We Rebuilt This City

We asked environmental, political, and academic leaders from around the country about their hopes for the rebuilding of New Orleans. Here's what some of them had to say. Be sure to check out the rest of this week's contributions, and add your thoughts in Gristmill.

Don Chen

I hope federal, state, and local authorities can stop squabbling about who should have done what and when, and instead reform the misguided policies that made New Orleans so vulnerable to "natural" disasters in the first place. For example, thousands of people were living in flood-prone areas because for decades the federal government generously subsidized drainage of wetlands, highway construction to encourage development on former wetlands, and flood insurance to artificially shield settlers from the true risks of building there. The poor were concentrated in those low-lying areas because that's where federally subsidized housing units were located, and white flight to sprawling parishes sharpened this segregation. In most cases, states and localities were willing partners. And ultimately, the region's geographic area exploded despite losing population, exhibiting anemic job growth, and suffering from extreme poverty in its center. This type of sprawl has made New Orleans much more susceptible to disasters of all kinds.

It would be unwise to rebuild on such a rotten foundation. Instead, we should end costly subsidies for sprawl and restore those natural areas. We ought to build mixed-use, mixed-income residential areas that allow everyone to have equal access to opportunities. We also can't afford to rebuild communities that are predicated on cheap energy, so new plans should feature green building construction, New Urban design, historic preservation, and convenient transportation choices. Achieving these goals will lead to a more prosperous, equitable, and environmentally sound rebirth of Greater New Orleans to create a greater New Orleans.

Don Chen is the director of Smart Growth America and serves on Grist's board of directors.

Jim Vallette

The soul of New Orleans could be lost forever unless historic injustices are reversed through the rebuilding process. The great diaspora of New Orleans must seize control with their hearts and minds.

With New Orleanians in charge, government may at last zealously prosecute the petrochemical companies that have long polluted this area, the officials who failed to protect the city's citizens, and the police who joined in the brutality. Reconstruction money could shift from corporate cronies to a new kind of relief that is healthy. This involves rebuilding communities with environmentally friendly homes, powered by renewable energy, creating expansive green spaces in all neighborhoods, and diversifying the economy.

To get from here to there, a big challenge is convincing longtime residents to come back when it is safe to do so. A recent survey of Red Cross applicants found that 39 percent have little intention of ever returning; black residents are twice as likely as whites to stay away. Historic disenfranchisement is a key factor.

Of course, the Bush administration may have a different agenda: by keeping New Orleanians out of the process, the Machiavellian White House could drive a stake into the heart of the national African-American political movement.

No organization should take federal money until Washington ensures this fundamental right to participate and reinstates the environmental and labor laws that it conveniently waived. Those who care about justice should help ensure that the people of New Orleans, not the Bush-Cheney gang, are at the helm of reconstruction.

Jim Vallette is research director of the Sustainable Energy and Economy Network and a collaborator in the new Green Relief movement.

Robert Mittelstaedt

The one thing I'd most like to see occur as part of the New Orleans rebuilding is a rational discussion, on a national basis, of a broad range of options. As New Orleans is one of the oldest parts of the United States, we all want to preserve the city's history, culture, and unique vitality, but it is fiscally irresponsible and physically unsafe to simply rebuild the lower-elevation portions of the city in place. This needs to be a national discussion because we will all pay, directly or indirectly, for the rebuilding and future disasters if we make mistakes now. This is a unique opportunity to do something important and different.

New Orleans native Robert Mittelstaedt is dean of the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. He co-wrote an op-ed on the rebuilding for the Arizona Republic.

Anne Rolfes

Let's face it: New Orleans was inching toward destruction long before Katrina. We have prostituted ourselves to oil and gas and are poorer because of it.

But what of the New New Orleans, that shining city in the swamp?

How about a city that reckons with its prostituted position? Let's wean ourselves off of oil by implementing what is old news in progressive communities but bold concepts in this town. What about bike lanes, mass transit, and San Francisco-like resolutions about green building and renewable energy? What about doing everything we can to make our city one that recognizes that our oil supply is finite, and that supplying that supply has threatened our city, our coast, and our very way of life? We can be a cautionary tale for all other "resource rich" (subtext: you'll soon be poor) communities around the world.

The best stroke of all would be to remove ExxonMobil's oil rig from the shark tank in the downtown aquarium. "Oil rigs help marine life," reads the tank's plaque. On second thought, maybe we can leave Exxon's rig up as a relic, the way statues of Stalin are left standing so we can let our jaws drop at the myopic past.

Anne Rolfes is the founding director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, an environmental-justice organization focused on communities that neighbor Louisiana's oil refineries and chemical plants.

Brad Guy

I would like to see the retention of architectural character, prevention of further waste and environmental impacts, and local rebuilding by local citizens with the creation of "builders' yards" for the recovery and local reuse of the building materials from destroyed and damaged buildings in the region.

Those buildings that must be removed should be "deconstructed" to recover the maximum amount of reusable materials. In this manner a restorative economy is fostered, making use of existing local resources and labor. Builders' yards are a concept coined by Christopher Alexander as a means by which citizens are empowered to create and use local sources of building materials in the creation of their homes.

This recovery, reuse, and rebuilding process can be achieved with the resources and cooperation of federal agencies such as FEMA, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the EPA; the participation of state and local governments; and the participation of groups such as Habitat for Humanity, AmeriCorps*NCCC, Design Corps, university design/build programs, the historic preservation community, the national building deconstruction and materials reuse industry, and the "green" architecture and construction community. It means the empowerment of communities and resource efficiency as local sustainable economics.

Brad Guy is president of the Building Materials Reuse Association and director of operations for the Hamer Center for Community Design at Penn State University.