produce any meaningful results.
1. Insist on a legal framework for regional planning that requires coordination with local plans and includes meaningful community participation. The exciting work being done at the neighborhood level needs to feed into a larger and enforceable plan if New Orleans is to recover.
2. Ensure that the value created by New Orleans’ reemergence is shared throughout the city. A comprehensive plan focusing on development in key areas should include provisions to share the created wealth with other areas where recovery is limited by environmental dangers or fiscal constraints. One idea is to shift development rights from areas that should not be redeveloped to areas where development can be sustained, providing incentives to restore areas that are sustainable and disincentives for development in the most vulnerable districts, and easing the financial burdens for those who have already lost so much. Making it easier to do the right thing and sharing the wealth that is being created blurs the line between ‘winners’ and ‘losers,’ helps build badly needed trust in the planning process, and eases the financial burdens for those hardest hit by the storm.
3. Make the best use of the lessons we’ve learned from the federal government’s fragmented and amateurish response to Katrina. From restoring FEMA to an independent agency staffed by professionals that report directly to the President, to improving the Corps of Engineers’ operations and project prioritization, Congress needs to step up to its responsibility for overseeing federal agencies.
4. Finally, we need to ensure that our recovery efforts are efficient and effective. By placing a priority on deconstructing and recycling precious building materials, rather than indiscriminately razing damaged buildings, we can save not only hundreds of millions of dollars but the priceless timbers and the rich architectural elements so critical to a community’s sense of place. Recycling can also reduce landfill demands, lower future construction costs, provide a shot in the arm to local economies, and protect the environment. We ought to be able to capitalize on these valuable resources to mitigate the long-term effects of destruction whenever possible.
If we are to help New Orleans recover, we must act now. A continued lack of federal action not only relegates New Orleans to a long and painful future, but places Americans around the country at great risk of the next natural disaster.
