New Orleans, Louisiana

New Orleans, Louisiana

Comprehensive participatory neighborhood rebuilding

Traditional planning theories separate the physical process of rebuilding infrastructure from the social process of rebuilding neighborhoods and communities. We believe that the two must be tightly integrated.

While New Orleans, rebuilds its infrastructure, how can the city move its tens of thousands of poorly educated and unemployed people into careers as 21st century “green carpenters” and “green electricians?” As the schools reopen, how can the curricula be rethought to integrate training to match such career opportunities? To develop truly meaningful solutions and give them staying power in a community context, answering these questions requires both technical expertise and community participation.

CoLab supports the development of inclusive, participatory processes that engage residents within and across neighborhood boundaries to participate meaningfully in the rebuilding of the city. We seek to help residents capture their knowledge about their neighborhoods and translate that knowledge into achievable community development plans.

In the early stages of recovery, with a small grant from the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, DUSP deployed a group of graduate students to live full-time in New Orleans and provide staff and support to groups seeking to assess local capacity and organizing around participatory planning processes. Despite the fact that residents and community-based organizations are best positioned to identify the challenges and concerns faced by each community, DUSP students’ early scan revealed very little infrastructure to support local residents’ and organizations’ efforts.

Since the storm, faculty affiliates of CoLab have:

• Deployed 20 students through a graduate practicum to work with small local groups in the Tremé neighborhood to create a neighborhood rebuilding plan.

• Assisted residents and a local CDC (Broadmoor Development Corporation) in the Broadmoor community in efforts to reopen a local library; develop program and funding proposals for the redevelopment of a community building; develop a land trust; and promote local commercial finance. DUSP students conducted comprehensive interviews of business owners and assisted in developing a business directory for them to hand out to residents returning to the community.

• Worked with Enterprise Community Partners and Providence Community Housing to create neighborhood development strategies, options, and opportunities.

• Partnered with Providence Community Housing to formulate the participatory aspects of long-term economic development frameworks for these target neighborhoods.

• Assisted the Vietnamese community in Village de l’Est (New Orleans East) to advance its rebuilding plans and capacity.

• Worked with staff and volunteers at Mary Queen of Vietnam church to assess small business recovery needs and evaluate options to organize local business to support commercial corridor revitalization.

• Conducted a program planning staff workshop and assisted with grant applications to the Louisiana Recovery Authority.

• Partnered with GertTown to help establish an open-source property mapping system and process; built an open-source database management system and web portal to allow GertTown residents and government to view this information online and update it as new information is available.

STUDENT INTERNSHIPS

During Summer 2007, CoLab supported 15 MIT undergraduate and graduate students to work at the New Orleans Office of Recovery Management on planning and economic development initiatives related to the city’s recovery post-Katrina, including target-area planning and sustainability, energy, and green building policy and planning.

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

CoLab is committed to unearthing the collective knowledge and lessons learned through these varied experiences via reflection sessions, information sharing, and learning seminars. Check out the DUSP@NOLA wiki to learn about past and current projects or to add your own project.

STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS

We are currently exploring possible technology partnerships to support the development of neighborhood information systems that will support residents’ engagement in participatory planning processes.