Rebuilding Urban Places After Disaster

This volume examines the rebuilding of cities and their environs after a disaster and focuses on four major issues: making cities less vulnerable to disaster, reestablishing economic viability, responding to the permanent needs of the displaced, and recreating a sense of place.

Disasters—natural ones, such as hurricanes, floods, or earthquakes, and unnatural ones such as terrorist attacks—are part of the American experience in the twenty-first century. The challenges of preparing for these events, withstanding their impact, and rebuilding communities afterward require strategic responses from different levels of government in partnership with the private sector and in accordance with the public will.

Disasters have a disproportionate effect on urban places. Dense by definition, cities and their environs suffer great damage to their complex, interdependent social, environmental, and economic systems. Social and medical services collapse. Long-standing problems in educational access and quality become especially acute. Local economies cease to function. Cultural resources disappear. The plight of New Orleans and several smaller Gulf Coast cities exemplifies this phenomenon.

This volume examines the rebuilding of cities and their environs after a disaster and focuses on four major issues: making cities less vulnerable to disaster, reestablishing economic viability, responding to the permanent needs of the displaced, and recreating a sense of place. Success in these areas requires that priorities be set cooperatively, and this goal poses significant challenges for rebuilding efforts in a democratic, market-based society. Who sets priorities and how? Can participatory decision-making be organized under conditions requiring focused, strategic choices? How do issues of race and class intersect with these priorities? Should the purpose of rebuilding be restoration or reformation? Contributors address these and other questions related to environmental conditions, economic imperatives, social welfare concerns, and issues of planning and design in light of the lessons to be drawn from Hurricane Katrina.

Foreword
—Amy Gutmann

Introduction
—Eugenie L. Birch and Susan M. Wachter

I. MAKING PLACES LESS VULNERABLE
1. Physical Constraints on Reconstructing New Orleans
—Robert Giegengack and Kenneth R. Foster
2. Negotiating a Fluid Terrain
—Anuradha Mathur and Dilip da Cunha
3. The Problems of Containment and the Promise of Planning
—Raymond J. Burby, Arthur C. Nelson, and Thomas W. Sanchez
4. Mapping for Sustainable Resilience
—Frederick Steiner, Barbara Faga, James Sipes, and Robert Yaro
5. Natural Hazards Science—A Matter of Public Safety
—P. Patrick Leahy

II. RETURNING URBAN PLACES TO ECONOMIC VIABILITY
6. Measuring Katrina's Impact on the Gulf Megapolitan Area
—Robert E. Lang
7. Restarting the Economy
—Mark Zandi, Steven Cochrane, Fillip Ksiazkiewicz, and Ryan Sweet
8. Rebuilding Transportation
—Rachel Weinberger
9. Learning from Past Disasters
—Eugenie L. Birch
10. Restoring Urban Viability
—Lawrence J. Vale
11. Housing Displaced Families
—Jeffrey Lubell
12. Assessing The University's Role
—Lester A. Lefton and Yvette Jones

III. RESPONDING TO THE NEEDS OF THE DISPLACED: ISSUES OF CLASS, RACE, AND RECOVERY
13. Inadequate Reponses, Limited Expectations
—Elijah Anderson
14. Educational Equity in Postdisaster New Orleans
—Vivian L. Gadsden
15. The Lost and Forgotten
—Richard J. Gelles
16. Temporary Housing Blues
—Gary Hack
17. Lessons from Sri Lanka
—Thomas L. Daniels and Harris Steinberg

V. RECREATING A SENSE OF PLACE
18. Promoting Cultural Preservation
—Randall Mason
19. Understanding New Orleans's Architectural Ecology
—Dell Upton
20. Reconstructing New Orleans: A Progress Report
—Jonathan Barnett and John Beckman
21. Rebuilding the "Land of Dreams" with Music
—Nick Spitzer
22. Walking to Wal-Mart: Planning for Mississippi and Beyond
—Sandy Sorlien and Leland R. Speed

Afterword
—Ronald J. Daniels