Resuscitating New Orleans

Days after Hurricane Katrina engulfed New Orleans, I wrote of the harrowing nighttime flight across the South, just hours ahead of the storm, of attorney and historic preservationist William Borah, accompanied by his 96-year-old neighbor Evelyn Cox and Coco the French cat.

"I'm devastated. My city lies in ruins. I'm like a refugee," said Borah, who had long struggled not just for New Orleans' architectural soul but for a tough city master plan to combat Louisiana's endemic political favoritism and corruption.

More fortunate than thousands of others, Borah, Cox and Coco are now back home, safe and sound. And Borah's desperate September sadness has turned, quite amazingly, into feelings close to elation over the latest turns in the struggle to resuscitate New Orleans.

Elation, you ask? What of the destruction of 80 percent of the city, half its buildings experiencing 4 feet or more of brackish water? And aren't we just reading news of angered, screaming homeowners and irate City Council members protesting the New Orleans recovery panel's proposal for a four-month building moratorium across the city's heavily impacted neighborhoods?

Yes, all that's true, says Borah. Big stretches of the city lie in ruins. A realistic levee-reconstruction plan hasn't come forward. Even in luckier areas, electricity and telephone service remain spotty. The political dissension is severe.

But look at what has occurred, he insists. Suddenly, there's been relief from the old, everything-for-sale Louisiana political game — a process that for generations repelled good city planning by way of constant sell-outs to special interests. "Katrina knocked down that wall," says Borah.

How? Desperate for recovery, post-Katrina New Orleans welcomed visits and counsel from a cross-section of America's best urban thinkers — a blue-ribbon panel of the Urban Land Institute, officials of the American Planning Association and others. And leaders actually listened.

Last week, the action plan of the Bring New Orleans Back Commission, created by Mayor C. Ray Nagin, was announced. And Borah, who served on its land-use subcommittee, was ecstatic:

"This is absolutely remarkable!" he said. "I never thought I'd see such ideas happen in this town in my lifetime. It's simply unbelievable. Here's the case for mixed-use, mixed-income, pedestrian-scale neighborhoods. For light-rail transit, for parks in every neighborhood, for protection of sensitive areas and covering canals for green space."

Borah credits Paul Farmer, executive director of the American Planning Association, for telling New Orleans a sober truth Borah's preached for a lifetime: The city's master plan must have the force of law, or under-the-table deals will vitiate all the best development plans. And that's just what the report now recommends: a legally enforceable master plan.

What of the panel's building moratorium idea? It reflects reality. New Orleans has lost two-thirds of its population; there's no way City Hall or strapped utilities can afford to service areas where homeowners may find themselves alone amid blocks of rubble and blight.

The panel's proposal is a landmark of neighborhood recognition. It divides the city into 13 planning districts and invites current or prior residents, aided by professional planners, to come up with rebuilding plans. If 50 percent commit to staying or locating in a relatively compact neighborhood of about 5,000 to 10,000 people, the city will agree to restore services.

I can't recall a comparably central role for citizens in any city's planning. One can imagine residents agreeing sensibly to concentrate their resettlement on land with higher elevation. Such pieces of land are actually scattered around the city, even the heavily impacted Lower Ninth Ward.

All this would be made fiscally possible by the proposed Crescent City Recovery Corporation, empowered to buy and sell property for redevelopment and act as conveyer of federal recovery funds. The central idea: buying out homeowners in heavily flooded and damaged areas.

Thousands of details remain to be worked out in the New Orleans recovery plan. But there's a new climate, Borah asserts. People who had never considered it before are now contemplating a run for public office. Support is mounting to combine seven levee boards into one. Real-estate agents want to tame the corrupting power of elected tax assessors. And now comes state-of-the-art urban planning. True hope, perhaps, for a wounded but fabulous city.

Neal Peirce's column appears alternate Mondays on editorial pages of The Times. His e-mail address is nrp@citistates.com