Nicole Gelinas argues that five years after Hurricane Katrina, the city is on the path to becoming a bona fide urban success story thanks to its determined residents.
On the eve of Katrina, New Orleans was a distressed city by most measures, writes Gelinas, with rampant political corruption, high crime and poverty rates, pervasive unemployment, crippled infrastructure and failing public schools. Gelinas says that residents disbursed by the storm have returned to the city with a new sense of civic pride and conviction that local government can work effectively, which have been more important in rebuilding the city than federal relief funds.
Population is now 80% what it was before the storm, and local unemployment is below the national average at 7.5%. Though crime has returned to pre-Katrina levels, the city is making concrete strides to address it and other problems areas, Gelinas says.
New Orleans's citizen-driven renaissance may offer lessons for the rest of the country as it struggles to recover from the economic recession, Gelinas writes:
"New Orleans's recovering economy contrasts starkly with that of the nation as a whole, where investors remain paralyzed-shocked by the financial and economic collapse, terrified of arbitrary Washington actions, and crowded out by government activity. And in many ways besides investment, strange though it may sound, New Orleans provides a model for the rest of the country in the wake of the financial crisis."
FULL STORY: Big Easy Rising
Post-Katrina Programs a Blueprint for Housing the Working Class
The housing initiatives developed after Hurricane Katrina teach valuable lessons for post-pandemic affordable housing production.
New Orleans Convent to Become Large Urban Wetland
Hurricane Katrina damaged a Catholic convent in New Orleans. Then the nuns spearheaded a project to transform the land into a wetland area that will protect the city from flooding in the future.
Report: $14 Billion New Orleans Flood System, Completed Less Than a Year Ago, Already Obsolete
The Army Corps of Engineers is already assessing the needs of repair work on a project it completed in May 2018 at the cost of $14 billion.
Pennsylvania Mall Conversion Bill Passes House
If passed, the bill would promote the adaptive reuse of defunct commercial buildings.
Planning for Accessibility: Proximity is More Important than Mobility
Accessibility-based planning minimizes the distance that people must travel to reach desired services and activities. Measured this way, increased density can provide more total benefits than increased speeds.
World's Largest Wildlife Overpass In the Works in Los Angeles County
Caltrans will soon close half of the 101 Freeway in order to continue construction of the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing near Agoura Hills in Los Angeles County.
Eviction Looms for Low-Income Tenants as Rent Debt Rises
Nonprofit housing operators across the country face almost $10 billion in rent debt.
Brightline West Breaks Ground
The high-speed rail line will link Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area.
Colorado Bans No-Fault Evictions
In most cases, landlords must provide a just cause for evicting tenants.
City of Costa Mesa
Licking County
Barrett Planning Group LLC
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Mpact Transit + Community
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Tufts University, Department of Urban and Environmental Policy & Planning
City of Universal City TX
ULI Northwest Arkansas
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
