Rebuilding a New New Orleans

By Sarah Kraybill, Grist.org. Posted November 5, 2005.

Unless you've been living under a rock -- and these days, we can't say we'd blame you -- you've probably put at least a smidgen of thought toward the fate of New Orleans.

It's a rare thing to reconstruct an American city from scratch (though we can think of a few more cities we'd put on the list). There are some who advocate letting bygones be bygones, allowing the name and character of The Big Easy to fade into days of yore, but most people support the eventual rebuilding of the city. The question is, how should it be done, and to what end? We think it should be called New-New Orleans, because that's fun to say, but after that we're stumped.

Instead of racking our comparatively small brains for answers, we turned to a collection of environmental, political, and academic leaders who have bright ideas. We asked them all the same question: What's the one thing you'd most like to see occur as part of the rebuilding of New Orleans?

Their answers ranged from building green to building on barges, from processing with residents to procuring ponies. Read on for inspiration.

Christie Todd Whitman

There's been such a deluge of money, resources, and technical expertise -- I hope that local authorities take just a modicum of time to thoughtfully plan and apply smart-growth principles to the redevelopment effort. For starters, it's quite clear that there's been a lot of development in the wrong places -- not just in low-lying neighborhoods, but also along the barrier islands and coastal wetlands that historically have dampened the impact of storm surges. Local and state officials should seriously consider declaring some of those areas off-limits to development as part of a long-term strategy to restore those natural barriers, and instead encourage more compact development in suitable areas to ensure that there's no net loss of existing homes or potential for new construction.

How we plan and design those new communities is also critical. An obvious priority would be to avoid recreating past mistakes, such as concentrating poor families in just a few wards and isolating them from the greater prosperity of the region. I'm also concerned that we're going to see vast areas of new sprawl development in the rush to rebuild -- exactly the wrong type of development for a time when infrastructure dollars and buildable land are in short supply. Instead, we need compact "walking neighborhoods" that feature a mix of market-rate and affordable housing, convenient transportation choices, and easy access to jobs, medical services, and other daily needs. Smart planning and an open public process can deliver those outcomes. The future of so many families depends on it.

Christie Todd Whitman was the administrator of the U.S. EPA from 2001 to 2003 and co-chairs the national advisory council of Smart Growth America.

Ari Kelman

I suppose the right answer is that I hope poverty and racism -- root rather than proximate causes of disaster -- will be washed away in the outpouring of concern following Katrina. And while I'm stumping to become Miss America, I'd also like every child along the Gulf Coast to have a pony. A really friendly pony that never bites. And can fly.

Inappropriate humor aside, the truth is we're already starting to forget Katrina. There's Supreme Court nominees to squabble over, indictments to ponder, and tears to shed for earthquake victims. Add to that the fact that New Orleans is among the most complicated urban ecosystems in the nation, and it becomes harder still to imagine that we'll maintain our focus for the years it will take to rebuild the city.

It's that last point, about the complexity of the urban fabric in New Orleans, that leads me to what I really hope will come out of this: people should stop trying to separate social and environmental issues as they rebuild. Cities are not simply human artifacts. Nor, of course, are they wholly natural. They're both: networks of human and non-human intermingled, prone to feedback loops across the nature/culture divide.

So rebuild New Orleans on a more solid foundation: the understanding that it's futile to separate cities into compartmentalized zones -- people here, nature there. Such antiquated thinking left New Orleans vulnerable over time, and then under water. Now wring out the city and rebuild it, acknowledging that people must live together with nature. This might yield sustainable urban spaces and a kind of environmental justice. Failing that, ponies are really soft -- and we can ride them out of town when disaster next strikes. Because it will, and if the past is prelude there won't be any gas left for our cars.

Sarah Kraybill is an editorial intern at Grist.

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