St. Bernard Parish at a Critical Crossroads

By Marco F. Cocito-Monoc, Ph.D., director of regional initiatives at the Greater New Orleans Foundation.

Since the difficult years after Hurricane Katrina made landfall, St. Bernard Parish has managed to accomplish a number of quite remarkable things. It has consolidated and renovated its schools with great rapidity, while re-committing itself to nothing less than excellence in the sphere of public education. Its neighborhood associations have begun the important task of identifying and preparing a new group of leaders to become more active in the civic and political spheres. Most impressively, approximately 35,000 people (13,000 households) have returned to rebuild their lives in a parish that was devastated beyond recognition.

What the report, completed by czb LLC and commissioned by the Greater New Orleans Foundation reveals, however, is that all of these gains are being undermined by the lingering presence of large numbers of vacant, damaged homes and commercial structures. In a region that is competing for residents, the 13,000 returned households of St. Bernard remain virtually invisible amidst the ubiquitous ruins that act as a constant reminder not of renewal and rebirth, but of all that was lost in 2005. When one compares home values in the immediate vicinity (i.e., in Plaquemines, Jefferson and Orleans parishes), one is led to the shocking conclusion that St. Bernard has lost $100 million in home equity since 2003.

Adding to the bleak landscape are the three quarters of a million square feet of retail space that sit deteriorated and abandoned. Prior to Katrina, St. Bernard had a supportable retail area of about 699,000 square feet (SF). Today, and for the foreseeable future, it can support no more than 450,000 SF. Having lost over half of its population, having seen a diminution in its relative household income, and having lost the significant secondary purchasing power provided by the Lower Ninth Ward, St. Bernard must come to terms with a smaller, more coherent residential and commercial footprint. Indeed, the czb report urges parish leaders to raze all abandoned housing and commercial structures as quickly as possible, so that the overwhelming feeling of emptiness is replaced with one of activity.

In the longer term, czb believes that the creation of “simple guidelines” for the eventual redevelopment of the parish’s vacant lots “will help communicate control” and a sense that positive factors are beginning to outweigh negative ones. The passage of zoning and sign ordinances (for which the Greater New Orleans Foundation has already paid through a grant) is another critical step in the process of establishing and communicating orderly progress to the market.

The key to St. Bernard’s successful future is to be found in its deliberate, planned use of space. If it is to make the most of its opportunities, it must abandon the haphazard development practices of days past and begin to rebuild from a more compact base. According to the report, the threat facing St. Bernard is not the establishment of long-term affordable housing, but rather continued neglect of the manner in which commercial and residential space is redeveloped in the context of a competitive region.