We Decide Who Recovers in New Orleans

The invaluable Greater New Orleans Community Data Center released some excellent information this week, demonstrating recovery by neighborhood in the almost four years since the storm hit.  Nine neighborhoods continue to house 50% or fewer of their pre-storm residents: the 2 neighborhoods that make up the Lower 9th Ward; Lakeview; the neighborhoods surrounding and encompassing the old Florida projects; the neighborhood surrounding the redeveloped Desire project; Pontchartrain Park in Gentilly; the demolished communities of the St. Bernard and B.W. Cooper projects; and West Lake Forest in New Orleans East.  Like most of the city, most of these neighborhoods were majority black before the storm (Lakeview being the major exception).  But more telling, all but P. Park and Lakeview had at least 4 in 10 residents earning less than a living wage before the storm hit (i.e., living at 200% below the poverty threshhold).

Certainly, patterns of physical devastation are related to topography and where neighborhoods grew up in proximity to the Mississippi River, Lake Pontchartrain and the city's system of canals.  But, the on-going social devastation is almost entirely man-made.

First, rates of household wealth dictate who has the money to rebuild.  I specify wealth versus homeownership, though the latter is important, because for many homeowners in NOLA (and nationwide), their only asset was their house.  Many of these residents now lack the money to rebuild even though they own their homes.  Furthermore, displacement by government policy - namely the demolition of public housing - has left neighborhoods like St. Bernard and B.W. Cooper with only about 25% of their pre-storm populations.

Majority inner-city (a rare term for NOLA) poor neighborhoods like Gert Town or Central City have recovered more than 3 in 4 residents, as have the preserved or rehabbed projects - Iberville, Fischer, Desire, and notoriously, River Garden (formerly St. Thomas).  According to the Data Center, "The GNOCDC map shows that five neighborhoods with new developments, including single family homes, apartments and condo buildings, now have more active addresses than they did in June 2005."

I bore you with names of places you don't recognize and detailed information on places you've never seen to drive home this point: how and where we choose to develop or rebuild seriously dictates the health and vitality of neighborhoods.  Beyond the fundamental question of how or if we should build in flood plains or on fault lines are the more subtle determinations we make about where to allocate funds, who to give those funds to, and what types of housing we'll subsidize.  Condos?  Low-income tax credits for non-profit developers?  Housing set aside for people at what level of area median income?  These decisions get technical and boring.  But they lay the foundation for neighborhoods that over time grow up and develop personalities of their own - places we may subsequently feel free to deem, as taxpayers, deserving or undeserving of survival.

Note: The image here is of a map associated with one of the planning processes for post-Katrina New Orleans. Click on the Community Data Center's link for maps of how neighborhoods are recovering.

(Sorry for the delay in getting this up. I've been playing around with data for the last 3 hours!)