Turf Wars in the Delta
Plotting a future for the new New Orleans isn't just about urban design. Try money--and politics
Even if every resident followed the road map, committed to consolidating neighborhoods and abandoning dangerous parts of the city, the commission's plan of "infill" areas and development zones is still only a best guess of where it makes sense to rebuild. That's because the Federal Emergency Management Agency will be months late releasing new, revised maps showing which parts of the city are most prone to floods; the maps are now expected this summer, at the earliest. The maps will dictate which parts of the city are uninsurable--and difficult to rebuild in, as a practical matter--as opposed to which regions are relatively safe. Surviving homes that don't get grandfathered in under the old maps could be required to elevate, which can cost thousands of dollars. As time wears on, "the more we'll have people make precipitous decisions about rebuilding," says Reed Kroloff, dean of the Tulane School of Architecture, who's codirecting the urban plan. So the more the clock keeps ticking, the less the plan is, well, a plan.
And for the commission plan to work, it needs broad support from the White House and funding from Congress--and that process has been bumpy. To date, Washington has allocated $87 billion in Gulf Coast relief, and the White House requested an additional $19.8 billion for 2006 just last week. Billions more have been spent in federal flood insurance payouts. A relatively scant amount has been spent on housing. "We have 200,000 families that don't have a place to come back to," says Andy Kopplin, the executive director of the Louisiana Recovery Authority.
Limbo. The housing crisis in Louisiana has created a testy, on-again, off-again relationship between Louisiana and Washington. In January, the White House launched a stunning offensive against legislation that was to provide a funding mechanism for much of the commission plan. Authored by Republican Rep. Richard Baker of Baton Rouge, the bill proposes a big government fix: the Louisiana Recovery Corp. Funded by up to $30 billion in treasury bonds, it would buy up property from willing sellers, even those in the flood plain--potentially tens of thousands of parcels. The corporation would clean up contaminants and sell those properties to developers, whose projects would be guided by the commission's master plan. Originally the White House seemed friendly to the proposal, but last month, Don Powell, the federal coordinator for Gulf Coast rebuilding, disavowed the bill as too costly and bureaucratic. Instead, the administration proposed that Louisiana use $6.2 billion in block grants--money the state wanted to pour into infrastructure and small businesses--to focus on the 20,000 uninsured destroyed homes above the flood plain, which the administration says are the most deserving of federal aid. The federal plan, Powell says, would eliminate the proposed LRC's bureaucracy. "Plus," he adds, "it doesn't put the federal government in the real-estate business."
The news sent Louisianians reeling. "It doesn't help the people who to their detriment relied on the levees," says Kopplin of the Louisiana Recovery Authority. The federal government has an acute responsibility to help all homeowners, Louisiana officials argue, because levee failures contributed massively to damage from Katrina--and the levees were built and maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The proposal would have left the poor in particularly tough shape. Owners of homes with mortgages are required to carry flood insurance, but many poor forgo the cost of insurance once the home is paid off. Those who did so and were flooded by Katrina lost a risky bet. But without federal aid, uninsured families are facing an uphill battle.
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