Louisiana

As proposals for big-box retail projects mount in New Orleans, many small business owners who are returning to the city worry about the coming competition. A documentary is currently being filmed about the recovering city's business atmosphere.

A year-late plan by the Army Corps of Engineers to restore the Louisiana Gulf Coastline is being slammed by critics.

The city wants to remove unused warehouses and port-facilities and open up several miles of its riverfront for public enjoyment.

With little evidence of progress in the city's 17 designated recovery areas, residents grow ever more frustrated with local officials.

One year after the city announced its broad redevelopment plans, many are unhappy with the rate of recovery in New Orleans.

This report from NPR looks at the efforts of one educator to help rebuild communities in New Orleans by rebuilding the city's charter school system.

The vast levee system under construction by the Army Corps of Engineers may not be sufficient to protect New Orleans as the climate continues to change.

Actor Brad Pitt's efforts to rebuild housing in New Orleans are not just flashy PR, but rather a reminder that architecture can make a difference, according to this article from Metropolis.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has a new solution for the homeless people living in the tent city near the French Quarter: Move them into barracks.

Scientists are proposing a plan to buffer the Gulf Coast from the brunt of hurricanes by engineering more than 1000 square kilometers of new wetlands along the coast.

Community activists and affordable housing advocates in New Orleans face ongoing struggles to promote alternative redevelopment schemes that meet the needs of low-income households.

This article from The Journal of American History looks at the history behind the human geography of New Orleans and how these residential patterns were affected by Hurricane Katrina.

A federal court ruled recently that the Army Corps of Engineers could not be held liable for the levee fialures that caused the flooding of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.

Housing is a hot commodity in New Orleans, but many homes still sit vacant. Getting people into these vacant homes is proving to be a major challenge for the city.

With booming homelessness since Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans is looking to unconventional approaches to handling the issue. But things aren't quite working out as planned.

Canals dug for oil and natural gas extraction and service may have played a significant role in the weakening of the Mississippi River Delta -- a negative effect of the oil industry's Gulf operations that worsened the impact of Hurricane Katrina.

Plans for 250,000 new houses on a floodplain in Britain and broad redevelopment plans in New Orleans have many wondering why planners aren't looking to the flood expertise of the Dutch.

With homelessness rates doubling after hurricane Katrina, activists in New Orleans have filed lawsuits and faced pepper spray and tasers in their fight to save public housing units from being demolished.

More than 50,000 people were added to the population of Louisiana in 2007, where growth has been gradual since more than 250,000 fled after Hurricane Katrina. Nevada has regained its long-held title as the nation's fastest growing state.

Naomi Klein believes that HUD's demolition of public housing in New Orleans isn't just about responding to flood damage: it's a classic example of what she calls "The Shock Doctrine" -- using disasters to restructure and privatize whole economies.