My Storm: Managing the Recovery of New Orleans in the Wake of Katrina

Foreword

ix FOREWORD | HENRY G. CISNEROS THE SCALE OF THE HURRICANE WAS IMMENSE. THE POWER OF the direct hit on a city was stunning. The suffering of the residents was shocking . And the challenges of the recovery effort were unprecedented in American history. Of necessity, therefore, the strategy to bring New Orleans back from the brink required the best urban minds and most skillful public sector managers the nation could identify. Fortunately the New Orleans city administration found a person whose background, experience, and dedication qualified him at that level—Ed Blakely. I had known Professor Blakely by reputation as one of the nation’s most creative urban planners and most respected academics. His writings on urban solutions have shaped many ideas and careers over the years. I observed from afar his work as an urban administrator and courageous activist in Oakland and other cities. But it was during the working sessions that followed the massive civil disturbances in Los Angeles in 1992 that I first had the opportunity to see Ed in action and to work with him. In part because of my work in Los Angeles, President Clinton asked me to serve as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in his Cabinet. In that capacity I was able to collaborate with Ed once again, most importantly in designing policies to engage urban universities as “anchor institutions” in central city neighborhoods by applying their employment capabilities, academic assets, and community development potential. When Ed was designated by Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans to coordinate the Katrina response, he asked me to chair the board of external advisors. From my experience at HUD, I knew that a city with daunting prospects in x Foreword normal times would present heartbreaking challenges after an epic natural disaster. I also knew that Ed was one of the few leaders in the world who would be up to the task. From the vantage point of the advisory committee—which met in New Orleans to review plans, to offer suggestions, and to make recommendations to state and national officials—I saw that Ed willed the city onto a path to recovery . He and his colleagues extracted the best ideas from competing plans, steered resources to priority needs, jump-started bureaucratic organizations, and most importantly generated hope and inspired confidence that the job could be done. The experiences and insights which fill this book are important for policy makers, for academic urban specialists, and for public-minded citizens everywhere . Looking to the past, My Storm is a first-person historical record of one of the highest profile and most decisive American events of the last decade. In the present, Ed’s account constitutes a study of the fragility and the value of these complex social systems we call our cities. Most importantly, anticipating the future, Ed makes us think about preparations in our own metropolitan areas for potentially massive disasters which may once have been unimaginable but which now appear with frequency in news reporting from around the world. Natural disasters and man-made destruction will be more damaging and tragic as they occur in increasingly populated areas of the globe. Ed counsels that we need to think ahead to prevent massive human suffering and that we must prepare far in advance for large-scale rescue and recovery efforts. Ed has devoted his personal energies and career to making life better for people who live in the cities of our world. Most of the time that has meant Ed is planning for progress. It takes a wise man to know how to apply his ideals and personal courage to envision progress amidst a crushing setback. That wisdom must then be buttressed by the herculean determination to make sure that one step backward is always countered with two steps forward. Ed Blakely has always shown us how to take steps forward. In My Storm he shows us once again. MY STORM This page intentionally left blank ...