Market forces alone haven't been able to generate needed investments in areas devastated by Katrina, and people have nothing to return to without those investments. A new idea has promise.
"New Orleans faces two chicken-and-egg problems that private markets don't know how to remedy. The first is how to get people to live in places where there are no jobs because there are no people living there. The second is how to get capital to rebuild damaged buildings in neighborhoods that are worthless because so many buildings are so badly damaged.
There's no private market renewing New Orleans because nobody has an incentive to move back or reopen a business or invest, because no one can be sure there will be enough other people moving back, reopening, and investing to make it worthwhile.
This is why an idea now being pushed by Republican Congressman Richard Baker, who represents Baton Rouge to the north of New Orleans, is so sensible. Baker wants to create something called the Louisiana Recovery Corporation. Essentially, it would buy property and mortgages at 60 percent of their pre-Katrina values, package them together in parcels that might be attractive to private developers, and then auction off the packages. The resulting revenues from developers would then replenish the fund."
FULL STORY: Chickens and Eggs in New Orleans
Pennsylvania Mall Conversion Bill Passes House
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World's Largest Wildlife Overpass In the Works in Los Angeles County
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U.S. Supreme Court: California's Impact Fees May Violate Takings Clause
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California Grid Runs on 100% Renewable Energy for Over 9 Hours
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New Forecasting Tool Aims to Reduce Heat-Related Deaths
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AI Traffic Management Comes to Dallas-Fort Worth
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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
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