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January 5, 2006
Two, Maybe Three Urban Planning Options for New Orleans
I'm in the room for an address from the President of Tulane University, Dr Cowen, who is also a commissioner of the Bring Back New Orleans Commission, responsible for the education committee. [ed: here's the audio of the address (56 min, 13 MB, low volume)]. Seven reports from the seven committees are due out to the larger commission and the public next week.
The big issue, according to Dr Cowen, is the levees, and I addressed that in a previous post. The second issue is housing. The two main options are
Level select neighborhoods, like the lower ninth ward. While perhaps the most responsible thing to do, he didn't think the politicians had the stomach for it.
Offer a one-year right of return where people have one year to go back. If a neighborhood can consolidate and demonstrate a plan, it can stay, otherwise, option one is executed. He thought this was most likely.
The third option is on the front page of the New York Times: A Big Government Fix-It Plan for New Orleans. This is obviously out of the task force's control. Basically, the government will buy back property at no less than 60% of the pre-Katrina value and then sell the titles back to developers in the future.
Other news, from zee presidente: the furloughs from LSU have topped 500. Lusher, one of the crown jewels of New Orleans otherwise abysmal educational system, is now chartered by Tulane and 1000 students, K-12, will be in class next week.
The clinical faculty recruiting effort in the committee is producing results. 25 students will be placed at Ochsner, and others are being placed in hospitals around the city, like Touro.
The big news was hearing from a commissioner of the Bring Back New Orleans taskforce that those really are the three urban planning options on the table. There's of course been speculation, but hearing it from a commissioner is different.
Posted by Niels Olson at January 5, 2006 2:35 PM
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