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Institute for Crisis, Disaster, and Risk Management Crisis and Emergency Management Newsletter Website |
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February
2006
Volume
10 - Number 1 |
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By Marty Thomas Mayor Ray Nagin’s planning commission “Bring New Orleans Back” unveiled its Hurricane Katrina recovery plan on January 11, 2006. In part, the plan calls for eliminating the 122 kilometer shipping channel blamed for much of the Hurricane Katrina flooding, a light-rail network, revamped schools, and investment in parks and open space, and other recommendations. The most controversial recommendation would not allow the mostly working class and poor residents of the hardest-hit areas to move back and begin rebuilding their homes for at least four months. During this time, the residents would need to show that half of the population of the neighborhood planned to return and rebuild in order to be considered viable. Neighborhoods failing to show signs of revitalization would either be reduced in size or plowed under, and a proposed new redevelopment corporation would buy out the homeowners or seize their property through eminent domain. Areas purchased by the redevelopment corporation would be returned to wetlands and green space. The panel’s report also recommended that federal buyout legislation be modified to give homeowners forced to sell, 100 percent of the equity of their property. The estimated cost of the potential buyout could be $12 billion, which the city would seek to recoup from the federal government. The city’s government, along with a state commission appointed by Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco and the federal government must okay the plan prior to the disbursement of billions of dollars of federal assistance. Many of the residents who spoke during the presentation were adamant in their views: “Don't tell me what I can do with my property.” They argued that temporarily barring them from getting permits would choke the progress that is starting to show in their neighborhoods. Jeb Bruneau, president of a homeowners association said, "We don't want to wait four months. We want to be able to go down to City Hall and get permits. We have the means to help ourselves, so don't get in our way." Mayor Nagin said that he is concerned that those rebuilding in the flattened Lower 9th Ward may be putting themselves in harm's way -- particularly as long as the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet remains open. But he indicated that, even there, he is inclined to allow residents to rebuild. Some city council members, who have been at increasing odds with the Nagin administration, expressed their displeasure with the plan’s recommendations and complained that they were not pre-briefed. Councilwoman Cynthia Willard-Lewis, who represents a district hardest-hit by the storm, said the council has come out with a "strong, forceful declaration of the right of everyone to return,” and Councilwoman Jacquelyn Brechtel Clarkson called the panel’s recommendations "a blatant violation of private property rights that is unprecedented in America.” Web Sources: -http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1137052078313930.xml -http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2006-01-11T233037Z_01_KWA180452_RTRUKOC_0_US-HURRICANES-PLAN.xml -http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5151102 -http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-01-12-voa73.cfm |