Planning Report Interviews Ed Blakely About New Orleans Recovery

Though the devastation in New Orleans took place a continent away from L.A., the city of New Orleans has enlisted Southern Californian Ed Blakely to leads its recovery efforts. A former professor at USC and UC-Riverside and longtime advocate of smart growth, Blakely led recovery efforts following earthquakes in both L.A. and the Bay Area. Blakely recently spoke with Th Planning Report about his new appointment as Recovery 'Czar' and his strategy for reviving New Orleans.

Among the interview questions:

"TPR: What was the nature of your job interview with New Orleans Mayor Nagin? What did you need to hear from him? What authority did he grant you?

I told him what needed to be done, and he pretty much listened and asked me what authorities I would need to do it. I told him I needed full authority of his office and full authority to call my own shots and hire my own staff and use funds to do this job, and he just said, yes, you got it.

I told him the first thing we had to do was get out of the planning mode and get into the action mode. We have to start building some things in order to restore public confidence. We have to set up a system so that people who want to come back can come back somewhere in New Orleans as soon as possible. It might be in stages. They might come back to one area of the city, and then they might move into other neighborhoods in a year or two."

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