Professors Ikeda and Gordon explore an innovative idea for recovery in this release of Mercatus on Policy: allow communitites to decentralize in order to stimulate economic growth; a plan that could
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 urban planning. As New Orleans rebuilds, city officials have an opportunity to redirect their efforts away from the misguided 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 form 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.