Kate Kreh Urban Affairs: New Orleans Thematic Literature Review April 25, 2012 Rebuilding After Katrina

When Hurricane Katrina roared over the coast of New Orleans, Louisiana in 2005 life seemed to stop while images of those trapped on the roofs of their homes and the destruction was plastered on news channels across the Untied States. Yet almost seven years has past since those horrific days but New Orleans is still in a process of recovery and rebuilding what the city has lost. The question that New Orleans faces is whether it is practical to rebuild homes and business where they once where with improvements such as higher off the ground and roof access or do they leave the areas that were damaged the worst untouched and move on to other areas that has yet to be developed. City planners have come up with many ideas on how New Orleans could be improved especially in regards to housing. According to Gary Esolen & Valeri LeBlanc a major consideration is to build on both sides of the river. In the article Rebuilding New Orleans: Twenty Big Ideas Esolen and LeBlanc state the high ground will be the starting point for rebuilding New Orleans, and there is high ground on both sides of the river. Algiers (the name accurately indicates its historical relationship to the French Quarter, as Algiers was to France) will be as important as the East Bank, with ferries and water taxis going back and forth constantly. No high ground can be wasted. This is a smart idea and builder should be taking advantage of the land on both sides of the river because with recovery and rebuilding one needs to realize the city will never be exactly how it once was and one can utilize land to make New Orleans whole again.

While rebuilding is a sign of recovery the issue of building reasonably priced homes comes into play especially in New Orleans after the destruction of Hurricane Katrina when most people are still out of jobs. Susan J Popkin discusses this issue in her article, Rebuilding Affordable Housing in New Orleans. Popkin states without places to live, people cannot return to work, pay taxes, frequent local businesses, or send their children to school. But the challenge going forward is even greater if New Orleans is to avoid old patterns of concentrating assisted housing and poor families in a few isolated communities. Providing fair compensation to residents of these neighborhoods and affordable relocation options in communities throughout the New Orleans metropolitan area are critical to an equitable rebuilding strategy. For New Orleans to completely recover there needs to be a way to bring those that lost homes and were displaced back to the city where they find employment in order to pay for housing that is reasonable. In the article, Rebuilding the Cultural Vitality of New Orleans, Maria Rosario Jackson discusses the issue that even before Hurricane Katrina New Orleans as a city was having problems stemming from overcrowding and poverty but the hurricane made those issue worst. Yet with so much lost new Orleans is slowly but surely dusting itself off and the spirit of city is rebuilding just as much if not more than the home and businesses that are being created each day. Jackson states the arts and culture sector needs to cultivate advocates working in other policy domains and in the business community who can effectively integrate arts and culture into those agendas. Culture in New Orleans is key because it is a state of mind and New Orleans is unlike anywhere else in the United States because of its spirit and soul.

New Orleans should be rebuilt because it is a place of history and culture that cannot compare to any other city. It is the definition of recovery and resilience. The city was in shambles but with the help of investors houses that were gone are being rebuilt with vast improvements in case another hurricane should ever hit New Orleans again which is s strong possibility. However the authors that have written on this topic all mention that rebuilding New Orleans should be reasonable and not flaunty.

Works Cited Esolen, Gary, and Valeri LeBlanc. "Rebuilding New Orleans: Twenty Big Ideas and a Postscript." Metropolismag. 31 Oct. 2005. Web. 22 Apr. 2012. <http://www.metropolismag.com/story/20051031/rebuilding-new-orleanstwenty-big-ideas-and-a-postscript>. Jackson, Maria R. "Rebuilding the Cultural Vitality of New Orleans." Urban Institute. 15 Feb. 2006. Web. 24 Apr. 2012. <http://www.urban.org/publications/900927.html>. Popkin, Susan J. "Rebuilding Affordable Housing in New Orleans." Urban Insitute. 30 Jan. 2006. Web. 24 Apr. 2012. <http://www.urban.org/publications/900914.html>.