Planning — January 2010
Viewpoint
Report Card

By Fritz Wagner, FAICP

New Orleans is a favorite city of mine. It is like no other in the U.S. I lived there from 1974 until 2000, when I retired from the University of New Orleans and left for Seattle so that my wife could be closer to her family. What took me to New Orleans in the first place was my first teaching job at UNO. I rose through the ranks and eventually became director of the School of Urban and Regional Studies and then dean of the College of Urban and Public Affairs, which was established in 1988.

My colleagues and I were young and earnest. We wanted to build excellent academic programs in the college and produce well-prepared students who would help to transform our city into a more livable and sustainable place. We also believed that through our public service work we could contribute to building a better New Orleans. Our dreams in many ways were realized.

Katrina opened a deep wound, devastating a city that was already suffering economically and socially, especially the poor. New Orleans has always had a significant underclass, but it grew proportionally over the years as oil industry jobs moved to Texas and white flight took many middle-class residents first to the subdivisions of Jefferson Parish, and then across Lake Pontchartrain to Mandeville and Slidell, and even to communities farther north and west. The storm forced out many more, this time to other parts of the country, where diehard New Orleanians — many of whom had never lived outside the region — began to rebuild their lives. Many of the exiles have not returned and, faced with the prospect of poorly paid jobs, probably never will.

For months after the hurricane, New Orleans drifted, and in some ways it still drifts today. Government agencies at all levels were slow to act, and competing political factions and racial divisions further stymied the recovery. Outsiders haven't done much better in their efforts to make New Orleans a more modern city. Many competing plans were developed, but none has pulled the city out of its morass. Architects produced design prototypes for housing that often violated the character of this historic city.

Things are settling down now. Individuals and grassroots organizations are slowly trying to rebuild the city, generally with little fanfare. The economy is improving as tourists slowly return, and committed young people are starting new enterprises. An aging infrastructure is being replaced and upgraded. Levees are being strengthened. The public schools are getting better. So progress is being made, and the city will come back, but it will take a long time.

Get out to the neighborhoods

Still, visitors who stick to the parts of the city that were not flooded may get a false sense of the extent of the damage — and of the recovery. In fact, New Orleans seems to have disappeared from the radar screen of most Americans, including most federal officials. So I urge planners who will be at the National Planning Conference in April to get out to the neighborhoods where the hurt is felt the most and see the boarded-up houses, the vacant stores, and the empty lots. A trip to Gentilly, the Lower Ninth Ward, Lakeview, and New Orleans East will help you understand the challenges facing planners working on reconstruction.

Finally, a word to those who say New Orleans residents got what they deserved for living in a city that is below sea level. The reality is that New Orleans would never have flooded if the drainage canals had been properly constructed, if the Corps of Engineers had not built the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, and if the protective natural wetlands had not been decimated. If the political will and the dollars are there, the city can be made a better place to live. It is still a culturally rich treasure, a unique American city.

Fritz Wagner is is a research professor in the College of the Built Environments (which includes the urban design and planning and landscape architecture departments) at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Summer Course in Quebec, June 16-23, 2009

This course will compare US and Quebec cities with regards to layout, growth and environmental issues, while visiting Montreal and Quebec City. To find out more, download this BROCHURE , or email Professor Wagner at fwagner@u.washington.edu.

> New for 2008! Book in Progress: Community Livability: Issues and Approaches to Sustaining the Well-Being of People and Communities

The proposed book is timely in that there is a great deal of discussion occurring in the academic and practical literature as to developing, designing, and implementing livable communities. Much of the literature veers off in different directions and does not offer valuable insights as what works and does not work. Policy officials at all levels of government are also vocal in their need for information that can help them develop programs and policies to further the cause of livable communities. As such, the chapters contained in this book fill an important gap in the literature on livable communities, and at the same time, assist public officials in their quest to develop livable communities. Edited by Fritz Wagner (University of Washington), Roger Caves (San Diego State University), and Eric Noll (University of Washington).

> Public Forum on Initiative 933

October 12, 2006, 7:00-9:00 pm, Kane Hall 130

Learn more about the Washington Farm Bureau’s proposed Initiative 933 and its implications.

Glenn Pascall, a regional economist and Research Coordinator for the UW Northwest Center for Livable Communities’ study on I-933, will review the initiative’s impacts; Professor Sy Adler from Portland State University will discuss Measure 37 that passed in Oregon; and a panel will present various perspectives on I-933. Questions and answers will follow.

Moderated by Steve Scher from KUOW

For more information, contact Fritz Wagner, NWCLC Managing Director, 206-543-7459, fwagner@u.washington.edu

Download a flyer for this event

> What is Livable? Lecture Series

February 13, 2006, 12:30-1:30 pm, Gould Court

Blue + Green = Green (Building)

Hamilton Hazelhurst, Vulcan
Mark Huppert, Catapult Community Development
Ann Schuessler, RAFN
Lynne Barker, City of Seattle (moderator)

November 16, 2005, 12-1:30 pm, Gould Court

Is Affordable Housing an Oxymoron?

November 14, 2005, 12-1 pm, Gould 424

" The Puget Sound Freeway Air Pollution Shed (FAPS): Land Use Patterns and Populations at Risk"

October 12, 2005, 12-1 pm, Gould 114

"Densification and green belt policy in Norway with special attention on Oslo" A talk by Dr. Thoron, professor in Landscape Architecture at the Department of Landscape Architecture and Spatial Planning at the Norwegian University of Life
Sciences

December 4, 2003, Gould Court

"Creating Livable Communities Through Urban Design"
Mark Hinshaw FAICP, FAIA, Director of Urban Design LMN Architects

January 8, 2004, 12:30pm Gould 322

Michael LaFond, Institute for Creative Sustainability, Berlin, Germany

March 2, 2004,12pm, Gould Court

Lee Copeland and Brodie Bain of Mithun Architects+Designers+Planners speak about: "Urban Design as a Collaborative Process: Making Communities More Livable"

May 4, Tuesday, 12:30 -1:30pm; Gould Hall, Room 435

Alan Rabinowitz, "Urban Economics and Land Use In
America"

Alan will deliver a lecture titled "Urban Economics and Land Use In America: The Transformation of Cities in the Twentieth Century." The lecture will draw upon Alan's newly released book of the same title, highlighting the reappearance of the importance of Ebenezer Howard's dynamic 1898 ideas for "Social City" in the current context.

An author of several books on community development, urban finance and planning, and philanthropy, Alan is also the former Chair of the Urban Design and Planning Department at University of Washington. Alan holds a Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from M.I.T. and an M.B.A. from Harvard University. He has served in local government in Boston, as well as a consultant on national affairs.

May 11, Tuesday, 12:30pm - 1:30pm, in Gould Court (Gould Hall.)

Diane Sugimura and John Rahaim, "Maritime smells foster lust...' and Other Planning Issues"

They will offer an inside perspective of the newly named Department of Planning and Development's recent work, with specific focus on the Central Waterfront Plan. Refreshments will be provided, and feel free to bring your lunch.

Diane Sugimura is the City of Seattle's Director of Planning and Development. After 26 years with the City of Seattle in the variously-named planning offices and projects, and in a primarily regulatory agency Diane Sugimura has come full circle by heading up the agency that combines both the Department of Planning and Development. The City of Seattle finally has a department with the word lanning in its name! John Rahaim has been the Planning Director for the City of Seattle since August of 2003. Prior to this appointment, Mr. Rahaim was the Founding Executive Director of CityDesign, Seattle office of Urban Design founded in 1999; and the Executive Director of the Seattle Design Commission, the City primary design advisory panel for public projects and related urban design initiatives. He currently sits on the editorial committee of Arcade Magazine.