While growing up in New Orleans I knew this city was special.  Where else do you get a week off from school to celebrate Mardi Gras and bask in the sun while listening to multiples stages of soulful music?  People know New Orleans is unique because of our long-standing traditions and storied cultures. However what sets this city apart isn’t just costumes, second lines, and laced balconies, but its people.  Since Hurricane Katrina, the nation has been able to get to know New Orleans beyond the usual stereotypes and gain a better understanding of the strength, creativity, and tenacity of our citizens.

The recovery of New Orleans has been a people centered effort-individuals, small businesses, neighborhoods, and nonprofits.  In particular, I have had the great pleasure of getting to know the nonprofit community over the past few years.  After spending 15 years on the East Coast, I decided to move back home to witness the city’s rebuilding firsthand through the eyes of nonprofits.  And I have enjoyed seeing how their growth in the community and entrepreneurial spirit is making a difference every day.

Nonprofits have become a noteworthy part of our city’s backbone and risen to the challenge of trying to solve some of our greatest challenges including affordable housing, crime, environmental protection, homelessness, health care, and education.  Since the storm, the sector is stronger and more cohesive with increased organizational capacity and new coalitions formed around common issues.

The sector’s importance to the city has been shown by its serving the needs of our most vulnerable populations and being able to effectively partner with government and business to achieve our common goals.  As mission-driven organizations in every community, nonprofits hold a significant value to our state and act as a vital part of the economic engine.  I have no doubt their presence and influence will continue to grow, emboldened by the lessons learned over the past four years, after we were unexpectedly thrown into the largest recovery effort in national history.

New Orleans is a city of good times and crazy traditions, but it’s also an incredible example of the impact grassroots communities can have when they mobilize together through joint efforts to create a stronger voice for the needs of our citizens.

How long have you been the announcer for the New Orleans Saints?

The New Orleans Saints’ front office folks hired me to replace Buddy Diliberto for the third Saints season. I’ve been there ever since. I haven’t missed a single home game including the ‘home’ games in San Antonio and Baton Rouge in the first post-Katrina year.

How do you describe the spirit of New Orleans right now?

The spirit of New Orleans is to be found wherever you go and with whomever you meet. It is an unquenchable fire of love, dedication, and devotion to our remarkable team. It is a spirit born of hope, forever unflinching in the face of all-too-many defeats over a 43-year history. New Orleans is a winner in the truest sense. Our boys are going to the Super Bowl, and there ain’t nothing better, nicer, or more rewarding.

How do you describe how closely this team’s success is tied to the recovery of New Orleans?

Coach Sean Payton and quarterback Drew Brees believe that the resilience and the indomitable spirit of our people have spread deeply into the psyche of the football team. The players sensed that mentality and responded in their approach to preparing for this wonderful season.

As the voice behind the New Orleans Saints, what is your message for Super Bowl Sunday?

Never, never give up. The team won’t. FINISH STRONG!

When you traveled throughout Orleans parish campaigning for mayor, what made you the most hopeful?

What made me the most hopeful was the will and energy of the people. In every neighborhood you find people engaged and who care. The level of active engagement and the number of people giving their time and energy is inspiring-from fighting blight to revitalizing NORD to helping small businesses succeed to efforts to help the elderly-you name it, and there are folks in the city working to fix it or make it better.

And caused you the most despair?

We deserve better from city government. Working mothers have no safe place for their kids to go after school or on holidays because NORD doesn’t function properly. A homeowner can’t get the city to cut the grass on the vacant lot next door- one that the city owns. It shouldn’t take a year to get a streetlight fixed. It can take a business owner one week to get a permit, when it should only take an hour. Many neighborhoods can compete for the worst roads. I could go on.

As a passionate voice for education reform, what advice will you give to the next mayor?

Historically, the mayor has had little engagement with public education and has no direct role in running schools. While our schools need to get better, they are much improved since Katrina and there is a lot of good momentum. City services, on the other hand, need major improvement. Given the challenges facing the city, my advice to the next mayor is that the city is really broken – go fix it! Reducing violent crime, creating good jobs, working with the neighborhoods on code enforcement and blight reduction, developing a functioning city hall and balancing the budget will take leadership and focus from the next mayor.

On education, the mayor can use the bully pulpit to help children and schools. In the annual state of the city address, include a report card on the state of our children: In education, what percentage of our fourth graders are reading on grade level? What percentage of our freshman graduated from high school four years later and how prepared are they for college or to join the workforce? If these indicators are not improving, the mayor could be a powerful voice in demanding change. The annual report should also include crime indicators: what percentage of our youth are victims or perpetrators of violent crimes? And I would have a measurement to capture the mental and physical health of our young people as well.

I also see the mayor engaging with the school facility master plan to make certain all schools are in good facilities and that we find ways to partner with NORD in rebuilding, so we can co-locate NORD facilities on school campuses.

What role is the nonprofit community playing in our city?

Our nonprofits are playing a critical and inspirational role in almost every issue or problem confronting the city. You will find people with energy and deep knowledge who can help New Orleans address our problems. Examples are everywhere. The Afterschool Partnership has focused on out-of-school programming and the redevelopment of NORD. Beacon of Hope, the Broadmoor Civic Association and the Neighborhood Partnership Network have worked long and hard on neighborhood recovery issues and combating blight. The Crime Coalition has invested tremendous energy in understanding key reforms needed for a more effective policy department and criminal justice system. The nonprofit community has been stepping up to both understand the issues and work on solutions . The next mayor needs to tap this energy and expertise and find a way to leverage it in making New Orleans a much better city.

Tell us why you love New Orleans on our newly-launched Greater New Orleans Foundation page on Facebook.

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What I love about New Orleans

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]]> http://www.gnof.org/blog/why-do-you-love-new-orleans/feed/lang/en/ 2 http://www.gnof.org/blog/qa-with-nolan-v-rollins-president-ceo-of-the-urban-league-of-greater-new-orleans/ http://www.gnof.org/blog/qa-with-nolan-v-rollins-president-ceo-of-the-urban-league-of-greater-new-orleans/#comments Tue, 05 Jan 2010 21:14:26 +0000 GNOF http://www.gnof.org/?p=1964

Looking back over 2009, what were the highlights for the Urban League?

In 2009, the Urban League of Greater New Orleans completed an internal review and adopted a Strategic Framework that calls for the Urban League to be an Architect of Change. For the Urban League, being an Architect of Change means becoming an expert on how to effect change on economic, educational, and policy issues that adversely affect African-Americans and other disadvantaged populations.

What achievements are you proud of?

Our Parent Information Center reached over 980 parents, and we conducted 37 parent workshops teaching parents, teachers, and school leaders how to engage as partners in the delivery of excellent public and private education. We conducted a schools fair with over 70 schools participating serving 600 families. We also developed a Parent Leadership Academy and graduated an inaugural class.  Our Urban League College Track program supported 100 students weekly in our college preparatory program. Our Financial Connections program provided financial literacy classes to over 200 participants and our Women’s and Business resource centers counseled over 400 entrepreneurs and supported over 900 in total.

With numbers like those the Urban League has put on the scoreboard in 2009, we are sure to run up the score by thoroughly beating back the disparities that plague our most vulnerable individuals.

Where is the Urban League headed over the next couple of years?

Over the next couple of years the Urban League will be focused making success possible for every individual who is willing to work hard.

What does the Urban League do freakishly well?

I think the Urban League is freakishly good at being the voice of reason. Our voice comes through in a recognizable manner for all to digest equally, and more importantly our voice rings with a sweet and melodic solution that closes gaps of disparity, unites communities around commonalities, and paints a picture that includes the dreams of all New Orleanians in every brush stroke.

Jeff Schwartz is the executive director of Broad Community Connections. He is a native New Orleanian with a Master in City Planning degree from MIT. Broad Community Connections received a grant from the Community IMPACT Program to advocate for the revitalization of our city’s great urban commercial corridor.

Tell us about Broad Community Connections.

It was formed right after Katrina. It is a group of neighborhoods with residents from Treme, Lower Mid-City, Mid-City and Faubourg St. John with the purpose to basically revitalize Broad Street. Our mission is to make Broad Street a place to work, live, and play.

Why Broad Street?

Broad Street has significance throughout New Orleans history. It is a place with a lot of cultural relevance. We all know Treme was the birthplace of jazz, Faubourg St. John is where Degas spent some of his time, and Mid-City and Lower Mid-City are organically mixed income, mixed-use neighborhoods. Broad Street is the one thing that connects them all. It is never going to be a Magazine Street or an Oak Street, but it will be Mid-City’s Main Street.

What’s the interest?

These neighborhoods have such a uniqueness and charm to them. We find a lot of people are looking to reinvest in these neighborhoods. It is very attractive because it is not a developer’s vision but an organic New Orleans vision of what a neighborhood should be.

Is there economic potential?

Broad Street has 25,000 to 30,000 cars a day going by. We just have to figure out a way to get them to stop and shop.

What are you doing to promote that?

We assist with technical assistance grants, façade grants, trash clean-ups, and planting trees. We’re working with the State Department of Transportation to narrow Broad Street from three lanes to two with a bike path. We’re also looking to address the critical food access needs in the neighborhoods by creating a Fresh Food Hub, where we attract a comprehensive food service provider for the charter schools.

How do you describe your work?

While it is basically economic development, more importantly, we’re talking community development. We want businesses that are bringing something back to the neighborhoods whether it is a shoemaker or dry cleaner. It’s all about making the daily existence of living in your neighborhood better. The more mom and pop shops you have, the more local businesses you have and the more money that stays in the local economy. Twenty to thirty percent more money stays in a community when it’s a local business.

How should we be thinking of Broad Street?

It is open for business!

Listen to more about Jeff Schwartz’s vision for Broad Street on WWNO’s Community IMPACT series sponsored by the Greater New Orleans Foundation.

What does it mean to go home for the Holidays?  For some, “home for the holidays” means going across town to a sibling’s or cousin’s house for a big meal with all the family.  Others will “go home” to their old neighborhood to reunite and celebrate with friends and neighbors.  School, job, or other life circumstances keep some New Orleanians elsewhere most of the year — the holidays mean coming home to the city they love.

Four years ago, fewer than 91,000[i] New Orleanians were home that Thanksgiving after Hurricane Katrina made landfall and the levees failed.  Many who were here lived in temporary housing, not yet back in their own homes.  They lived in a foreign city: one devoid of familiar landmarks, lost without old routines.  Many had to drive long distances to purchase groceries and lived without working kitchens in which to cook the traditional holiday meal.

Recent estimates suggest that by Thanksgiving of this year, New Orleans will have 78% of its pre-Katrina population, though this number includes newcomers as well as those who lived here prior to August 2005.   But living in New Orleans costs more than it used to.  41% of renters in Orleans Parish spend more than 50% of their pre-tax income on housing costs, which include rent and utilities.  Rising insurance and utility rates, combined with the cost of repairs, mean homeowners are also struggling with the increased cost of housing: more than one of every three homeowners spends more than 30% of pre-tax household income on housing.[ii]

The federal government defines households that pay more than 30% of their income on housing as “housing cost burdened.”  Such unaffordable housing costs often force families to cut costs on other expenses like healthcare, schooling and/or food.  The Community Revitalization Fund at the Greater New Orleans Foundation, founded in 2007 by 21 local and national foundations, envisions a city where safe, high-quality, and affordable housing — housing that does not cost more than 30% of income — ­ is available for all who want to live in this city we call home.

This Thanksgiving holiday, we give thanks for the countless volunteers and the generous donors who have worked — and continue to work —  so hard to help our neighbors come home.  We also give thanks for the citizens of New Orleans who are volunteering their time, energy, and passion working tirelessly to rebuild this City so that all of us can be home for the holidays.

[i]McCarthy, Kevin, D.J. Peterson, Narayan Sastry, Michael Pollard. The Repopulation of New Orleans After Hurricane Katrina. RAND Gulf States Policy Institute : 2006

[ii] Plyer, Allison, Elaine Oritz, Margery Austin Turner and Kathryn L.S. Petit. Housing Production Needs: Three Scenarios for New Orleans. Greater New Orleans Community Data Center: November 2009.

New Orleans has always had a close, even essential relationship with water.  Almost like a traditional but tempestuous marriage.  For better, for worse; for richer, for poorer; in sickness and in health.   Early on, the City and its founders were struck by the power and beauty of the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico, but more importantly they were enamored of the possibilities presented by locating a city at, for all practical purposes, the junction of the River and the sea.  It was never an easy marriage but it was, from the City’s point of view anyway, a largely successful one.

Once the marriage was made the City wanted to settle down with a well behaved partner who dutifully and quietly served its growth and prosperity.   Over time it strove to channel and control the waters, to bend them to its will.  Ultimately, the City came to take the water for granted and its eyes roved to new challenges and opportunities.    This is a risky way to handle any important relationship.  When that relationship is with water, it is just plain dumb.

We all know what happens next in this story.   Water will be pushed around for awhile but it, like all of nature, has the final word.  And when it pushes back it leaves no doubt about its need to be respected.

Mark Davis, director, Tulane Institute on Water Resources Law and Policy

The marriage between New Orleans and water isn’t over but it is trouble.    There is no going back to the way things were.  If this City is to have a fighting chance it is going to have wake up and realize that water, and the landscape it built, is central to this City’s existence.  It can be managed up to a point but not exploited.  It needs to be appreciated, respected, and even celebrated.

There are signs of change.  The City’s new draft Master Plan calls for making room for water and emphasizing good water and land stewardship.  Support for coastal restoration has never been higher.  Community action finally forced the closure of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet.

But words, sentiments, and a few emblematic actions aren’t going to be enough.   It will take a commitment to water stewardship, sensible land use controls , and recognizing that the protection and resilience of this City is more a matter of how we live here than the levees and pumps we build. This marriage can be saved, but it is going to take work.  That work is only just begun.

How has the city come together?

Some ways well, and in many ways, not so well. The storm created racial divisions and reawakened certain racial divisions making it difficult for the city to pull together. People with financial resources have the wherewithal to renovate or rebuild their properties and in many ways, there may be an improvement in their post-Katrina condition. Many of those who have not had the resources have been unable to restore their properties. Thousands of volunteers and charitable organizations have been trying to help those individuals, but there is still so much left to do.

Looking back?

The beauty of New Orleans has always been its mixture of cultures starting out with the French, then an infusion of Spanish, Irish, Italians, and Germans. The city was never entirely French because of all the African Americans. Out of that mixture, grew an incredible city in terms of culture. Unfortunately, slavery and Jim Crow created by law blacks as an underclass and the economic and social effects of those systems linger today.

And, when Katrina hit?

It magnified the distances. Whites live on the better property, have more substantial homes, are able to evacuate more easily. African Americans being poorer with weaker houses and less ability to evacuate were for the most part, left to suffer in the city. This, of course, was portrayed to the world. The world witnessed a majority of African Americans at the Dome and Convention Center, while all areas were hurt, because the water knew no race, culture or creed.

Where does our work begin?

It is evident that a city cannot be divided 60/40 in terms of race and move forward in a very positive way without racial cooperation, racial trust, and racial confidence. Not a question of agreeing on every solution, but it certainly requires good faith on all parts. One need only look at the political accusations and divisions in the media to see that we are not as together as fully as we should be.

How do we come together?

It will come naturally, but unfortunately, without activism, it’s much too slow for a rebirth. It is going to take dialogue, conversation, and putting aside long-held prejudices. Much more can be done by the major churches, not in just their charity work, which they do well, but in fostering dialogue.

How is the city looking?

Some parts are looking good, except perhaps the streets. Schools are being rebuilt, the blighted housing is being removed, and public buildings restored. We will be a much smaller city that when we were at our peak in 1960 with 627,000. Our population will be between 350,000 and 400,000. This is not to say there won’t be growth thereafter, just not explosive growth. I think one of the very bright spots is the education system. An enormous amount of money is being spent to rebuild the system and it will be a different system.

And, your life’s prescription?

My father used to always say, “I want what I have.” That is the way I live my life.