Responding to recent criticism, Robert B. Olshansky and Lewis D. Hopkins, professors of urban and regional planning at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, argue that the United New Orleans Plan gets a lot more things right than wrong.
"The Bureau of Governmental Research said this week that the Unified New Orleans Plan has problems that "are so fundamental that they cannot be addressed through minor adjustments." It asks for "an overhaul of the planning document." It says that this particular plan needs to "get it right" before moving on. We respectfully disagree.
The UNOP is not an endpoint. How could it be? Uncertainties abound: The repair money from FEMA hasn't arrived to fix the streets and infrastructure, vital low-income workers don't have any place to live, schools are still a mess, and only a few people have received Road Home grants.
But the plan is more than a blueprint. It's a way to communicate what New Orleans needs to some very important audiences, and it does that very well. "
"Should some revisions be made in order to improve the clarity of the document? Certainly. Should the City Planning Commission add staff and take over important planning tasks? Absolutely. Should everyone wait for city planning to completely rewrite the UNOP citywide plan before moving forward? Absolutely not."
Read the full story: Plan is a message, not the final word
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