While planners and architects are giddy with the possibilities for sustainable development in New Orleans, the actual needs of the city's residents -- namely housing and jobs -- appear to have been forgotten.
"There's a green cast to virtually every plan to rebuild New Orleans, and an army of planners, affordable housing groups, environmentalists, and government officials hopes to make it happen. Several of these organizations, including Enterprise and Global Green USA, have partnered on various efforts.
But given the political infighting between the state of Louisiana and city of New Orleans, the slow pace of federal housing assistance and insurance settlements, and overall planning fatigue, the rallying cry for green is a little hard to hear -- even for those who are otherwise receptive. Says John Knott, a sustainable developer and president of the Noisette Co. in South Carolina, of rebuilding in New Orleans, "If people can't meet basic needs of housing and jobs, it's hard to get them to think about tomorrow."
Quite so. It's more than a little ironic that a diffuse army of planners is seeing New Orleans as an opportunity to promote sustainable development, at a time when more than two-thirds of the city's onetime residents are more concerned about having an affordable roof over their heads -- one that will not blow away in the next big storm. To most locals, "sustainable" has more to do with making sure the levees hold than with energy-efficient buildings or a new urbanism."
FULL STORY: Will 'Green' Building Be the Future of New Orleans?

Rethinking Redlining
For decades we have blamed 100-year-old maps for the patterns of spatial racial inequity that persist in American cities today. An esteemed researcher says: we’ve got it all wrong.

Montreal Mall to Become 6,000 Housing Units
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Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

Santa Clara County Dedicates Over $28M to Affordable Housing
The county is funding over 600 new affordable housing units via revenue from a 2016 bond measure.

Why a Failed ‘Smart City’ Is Still Relevant
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When Sears Pioneered Modular Housing
Kit homes sold in catalogs like Sears and Montgomery Ward made homeownership affordable for midcentury Americans.
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.
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Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University
Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada
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