News › Rebuilding New Orleans

One of the challenges of discussing zoning in urban areas, is that zoning itself is often part of the problem. Many of the aspects of New Orleans we love could not be built today under the current zoning laws. Those cool outbuilding on the property lines--need a 3' setback now. Houses next to each other--can't do it. Neighborhood corner stores--better know that council person. Hubigs Pie plant in the middle of the Marigny? Are you crazy?--that mixes light industrial with residential. Read more >

Our recovery from the levee failures of 2005 has benefitted enormously from the skill and dedication of our leaders. No, not our inept mayor and moribund City Council. Not our leading lights of big business and their developer friends. We are talking about the real leaders of the recovery—the people who didn't even know they were leaders until the folks who were supposed to be leading ducked and ran. Read more >

The good thing about Bad Ideas is that they are really easy to spot — after the fact. The problem with Bad Ideas, however, is that at the time they are proposed they appear to have a logic about them. Thoughtful people embrace the Bad Idea. In fact, they often defend the Really Bad Idea as the Only Hope. The Progressive Solution. They call it the Really Good Idea. Read more >

If the purpose of the various official planning processes -- Bring New Orleans Back, Urban Land Institute, the Lambert Plan, and the Unified New Orleans Plan -- was to aid the recovery of our city, we can now classify this exercise as a failure. And we can continue rebuilding our neighborhoods as we have been since the federal government graciously allowed us back into our city. Read more >

The Urban Conservancy launches StayLocal.org — A Community Database of Locally-Owned and Operated Businesses. Just as many of New Orleans’ locally owned businesses are handed down from generation to generation, so too are business recommendations passed along, word-of-mouth, from mother... Read more >

When the Nagin administration finally broke its post-election silence, the news was not good for those locally-owned businesses that didn't cut and run after Katrina. Read more >

Many UC members and supporters will recall that prior to Katrina, we launched our StayLocal! Project to support locally-owned businesses. We are happy to report that our work with local businesses continues and is evolving as we rebuild our city.... Read more >

“We are about to lose New Orleans.” So said the New York Times on Sunday. All over New Orleans people read the editorial and nodded their heads. They copied it into e-mails and forwarded it to friends—both here and elsewhere.... Read more >

Conferences, meetings, strategy sessions. New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Atlanta. Urban planning, public health, affordable housing, small business retention, and green building. Since September, Urban Conservancy staff have participated in countless discussions focused on rebuilding the city we love. Throughout the... Read more >

We think the first step in the recovery is acknowledging the hard facts and then speaking and acting as one community. Read more >

During the 1980s, Vladimir Posner explained the policies, actions, and culture of the Soviet Union to the American Public. He was the spokesperson for Russia and Americans loved him; he spoke flawless American English and was charming and funny. Nevertheless,... Read more >

On Wednesday Marc Rosenblum, Tim Ruppert, and Geoff Coats — three residents of New Orleans — spent a day in Washington, DC talking with our representatives and their staffs about the rebuilding of our city. Our primary goal was to... Read more >

Hurricane Katrina has dealt a blow deep in the heart of our city, deeper than any today can remember. Even as residents have evacuated to nearby cities and states, setting up in hotels or finding families and friends who have... Read more >