Land Use in NOLA
Why are developers always, always at loggerheads with residents? What is it about open land, rows of modest houses, and quiet neighborhoods that just screams “Build condos on me!!!”?
In many ways the Lower Ninth Ward incorporated all of the components of a lively, sustainable, engaging Smart Growth neighborhood. Residents understand the authentic connectivity that made their neighborhood work, the kind of physical, social and economic co-mingling that so many Americans desire, but which actually existed in the Lower Ninth.
It’s easy, even in the wreckage left by the hurricanes, to understand how the Lower Ninth Ward represents the idea of “neighborhood” and “community” — not as developers build them, or planners map them, or architects design them or politicians campaign in them. [source]
Hmm, that sounds downright lovely. With my developer hat firmly in place, I must recommend bulldozing the entire Ward and find my company’s Johnny Mallseed to skip through town to sprinkle the area with Quik-E-Marts, 7-11s, and a Taco Bell. Then, when I have my “business district” in place, I can start plunking down boxy, 3-story, walk-ups, modestly landscaped and selling for three times the local market value. That’ll price out all those undesirables.
Filed in NOLA, Signs of the Horsemen 10 Comments so far
10 Responses to “Land Use in NOLA”
Alan Gutierrez on 12 Aug 2006 at 9:25 am #
What a nice article about the 9th Ward in Michigan Land Use. Someone looked closer at the 9th than most visitors. It was a neighborhood, with a lot of homeownership, a lot of history, a lot of beautiful homes.
Alan Gutierrez on 12 Aug 2006 at 9:26 am #
Oops. The link to my web site id broken. I didn’t mean to obfuscate it. I’m posting again.
Think New Orleans » Attention Getters on 12 Aug 2006 at 9:55 am #
[...] Of course, the best way to get attention, it so pay attention to who’s paying attention to you already. When people take notice of you, and your Katrina Cottages, or the land use of the 9th Ward, you can take notice of them, but leaving a message in the comments. [...]
Sophmom on 12 Aug 2006 at 11:09 am #
Great post, Ryan. Thanks, Alan, for pointing the way.
ryan on 12 Aug 2006 at 11:48 am #
I fixed the link to your site, Alan.
Sarah Elise on 12 Aug 2006 at 12:21 pm #
When I read your post I thought of some research I did a few years about a community called Fazendville, a small town in St. Bernard Parish with a culturally vibrant African American population. In the late 1960s the National Parks Service, using eminent domain, seized the entire town under the guise of better interpreting an adjacent battlefield.
Most Fazendville residents settled in the Lower 9th Ward. It offered an opportunity to rebuild a sense of community when their community had been taken.
Deja vu?
Karen on 12 Aug 2006 at 10:00 pm #
There is also a fear in Hollygrove that they will lose the community that has been there for so long. The proximity to I10 and Downtown as well as Jefferson Parish make it an ideal spot to develop. The proximity to the 17th Street Canal and the vulnerable section that has yet to be fixed make it a scary spot to fix your home. In addition the crime in certain parts of Hollygrove has tainted the image of that section of town.
Karen on 13 Aug 2006 at 8:44 am #
Here is a little info about Hollygrove
http://www.gnocdc.org/orleans/3/12/index.html
k
Karen on 16 Aug 2006 at 12:30 am #
http://www.theyrule.net/
we are starting a chart based on this site
ryan on 16 Aug 2006 at 7:31 am #
Awesome idea! It’s so much easier to conceive and visualize all those connections in a format like that. Plus, you can explore the chart.. every once in a while you see Valleywag do that for Silicon Valley movers and shakers. I look forward to seeing the chart.