Mayoral Transition Panel Takes On City’s Future

Task force co-chairs (left to right):  David Marcello, blight; James Perry, housing; Leslie Jacobs, economic development; LaToya Cantrell, neighborhood development.

On Friday, March 26, Community Revitalization Fund supporters convened at the Greater New Orleans Foundation to hear from a panel of four mayoral transition team leaders about Mayor-elect Mitch Landrieu’s plans for the city.

Panelists expressed enthusiasm and spoke to a great number of challenges and opportunities in New Orleans’ immediate future.

“As a resident, I’m seeing more optimism than we have felt in a long time,” said Leslie Jacobs, co-chair of the Economic Development Task Force.

More than 400 volunteers on 17 task forces are quickly planning the recommendations they will make to Landrieu by the time he takes office May 3.

“The good news of the last five years is citizen engagement,” said David Marcello of the Blight Task Force that he co-chairs with the Foundation’s senior vice president for programs Ellen Lee.

From 65,000 blighted properties to 88,000 jobs lost since Katrina, from high illiteracy rates to a lack of affordable mental health care, panelists discussed an array of serious challenges the new mayor will need to address.  Each task force is looking at the root causes of these problems as well as the opportunities that could come our way over the next few years.

LaToya Cantrell of the Neighborhood Development Task Force said her team is looking at how the city can provide support to neighborhood groups, which have led great strides in recovery through civic engagement and the use of sophisticated tools such as those needed in neighborhood mapping.  “There must be a direct tie from city government to neighborhoods,” said Cantrell.  “We need to empower people to stay engaged.”

“There’s a lot of opportunity, but New Orleans remains a fairly poor city,” said James Perry, whose Housing Task Force is examining the root causes of poverty and how to address the lack of affordable housing.  “Housing is only a portion of what has to happen to make a community work, so we’re talking with the other task forces.  We also talked with mayors from around the country, and they told us to shoot for the moon.  We were advised that if you want to do big things, do them early, so that’s the plan.”

“We have to play to our strengths,” said Jacobs, whose team is looking at how New Orleans can grow its economy and create jobs by expanding into new industries and leveraging its intellectual capital and creative energy.  “There are tremendous opportunities coming, we just have to seize them.”

In 2007, the Greater New Orleans Foundation launched a five-year, $25 million initiative for community revitalization with the support and participation of 22 national and local foundations. To date, the Community Revitalization Fund has made 40 investments totaling $13.6 million resulting in the construction or rehabilitation of 6,500 housing units.