It has been four years since the levees surrounding New Orleans gave way in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Four years since the disaster destroyed nearly 100,000 units of housing, displaced more than one million Gulf Coast residents, and crippled the Mississippi Gulf Coast and Southeastern Louisiana. Four years since Americans were abandoned on their rooftops and in shelters-of- last-resort while the world watched in horror and disbelief.
In 2008, the sub-prime lending market crashed, national housing values plummeted, unemployment rose sharply, and the stock market crashed. When federal levees failed, New Orleans flooded with lake water. When federal oversight of banking failed, the nation flooded with bad debts and entered into an economic recession. Like New Orleanians after Katrina, Americans in communities throughout the United States faced disasters of home loss, job loss, and displacement.
We are all living in Katrina Nation now. And it is time to confront the lessons of New Orleans or risk that our national recovery will be similarly delayed and incomplete.
Lesson 1: Infrastructure matters.
Few cities offer a better example of the critical need for infrastructure investment than New Orleans. New Orleans' flooding after Hurricane Katrina was due exclusively to failing federal levees. The collapse of this core infrastructure destroyed one of America's greatest cities. The city is still surrounded by levees no stronger than those that gave way four years ago. These inadequate levees have tremendous economic consequences. Many residents are afraid to return home because of insufficient hurricane protection. As a result, without full population replacement the city misses out on valued taxpayer income and faces a substantial budget shortfall. Poor levees also make many businesses reluctant to invest in the city, undercutting efforts to grow and diversify the local economy.
When the Obama team was in transition from election to inauguration, "infrastructure" was the buzzword. But in the past eight months little public or media attention has focused on these critical projects. The lesson from New Orleans is this: if we ignore seemingly inconsequential failing infrastructure, the results may be dire. One need only turn to the fatal bridge collapse in Minnesota or look towards Burlington, Iowa where failing levees caused days of flooding.
As we work hard to hold both federal and local officials accountable for investing in New Orleans' built environment, we urge our fellow Americans to ask questions about the infrastructure redevelopment projects in their own communities.
Lesson 2: Economic and human development must be connected.
New Orleans is facing tremendous challenges to full restoration, but it has one vital asset: its people. The people are uniquely resilient, famously hospitable, tenaciously loyal, and stunningly diverse. But the citizens of New Orleans have often suffered under corrupt or inept leadership.
That leadership has failed to invest in and support key education reforms. In the most recent legislative session, Governor Jindal sought to slash millions of dollars of essential funding from the secondary education budget. Simultaneously, contracts have been let for the redevelopment of public and private buildings, to the exclusion of local businesses and employees. As a result, thousands of residents are lacking education and job opportunities.
Post-Katrina New Orleans reminds us that human development and opportunity are imperative for economic development and business opportunity. It is a lesson our nation must also learn during this economic crisis. President Obama has taken a step in this direction by encouraging Americans to enroll in college.
Lesson 3: Government must play an important role.
During the past four years hundreds of thousands of New Orleanians have returned to the city they love, courageously carving out new life despite rampant crime, unpredictable education, sparse housing and limited economic opportunities. During these years tens of thousands of other Americans have come to New Orleans to clean debris, gut homes, care for patients, plant gardens, and tutor children. During these years, dozens of community based, non-profit organizations have innovated strategies of urban farming, housing construction, education reform, neighborhood renewal, and artistic revitalization.
While these grassroots efforts are extraordinary, they have proved insufficient for the herculean task of restoring New Orleans. Despite the spirit and commitment of its people, the city's levee protection is inadequate, its violent crime is soaring, its school system is failing, its local economy is overly dependent on tourism, and its neighborhoods are ravaged by blight. For example, millions of volunteer hours over four years have put more than 2,000 units of housing back into commerce. While noteworthy, the success pales when one considers that more than 80,000 units of housing were damaged.
New Orleans teaches us that individuals and families bear an important responsibility in restoring the city and our nation. New Orleans shows the innovative capacity of civil society and local entrepreneurship. But New Orleans also reveals that recovery is limited without effective, transparent, responsible government action.
We have seen similar lessons in our national politics. President Obama saw that the collapse of the American economy meant government needed to react with a stimulus package, Cash for Clunkers and other government programs to reverse the tide of the slowing economy.
This stimulus money is having an impact in New Orleans. For example there is substantial road construction happening in the city as a direct result of the Obama administration's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Some of these projects had been stalled over a decade.
Lesson 4: Racial injustice and racialized politics can block reform.
James works in civil rights law. Melissa is a professor of race and politics. We understand the continuing realities of racial inequality in America. Schools and neighborhoods are still shockingly racially segregated. Racial segregation has a tremendous impact on student achievement, home values, transportation access, health outcomes, and concentration of poverty.
This is true in New Orleans and throughout the United States.
But there is another insidious effect: our often racially separate worlds can breed prejudice, distrust, and misunderstanding. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina national public opinion research revealed huge racial differences in how Americans perceived the disaster and how they thought the country should respond. In a similar way New Orleans politics has been deeply racially divided since the storm. Many votes of the city council have split along racial lines and race has been used as a wedge too many times.
These same patterns are obvious in American politics. Despite the historic election of our first African American president, race has often taken center stage in current national politics, infecting everything from immigration discussions to the health care reform debate.
The lesson from New Orleans is clear: racial injustice and racialized politics too often stand in the way of doing what is best for the whole community. We need both local and national leadership that will stand for fairness for all people while also refusing to misuse historical racial antagonisms for their own purposes.
The survival of New Orleans is no longer just about restoring America's most distinctive city. We are all living in Katrina Nation now. Learning the lessons of New Orleans may just have the power to save all of us.
Melissa Harris-Lacewell is associate professor of politics and African American studies at Princeton University. James Perry is executive director of Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center and a candidate for mayor of New Orleans in 2010. They have a home in New Orleans' 7th ward.
Keep up the great work, MHL.
Well, many thinking people would say that the force of nature and the fact that much of the city is below sea level were large factors in the flooding.
The theme of this article seems to be that victim-politics is alive and well and should be promoted. While the analogy between the flooding of New Orleans and the "flood" of bad mortgages is poetic, it is not real. For the most part, the "bad mortgages" were caused by people trying to borrow beyond their means. The flood was a result of natural forces.
What's missing from this prescriptive piece is any mention of personal responsibility. In places like New Orleans, poverty is rooted in the cultural norms. Let's stop talking about handouts from the federal government, and excuses of racism. Let's address the real problems with honesty and hard work.
Hurricane Katrina did realatively minor damage to New Orleans. It was the breakdown of the levees which flooded the city. A man made disaster according to investigations that were conducted.
Now, the Army Corp of Engineers is preparing to rebuild those levees, with the same inadequate specifications as before. No one in New Orleans is asking for a handout, they're asking the federal government to rebuild those levees properly.
Please don't say it's a state or city problem. By law, it is a responsibility of the Army Corps of Engineers. A federal responsibility.
You say personal responsibility is missing from this article. Well, the feds were personally responsible for the inadequate construction of those levees. It's time they lived up to their responsibilities, and rebuilt those flood control structures correctly.
Also, the levees that collapsed were actually "flood walls", designed (supposedly) to withstand just what happened - the force of water if Lake Pontchartrain was raised above sea level by a hurricane/tropical storm. All evidence, including video footage taken by firefighters from a nearby highrise, shows that the flood walls collapsed FAR BELOW the level of water they were supposedly designed to withstand. After independent investigation substantiated the failure of these flood walls, the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers was forced to admit that they had made numerous mistakes in the design of these walls. None of the earthen levees along either Lake Pontchartrain or the Mississippi River were breached, only the flood walls.
Also false is the perceived notion that the City of New Orleans/State of Louisiana had any ability to modify or improve these flood walls. They were Federalized in 1965 after Hurricane Betsy. The Congress was responsible for allocating money for their upkeep and improvement. Just a year before Katrina, Congress slashed the budget for their maintenance and improvement to dedicate this money to the war in Iraq. New Orleanians BEGGED for improvements and reported seepage from under the walls. Neither Congress not the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers did anything. Now the American tax payer is footing the bill.
Super volcanoes, everyone?
Any musicians or songwriters out there, check out The Human Levee Music Project at
http://www.humanlevee.com
It turns my stomach to hear about all the "mistakes" that were made in the wake of Katrina......this is a fallacy that our national, corporate media was at the forefront of propogating. Here, let me use an analogy to illustrate why the "mistake" angle was such BS:
Imagine you're running around your home one morning getting ready for work. You're late for a meeting, so you quickly grab your belongings and rush out the door, not closing it all the way. Your dog, who you love very much, sees the open door and excitedly runs outside, into the street, and is hit by a car. Now, while this is a tragedy, obviously you love your dog and didn't mean to do anything to harm it....leaving the door ajar was a MISTAKE.
In contrast, you are leaving for 3 weeks. You've known about this trip for months, yet for whatever reason didn't arrange for anyone to take care of your dog......nobody to walk him, no food, no water, nothing. Consequently, he dies because of this basic lack of care. In this case, your dog dying is no "mistake"......its because of negligence, its becuase you didn't care enough about your dog's well-being.
Now THAT'S what happened in New Orleans, and is what's happening in America.
This was malicious, pre-meditated neglect.
The problems were all well known; but local, state and federal governments were not interested; whether from corruption and the state and local levels to financial neglect and organizational ineptitude by the Bush Administration at the federal level.
Did you see where the Japaness are stepping away from the U.S. Capitalist Model because it is too harsh on it's citizens ?
Funny they are going back to the pre-regean American style Capitalism.