Higher Ground, Healthier, Denser Life In New Orleans?

Could forced relocation to safer ground improve the city's communities, or will its costs disproportionately impact the poor?

1 minute read

February 24, 2006, 7:00 AM PST

By David Gest

"At least in theory, a redistribution of population to available high ground is possible. Before the storm, some 460,000 people lived in New Orleans, which was continuing to lose population. After Katrina, the decimated city has only about 150,000 residents. Two years from now, 250,000 people may live in the city. Higher elevations would accommodate that population. Farley and others maintain that the lowlands should be returned to flood-absorbing swamps, or turned into greenbelts relatively impervious to flood damage.

Potentially, these denser, higher New Orleans neighborhoods (unlike many of its depopulated, pre-Katrina counterparts) could support more supermarkets, neighborhood stores and businesses. Social services would be easier to distribute; jobs would be closer. The need for automobiles would be reduced, a good idea in a town where some 20,000 people did not own their own car."

FULL STORY: New Orleans as the new ecotopia

Tuesday, February 21, 2006 in The San Diego Union-Tribune

Community / Economic Development Louisiana

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