Ed Blakely's Ideas For New Orleans' Recovery

"The man many hope will become a key leader in New Orleans' post-Katrina recovery spent Thursday packing up in Oakland, Calif., and preparing to start his new job -- determined, he said, to launch experimental rebuilding projects by summer to provide some relief to weary homeowners.

One possibility, said Ed Blakely, the city's new recovery czar: Let the city assemble vacant or blighted properties and offer them in swaps to homeowners -- preferably groups of neighbors -- who want to move out of sparsely populated neighborhoods and be closer to schools, shopping centers or other vital areas, while staying near their friends.

'What I'm suggesting here is not wide-eyed radicalism. It's been done before,' Blakely said. 'It works.' "