We’re Ready, Mr. President
This op-ed piece appeared in the Times Picayune on Thursday, October 15, 2009, the same day President Obama visited New Orleans.
President Obama visits New Orleans on Thursday at a pivotal point in the city’s recovery, almost midway through what many consider a ten-year undertaking.
He also arrives in the midst of a push to craft a new urban agenda. It’s one that proposes a new social compact to promote equity and opportunity, echoing a challenge he issued on the campaign trail, right here in New Orleans:
“But I will also ask the people of this city to do your part. Because together, we can do more than rebuild a city; we can create a model for America – for how we prepare for disasters; for how we fight poverty; for how we put our kids on a pathway to success.”
The timing couldn’t be better. We’re ready, Mr. President. A new brand of community development is emerging in New Orleans, one grounded in citizen leadership and philanthropic collaboration with the potential to lead a full-blown renaissance.
It’s in this spirit that we call for renewed federal investment in the city: not for disaster recovery (though that bureaucratic jumble still needs work), but to support a model of the 21st century urban center this civic energy is ready to unleash.
Since the flooding post-Katrina, we – the Greater New Orleans Foundation and the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation – have been supporting community-based solutions to the problems posed by recovery.
Over the last four years, we have watched everyday residents, community groups, and volunteers take matters into their own hands as government faltered. Resilience and innovation have been their hallmarks. This is truly a citizen-led recovery.
Nor have we been alone. The charitable response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita was the largest in our country’s history. While much of that went to immediate relief, foundations from across the region and country made long-term commitments and have already invested over $275 million in the city’s revitalization.
This combination has created a willingness to tackle age-old problems in new ways.
Take Central City, where we have partnered with JPMorgan Chase to lead a collection of funders, community groups, and government agencies that have joined forces on projects that, taken together, make equitable development concrete:
- A Neighborhood Resource Center at the former Mahalia Jackson Elementary School, with services for youth ages 0-18;
- The Main Street Development of Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard, with innovative programs to address blighted properties;
- The redevelopment of the C.J. Peete public housing project into a mixed-income community built around a school and community center.
There are other positive signs. The unemployment rate remains well below the national average. New Orleans is becoming a mecca for small business entrepreneurs and young professionals, with an emerging focus on green construction practices.
Over half the children in the public schools – arguably the nation’s worst before the flood – now attend charters; it’s too early to know the impact, but the spirit of reform is strong.
Yet the scale of what remains to be done highlights the limits of private action. Sixty-two thousand properties sit abandoned. The devastation from Hurricane Katrina and the failure of the levees constitute the costliest disaster in U.S. history and necessitates continued federal leadership.
On perhaps no issue is this more important than safety. But again, this presents an opportunity. Coastal restoration and protection, storm and water management: these can be catalysts for vibrant new industries that tie together the city and surrounding region in mutually beneficial ways.
The resilience and creativity of residents, community groups, and volunteers have put a renaissance within reach. As investors, we are optimists – and also realists. We know it can go either way. We’re committed no matter what.
President Obama’s administration has made great strides in removing the bureaucratic barriers slowing recovery. Now we hope to hear a commitment to revitalization that paves the way for New Orleans to be a model of transformation for the rest of the country.
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Ambassador James Joseph is chairman of the board of the directors of the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation and Phyllis Taylor is chair of the board of trustees of the Greater New Orleans Foundation.
