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imaginethewolf

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Mar 10, 2007 19:35

I thought the article below had an interesting perspective and thought I'd share it with all of you. Andres Duany is the planner the Louisiana Recovery Authority hired to lead south Louisiana's post hurricane disaster recovery and urban planning, especially of New Orleans but including the other affected areas as well. Please tell me what you ( Read more... )

Comments 2

good vendalah March 12 2007, 04:14:14 UTC

i think these are very good points to consider. george guessed that many people in the lower 9th ward likely didn't leave the houses because they were paid off and passed through the generations; the greatest or possibly only valuable item people had. and i definitely see shades of earthstar in the simple house simple life idea. as george and i are working on getting a house on our property (and then having other various structures in addition) we are getting a dose of the construction rigamarole. the author's right, it's not going to happen if people try to rebuild those old houses with new ones ( ... )

imaginethewolf March 13 2007, 03:19:32 UTC

i think a lot of the points are valid in the article and i loved the idea of thinking of New Orleans as the best managed Caribbean city, it helped me be less cynical about New Orleans city government and also touched that sense of pride that knows New Orleans is unique and special in American culture. But I think the author romanticizes a lot of things. Many people have a "Culture of leisure" because the economy sucks and options are limited, but we have good food and family ties to fall back on. Education is also very stratified. As far as the housing points, yeah, I think free, simple build it yourself and tailor it yourself housing plans would be a great start. But I don't know what an opt-out zone would really mean and so it's hard to evaluate that idea from this piece. And you're totally right about building materials being sooo much more expensive. It's expensive just to buy a few pieces of wood for small projects at home. I want to build something soon before it gets even worse. Good luck to you and George's plans!