Is Urban Sustainability Possible in Post-Katrina New Orleans?

Abstract

Hurricane Katrina struck the city of New Orleans on August 29th, 2005 forever changing the Big Easy and its hard hit neighborhoods (Fig. 12.1). The storm surge breached the inadequately engineered levees in several locations flooding 80 % of the city under 1 to over 10 ft of water (NOAA 2005; Waple A, Hurricane Katrina. NOAA's National Climatic Data Center, Asheville, 2005; Baumann PR, Nellis MD, Mitteager WA, Geocarto Int 21(2):75-80, 2006; Plyer A, Facts for features: Katrina impact. Report published at www.datacenterresearch.org. The data center: independent analysis for informed decisions in Southeast Louisiana, 2014). It became the largest residential disaster in United States history (Plyer A, Facts for features: Katrina impact. Report published at www.datacenterresearch.org. Independent analysis for informed decisions in Southeast Louisiana, The Data Center, 2014), testing New Orleans' resilience. In fact, most discussions about the future of the city have been about resiliency (Campanella TJ, J Am Plan Assoc 72(2):141-146,2006; Gotham and Greenberg 2014). While the ability to recover is crucial for the future of the city, the idea of sustainability has to be considered. Will New Orleans be rebuilt with sustainability ideals of social justice and equity or will racial discrimination and poverty prevail? Historical conditions of the socio-political ecology are riddled with examples of racial segregation (Germany KB, J Am Hist 94(3):743-751, 2007) leading to extreme vulnerability of black neighborhoods (Bond Graham 2007) showcased by the events following Hurricane Katrina. In the initial few years following the flood event, many predicted New Orleans would be "whitened" (Fussell E, Sastry N, VanLandingham M, Popul Environ 31(1):20-42,2010) as displaced black residents did not have the means to return and seemingly would never be able to return (Logan JR, The impact of Katrina: race and class in storm-damaged neighborhoods. Unpublished manuscript. Spatial structures in the social sciences initiative, Brown University, 2006; Horne J, Five myths about Hurricane Katrina, The Washington Post, 31 August, 2012). However, although black residents have returned at much slower rates (Fussell E, Sastry N, VanLandingham M, Popul Environ 31(1):20-42,2010), the feared "whitening" of New Orleans has not come to fruition, preserving much of the cultural characteristics of the city.