Chapter 3: Economic decisions and the perception of local government.

The Deep South, comprised of the five US states of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia and South Carolina is the poorest region of the United States, with the state of Louisiana ranking 7^th poorest with 18.4% of the population living below the poverty line, higher than the national average of 14.3%. When hurricane Katrina hit a large portion of Louisiana was affected badly in particular New Orleans, which even now has failed to recover economically and shows little sign of improving as 25% of the city is living in poverty[1] and the average household income trailing behind the state average. (See appendix)

The aim of this chapter is to discuss the various ways in which government officials claimed New Orleans would recover and prosper after Katrina, and how the economic decisions made have not reflected what they promised. In doing so this acts as a partnering analysis to my ethnographic analysis in chapter one. These broken promises and false hopes have left the general public feeling neglected and unimportant as expressed by several locals of New Orleans in an interview with The New York Times about the slow fruition of development in the city, including Mid-City resident Sheila White, “They come up with these plans that look great and sound great. They give people hope. Then, they fall into the background. Promises are made, and they are not kept[2].” After Katrina, Dr Edward Blakely, Executive Director of Recovery Management for the City of New Orleans was the man in charge of leading recovery operations. On March 29^th 2007 he held a press conference to announce the first seventeen target recovery zones. I will be using these zones as a basis on which to assess whether or not the local government met its targets and if not what other changes or plans have been implemented. Times Picayune column writer James Gill reported the end of Blakely’s time as recovery czar and wrote in such a way that would suggest that these plans were not acted on: “Blakely said he does not measure his tenure against a list of projects he had hoped to complete but instead by the way he reorganized City Hall[3].” This implies that very little was done in the areas that Blakely proposed; otherwise he could have stated that he was leaving having achieved all he aimed too. However, it may be unfair to judge only the actions of Blakely as he was contracted from outside of New Orleans;  the city has long been known for its inadequacies and to therefore fix not only one of the largest American natural disasters of all time but years of government failures is a monumental task for one person. Josh Levin for Slate gives one opinion on how New Orleans local government is perceived and how in some ways their failure to react to the disaster better was almost expected:

Katrina's aftermath turned into a typical—if unimaginably and hellaciously tragic—scene from New Orleans politics, with the requisite allegations that the rudderless, incompetent city government can't deal with the city's intrinsic geographic, economic, and racial problems[4].

The chosen recovery zones or projects were split into three categories which would aim to rebuild, renew or redevelop each chosen area, with each zone being approximately half a mile in diameter. The areas were chosen based on the opinions and suggestions that residents of New Orleans had previously put forward in other talks of redevelopment such as the Bring New Orleans Back Commission. The rebuild zones were named as the New Orleans East Plaza and the Lower 9^th Ward, areas that experienced the worst devastation and needed real monetary investment in order to recover successfully. The redevelopment zones were areas considered to have investment potential by Blakely who said the areas chosen would lead to more redevelopment and growth in those neighbourhoods: “When one area starts to do well, investors will want to invest nearby. This will allow the city to redevelop wisely and will help residents make smart choices about where to rebuild[5].” These areas with investing potential are as follows and later on in this chapter I will discuss if they achieved the goal they were meant to. One of my contacts in New Orleans reported to me when asked about the zones that the first in the list, Carrollton Avenue still floods badly whenever there is heavy rainfall as the sidewalks and roads were not repaired adequately.

1. Carrollton Avenue at Interstate 10.
2. Harrison Avenue (Canal Boulevard to City Park)
3. Gentilly Boulevard at Elysian Fields.
4. St. Bernard/ AP Touro at North Claiborne Avenue
5. Broad Street at Lafitte Greenway/Treme.
6. South Claiborne Avenue at Toledano[6].

 The final category, the renewal zones, required the least amount of public input as they comprised predominately of city buildings or structures such as the Farmers market, Comisky Park and the Rosa Keller Center and Library where work was already underway by the not for profit or private sectors.  For example the Broadmoor area where the Rosa Keller Library is located had already by 2007 secured $2 million from the Carnegie Foundation to help with its more complicated redevelopment. The library was both a new build and a restoration work because it consisted of two buildings, one a purpose built library from the 1990s and the other a bungalow built in 1917. However, even though the Keller library can be seen to have historic value to the city it was the residents and members of the Broadmoor Improvement Association (BIA) who secured the investment deal and fought to gain additional funding, without local government help as explained by LaToya Cantrell chairperson of BIA: “We ended up going through four different damage assessments. Finally, FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] came back and said, ‘full replacement.’ So that gave us $4 million toward the project, in addition to the $2.3 million we’d already raised.[7]” Even then the work was not completed until 2012 because of setbacks allegedly caused by local government who did not think the area was worth rebuilding at all, although according to an article in the New Orleans City Business local government are comfortable in ignoring this fact now the library has been completed: “City leaders hailed the $6.8 million Rosa F. Keller Library and Community Center as another positive sign in the region’s recovery[8].” This has left a lasting resentment amongst the residents of the Broadmoor area who insisted on the café at Keller being called the Green Dot Café after original post-Katrina city plans (see appendix) proposed by Mayor Nagin and the Bring New Orleans Back Commission placed a green dot on Broadmoor, suggesting that the neighbourhood be removed in favour of uninhabited and green space. This goes to show that the local government did have bias towards the poorer areas of the city, preferring to raze them to the ground than pay to rebuild them.

Whilst this 17 target recovery zone plan did not cover every neighbourhood in the city it can be seen as a good starting point from which to expand, as it would not have been realistic to attempt too much too soon especially as even before Katrina New Orleans was suffering financially. In addition to this, choosing small manageable half mile sections to work on would provide a boost to the morale of New Orleans’ residents to see improvements finally being made to their city, rather than undergoing huge projects where results would not be seen for some time. As president of the Bureau of Governmental Research, Janet Howard says about the 17 target recovery zone plan: “It’s promising to see somebody who is giving us a program that’s based on a realistic assessment of potential resources[9].” Many investors and officials considered this proposal more realistic than past ventures offered up such as reducing the size of the city which Mayor Nagin strongly opposed when questioned about it:

Don't talk to me about, 'We need to be smaller,'  that’s like somebody breaking into your house, and they mess up your whole house, and then you get a judgment that says, all we're going to do is fix up the living room and the bathroom because that's all you need. We want the whole city fixed[10].

            While Nagin appears to oppose the idea of making New Orleans smaller, he had previously allowed his rebuild commission to draw up proposals on shrinking the footprint of the city by incorporating green dot zones as previously discussed, and in addition to this Joe Canizaro, a local developer stated in a Times Picayune article that the mayor had allowed them to work unhindered: “The mayor has allowed the commission to function without telling it what to do[11].” It is unclear where Nagin and his administration stand and contradictions like this can understandably cause confusion and a lack of trust from residents especially as five years have passed since this plan was unveiled and still a large amount of the city outside of tourist areas is affected by blight, low population and crime despite this claim being made by Nagin back in the March 2007 press conference: “I expect by the end of the summer you’re going to see a lot of activity[12].”

            Lake Forest Plaza in New Orleans east was the first zone considered an area most in need of rebuilding, yet as discussed in Chapter 2 the eastern portion of the city still remains much as it did immediately after the flooding with little sign of that changing with the exception of the hospital to be built in the fall of 2013. At one time the plaza contained a vast array of shops and restaurants, as well as a cinema and ice rink, but today all that remains is the Grand Theatre which still stands on the Lake Forest Plaza LLC land albeit derelict and rundown as seen in my previous chapter and a Lowe’s Home Improvement store that is open for business. In 2009 the New Orleans Business News ran an article detailing a plan by the developers Cesar Burgos and Ashton Ryan to redevelop the land into a new shopping centre called New Orleans East Marketplace for which it was suggested they were given tax breaks by the city to help the project go ahead:

The developers and planners hope the collection of smaller stores and restaurants, to be built around a 1.5-acre green space at the site's western edge and anchored by the theater and a major retailer such as a Target or Kohl's, would serve as a "town center" or "lifestyle center" for eastern New Orleans[13].

There was much debate about the proposed tax breaks, with some arguing that the city would not lose much tax revenue as New Orleans east has few businesses in the area and others like the Bureau for Government Research projects manager, Peter Reichard who had some queries as quoted by Times Picayune writer Bruce Eggler:

Noting "the sheer size of the TIF,” he pointed out that the city would lose some of the sales tax revenue it now is getting from the Lowe's and from other stores that would lose business to ones built in the TIF district[14].

Regardless of whether the breaks were a good idea or not, the plans have not come to fruition and in more recent news the reason why may have become clear to the people of New Orleans east as former mayor Nagin was indicted in January 2013 and pleaded not guilty in February 2013 on 21 federal charges of corruption, bribery, money laundering, wire fraud and false tax returns. These charges include granting the owners of Forest Plaza LLC tax waivers despite the millions they owe the city and the $16 million they owe Lowe’s from a loan they received in 2006. New Orleans has had a long history of corrupt politicians and scandals that citizens are well aware of, and this event has done little to change the perception of local government even though Nagin is no longer mayor. Tulane University history professor Terrence Fitzmorris had the following to say on Nagin’s indictment: “It's a betrayal. He's doing this while the city was at its lowest point[15]." The Forest Plaza lot still continues to cost the city money and although the New Orleans’ current Mayor, Mitch Landrieu’s administration has sent demands for $6 million, this money has not been seen, money that New Orleans desperately needs and so the feeling of neglect and that the city is run by an inadequate government is perpetuated. Jacqueline Vaughn and Eric Edwin Otenyo, highlight this history of corruption in their book Managerial Discretion in Governmental Decision Making: Beyond the Street Level:

Nationally, both New Orleans and the state of Louisiana had acquired a reputation for corruption long before Katrina. The New York Times observed that perhaps no other state has “an eccentric and problematic a political culture as Lousiana”. The Public Corruption Convictions Report ranked the state third in the nation based on the number of federal corruption convictions of public officials per 100,000 during the period of 1993 to 2003, trailing Mississippi and North Dakota. One scholar proclaimed that Louisiana once had more professional politicians in jail than any other state[16].

Nagin’s indictment has also had a negative impact on the local community who were told redevelopment would be happening, as well as hardworking business owners fighting to survive in the economic wasteland of eastern New Orleans like Tonette Harrison, owner of a hair salon opposite the abandoned Forest Park Plaza:

Community leaders should drive their communities forward, not backward. And I figure if we can do it with nothing, they should be able to do it with everything they’re getting. It’s very disheartening. It’s a slap in the face to the community[17].

In comparison, the areas of the city that have seen the most renovation and redevelopment are those typically within tourist areas such as the French Quarter regardless of the fact that it escaped Katrina’s wrath relatively unharmed. When I was visiting the city there was a large amount of construction work taking place on Canal Street, where a new $53 million streetcar line, The Loyola Avenue Streetcar line was being put in. This streetcar will extend the old streetcar service to the French Quarter, the Super Dome as well as the business district and is considered to be beneficial to boosting trading in those areas. U.S Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood agrees with this but in doing so highlights the idea that tourist areas are being favoured over residential areas of the city: “We are committed to helping New Orleans modernise its historic streetcar line, which has become an important catalyst for revitalising the downtown business and tourist districts.[18]”

New Orleans was due to host Super Bowl XLVII in February so that was the influencing factor for the new streetcar line as well as new palm trees decorated with lights all the way down Canal Street, but while trade and tourism is important in order to generate revenue for the city of New Orleans, those that live there feel they are being largely ignored and that new construction to improve areas used predominantly by people from out of town is an unforgiveable decision. Lower Ninth Ward resident and journalist, Michael Patrick Welch wrote an article entitled ‘How the Super Bowl Screws New Orleans’ in which he discusses the negative impact that the decision to hold Super Bowl was having on the city at the time, to the point where the historical tradition and event of Mardi Gras and Carnival was being affected:

…the city’s working overtime and even dissing Mardi Gras, its oldest tradition and most reliable financial benefactor. Per usual, what the New Orleans government won’t do for its citizenry it gladly does for out-of-towners and the NFL, the Walmart of sports[19].

 

Fig 5: New palm trees on Canal Street in the French Quarter.

In addition to the French Quarter another tourist area that has undergone extensive reconstruction is City Park, featured partly in the 17 target recovery zones. Website, The Untz had the following to say about the park: “City Park has a special place in the hearts of generations of New Orleanians and is a must visit for visitors to the city[20].” The park has multiple recreation facilities including tennis courts and a golf course in addition to the Museum of Art and a sculpture garden containing $13 million worth of art from renowned artists such as Louise Bourgeois and Antoine Bourdelle[21]. What makes this redevelopment site more interesting than the redevelopment sites in New Orleans proper is the juxtaposition of City Park with New Orleans East. I stopped in City Park while on the Katrina Tour because it worked well to break up the two hour trip aboard a small coach and as many tourists would; I took photos of the beautiful surroundings some examples of which follow on the left hand side. In comparison on the right are photos I took shortly before arriving at the park, in one of New Orleans East’s residential areas.(Note: on this blog photos are not side by side)

Fig 6: Lake in City Park

Fig 7: Common road conditions in New Orleans East

Fig 8: Unkempt greenery taking over.

Fig 9: Houses still of sale and boarded up.

Fig 10: New green spaces, paving and palm trees

Fig 11: Sculpture by Louise Bourgeois

What these photos show is how differently city administration has treated two very different areas of New Orleans and concludes precisely what this chapter has been aiming to highlight. City Park is an attraction to tourists with the sculpture garden and the Museum of Art being of cultural interest to visitors of the city and providing an opportunity for more revenue to be made, whereas New Orleans East in particular the area I photographed is a largely residential area that outsiders are not going to visit. People do visit via hurricane tours but the driver and tour guide can decide which roads to go down, there is no set path in order to motivate the renewal of areas the city does not want visitors to see and as the east is the biggest ward with extensive blight throughout it would be impossible to fix up select roads or streets anyway. Time published a story five years after Katrina entitled ‘Hard Times in the Big Easy - New Orleans’ Lower Ninth: Katrina’s forgotten victim?’ and while it does only focus on the Lower Ninth Ward (bias media having been discussed in chapter one) it acknowledges the local governments indifference to the poorer neighbourhoods in the city, as one resident Henry Holmes was quoted as saying: “You get the feeling they're just waiting for all us so-called poor people to leave so they can turn the place into a resort area or something[22].” This is the overall perception that New Orleanians have of their government, they have been let down and ignored despite promises made eight years ago by those in power to restore the whole city.

Throughout the area hit by the hurricane, we will do what it takes … we will stay as long as it takes … to help citizens rebuild their communities and their lives. And all who question the future of the Crescent City need to know: There is no way to imagine America without New Orleans, and this great city will rise again[23].

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[1] According to data from the United States Census Bureau, 25.7% of persons in the city of New Orleans are below the poverty level, 2007- 2011.

[2] New York Times. 2008. Big Plans Are Slow to Bare Fruit in New Orleans. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/01/us/01orleans.html?fta=y. [Accessed 26 January 13].

[3] Times Picayune. 2009. Blakely confirms he's leaving recovery director post 'as soon as I can,' but definitely by July 1st. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/05/blakely_confirms_hes_leaving_r.html. [Accessed 07 February 13].

[4] Slate. 2005. Is Ray Nagin a good mayor?. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/assessment/2005/09/ray_nagin.html. [Accessed 13 February 13].

[5] The Times Picayune. 2007. City announces first 17 target recovery zones. [ONLINE] Available at: http://blog.nola.com/updates/2007/03/city_announces_first_17_target.html. [Accessed 03 March 13].

[6] NOLA.com. 2007. City announces first 17 target recovery zones. [ONLINE] Available at: http://blog.nola.com/updates/2007/03/city_announces_first_17_target.html. [Accessed 26 January 13].

[7] Metropolis Magazine. 2012. Out of the Water. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.metropolismag.com/story/20120720/out-of-the-water. [Accessed 12 February 13].

[8] New Orleans City Business. 2012. Rosa Keller example of new trend of libraries providing more than books. [ONLINE] Available at: http://neworleanscitybusiness.com/blog/2012/03/21/rosa-keller-example-of-new-trend-of-libraries-providing-more-than-books/. [Accessed 12 February 13].

[9] New York Times. 2007. New Orleans Proposes to Invest in 17 Areas. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/30/us/30orleans.html. [Accessed 27 January 13].

[10] New York Times. 2007. Largely Alone, Pioneers Reclaim New Orleans. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/02/us/nationalspecial/02orleans.html?pagewanted=3&_r=2&th%22%28ef=slogin&emc=th&. [Accessed 13 February 13].

[11] Times Picayune. 2005. Plan shrinks city footprint. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2005/12/plan_shrinks_city_footprint.html. [Accessed 12 February 13].

[12] New York Times. 2007. New Orleans Proposes to Invest in 17 Areas.

[13] NOLA.com. 2009. Lake Forest Plaza redevelopment plan detailed. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.nola.com/business/index.ssf/2009/08/lake_forest_plaza_redevelopmen.html. [Accessed 27 January 13].

[14] NOLA.com. 2009. Lake Forest Plaza redevelopment plan detailed. [ONLINE]

[15] USA TODAY. 2013. Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin indicted . [ONLINE] Available at: http://m.usatoday.com/article/news/1845617?preferredArticleViewMode=single. [Accessed 17 February 13].

[16] Managerial Discretion in Government Decision Making: Beyond the Street Level

[17] NOLA.com. 2009. Lake Forest Plaza redevelopment plan detailed.

[18] Rail.co. 2013. New Orleans streetcar line open in time for Super Bowl. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.rail.co/2013/01/29/new-orleans-streetcar-line-open-in-time-for-super-bowl/. [Accessed 29 January 13].

[19] Welch, M.P. 2013. How the Super Bowl Screws New Orleans. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.vice.com/read/how-the-super-bowl-screws-new-orleans. [Accessed 29 January 13].

[20] The Untz. 2012. City Park - New Orleans. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.theuntz.com/CityPark-NewOrleans. [Accessed 30 January 13].

[21] NOMA.com. 2013. Works in the Garden. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.noma.org/pages/detail/155/Works-in-the-Garden. [Accessed 30 January 13].

[22] Time. 2010. New Orleans' Lower Ninth: Still Recovering from Katrina. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2012217_2012252_2012673,00.html. [Accessed 24 February 13].

[23] Fox News. 2005. Transcript: Bush Katrina Address. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,169514,00.html. [Accessed 24 February 13].