To Rebuild Or Not To Rebuild?

"...many Lower Ninth Ward homeowners find themselves at a potential turning point. In the coming week, the Bring Back New Orleans Commission of Mayor C. Ray Nagin is expected to recommend that the city reopen all neighborhoods to rebuilding, including low-lying, hard-hit areas like the Lower Ninth Ward, a tight-knit black community with one of the city's highest homeownership rates. The Urban Land Institute, a nonprofit group advising the mayor's commission, had recommended that New Orleans concentrate its rebuilding on higher ground, deferring reconstruction of heavily inundated areas. But city leaders distanced themselves from that advice in December after it sparked protest from residents who feared it would create of a blueprint that eliminated black neighborhoods."

But should residents put all of their effort into rebuilding without a guarantee that the city will also invest in the neighborhood? "When [one man] composed a game plan for his family late last year, he was guided by his gut belief that the Lower Ninth Ward would end up being revived by the determination of its residents...'I tell you one thing,' [said another resident]. 'I'm not putting any money into this place if they're going to tell me to get out in a year.'"