Can Traditional Development Be Progressive?

"Once you come here, once you see Hurricane Katrina's devastation first-hand and listen to the voices of the people who lived through it, the plans for rebuilding the Mississippi coastline that a team of sleep-deprived architects unveiled last week stand out as singularly impressive.

In scope and style, as well as speed, this was a "make no little plans" effort worthy of Chicago's Daniel Burnham: The simultaneous creation of plans for 11 towns along 80 miles of coastline in six days. The architects, who drank a lot of coffee and Red Bull, did more than produce a blueprint. They empowered people here with alternatives to placeless suburban sprawl."