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

Chapter Notes

153 NOTES Introduction I start with Tennessee Williams (1911–1983), who moved to New Orleans in 1939, and saw the community as a fascinating backdrop for plays that depict the death of the old South and the emergence of a troubled people and place. There were litanies of famous and infamous people born and raised in New Orleans from musicians to artists. As the crucible of so much talent the city has sadly not been able to hold or build fortunes on that talent. Huey Long was at constant war with the Times-Picayune. In November 1933, he warned the daily newspapers in a speech in Marksville, “Take those lying Times-Picayune , Shreveport Times, and Alexandria Town Talk. We are going to sock a tax on those damned rascals”; see Richard White, Kingfish: The Reign of Huey P. Long (Random House, 2006). The tragic history and results of the hurricanes that have struck the New Orleans area are documented in “Hurricanes in Louisiana History,” http://www.thecajuns.com/lahurricanes.htm. The decline of the New Orleans economy has been repeatedly and well documented. The poor structural characters of the levees protecting New Orleans have been explored in numerous books and reports. The most authoritative work here is Anuradha Mathur and Dilip da Cunha, “Negotiating a Fluid Terrain,” in Eugenie L. Birch and Susan M. Wachter, eds., Rebuilding Urban Places After Disaster: Lessons from Hurricane Katrina (University of Pennsylvania, Press, 2006), 34–45. Oliver Houck, a Tulane University student, is cited from Joel K. Bourne, Jr., “New Orleans: A Perilous Future,” National Geographic 212, 2 (August 2007): 43, a very compelling examination of the fragile state of the levee sys- 154 Chapter Notes tem which the National Geographic editor says “was a man made disaster that began with the founding of New Orleans in 1718.” One of the best accounts of the drama and trauma of the flood period is contained in Dave Eggers, Zeitoun (vintage, 2010), where the tale of confusion and disarray of public institutions in and outside the city is laid bare. This book is intended to be a sequel to the great work by Jeffrey Pressman and Aaron Wildavsky, Implementation: How Great Expectations in Washington Are Dashed in Oakland or Why It’s Amazing That Federal Programs Work at All (University of California Press, 1973 and updated). It tells a familiar story of differing expectations dashing hope and creating confusion. The book picks up from where Robert Olshansky and Laurie Johnson leave off in Clear as Mud: Planning for the Rebuilding of New Orleans (American Planning Association, 2010). Nicole Gelinas pulls together post-Katrina in “Will New Orleans Recover? Weak and Struggling Before Katrina, the GoodTime City Now Teeters on the Brink,” City Journal, August 31, 2005. Chapter 1: An Alarming View from Down Under Lionel Wilson was the first African American mayor of Oakland, California, and a legend in his own time for his work with the poor and his love and contributions to sports. His life story is best viewed in the University of California oral history Attorney, Judge, and Oakland Mayor: Oral History Transcript/ Lionel Wilson; with an Introduction by Professor Edward J. Blakely; Interviews conducted by Gabrielle Morris in 1985, 1990 (Regional Oral History Office, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 1992). Information on the Oakland Earthquake can be found in Jane Gross, “Oakland’s Dowdy Image Is Shattered,” Special to the New York Times, November 7, 1989; my role with Elihu Harris is in Gross, “Oakland Struggles to Restore Hill and Faith,” New York Times, October 26, 1991. Chapter 2: Getting to New Orleans This chapter, like a Russian novel, introduces most of the players in the narrative . They all have information on the web that provides context as to what they do and who they are. This note provides the reader with a guide to the parts they played in my narrative. The American Planning Association (APA) is the peak body for professionals who practice land use and urban design and related government regulated planning and zoning in the United States. I have been a member for four decades, and it is my professional home organization. Its primary Chapter Notes 155 office, unlike those of many professional organizations, is in Chicago, not Washington. The location is a bit symbolic of the origins of the profession in the American heartland. APA puts out a scholarly journal and newsletter and I...