Arts & Ammo

Rebuilding Big Easy

My ties to New Orleans are not insubstantial. I lived and worked there quite a few years, attended Tulane, and spent an equal number of years close by in Baton Rouge. Like many non-natives, however, I have mixed feelings about the city. Its unique culture makes it both a wonderful place to be and a terrible place to live. For many reasons, I left Louisiana before Katrina.

New Orleans is the last place you want to be during a disaster. The city simply lacks the leadership, efficiency, and motivation to plan and execute anything more complicated than a parade. (But then, what’s more important than a parade?)

Two potential disasters always loomed. One was that the Mississippi River would stop taking orders from the Army Corps of Engineers and find a new route to the gulf, bypassing New Orleans. And it was only a matter of time before the perfect storm swamped New Orleans. We knew this, so Katrina was no surprise.

Nor was it a surprise to see the disaster response breaking down, the blame shifting, or ad hoc and feckless efforts to recover. I have not been surprised by anything related to Katrina, until I read Kimberly Hendrickson’s “Common Ground in New Orleans” today in City Journal. She describes an effort by the Mercatus Center of George Mason University to study the city’s reconstruction. She emphasizes the cooperation between traditional left-wing and right-wing approaches, market solutions versus nonprofit community organizations, and how shared culture at the neighborhood level is generating results:

There is no shortage of commentary on the Gulf region about social divisions and bigotry. What is unique and inspiring about Mercatus’s work is that it accentuates the benefits gained by belonging to a particular group and the social capital generated by shared neighborhoods, shared values, and shared history. The free-market advocates are, in other words, reminding students of city politics that the story of race, ethnicity, and religion need not always be the story of ill will and oppression. They are also reminding their libertarian friends that there is more to healthy cities than properly functioning markets: culture matters.

* * *

There is something to be gained by combining the Left’s emphasis on community action with the Right’s emphasis on entrepreneurial behavior. Both sides seem to agree, in the chaos after the disaster, that a healthy skepticism about government is called for, along with the championing of decentralized, bottom-up solutions.

There is no doubt that New Orleans has a unique character that attracts many people. Those who grew up there or adjusted to its lifestyle are loath to leave, and those who remain after Katrina are demonstrating admirable fortitude. So perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised that the local culture might be the rallying point.

There are too many good things about New Orleans to be indifferent to its success or failure, and I hope that this report will prove to be the rule and not the exception.

April 25th, 2008 Posted by Fitzroy | Politics | one comment