Media Contact:
Carrie Conko
Director of Communications
Mercatus Center at George Mason University
Office: 703-993-4899
Email: cconko@gmu.edu
Mercatus On Policy - Power to the Neighborhoods
August 24, 2007
Whether based on a top-down approach or some form of citizen participation, most urban-planning policies fail to live up to their good intentions. Never was this more apparent than in post-Katrina New Orleans, where a storm that leveled city blocks also laid bare the failures of previous at urban planning. As New Orleans rebuilds, city officials have an opportunity to redirect their efforts away from the midsguided policies of the past and towards the promise of private neighborhood associations (PNAs). Such organizations would aid the re-emergence of New Orleans as a "living city" - one that generates its economic growth from its own local economy. A network of PNAs would create many different kinds of communities with a variety of rules, fees, and services among which people can pick and choose. New Orleanians could not get off their feet without leaving the city.
