New Orleans’ Recovery - Spring Break 2009
City and Regional Planning professor George Frantz coordinated a service trip to New Orleans over Spring break. He planned for an interdisciplinary student team of architects, artists, and planners to travel to New Orleans to learn about the ongoing recovery and provide assistance from a planning perspective. Program in Real Estate students Joe Matthews, Robyn Stokes, and Maya Barrera learned of the trip and approached Professor Frantz to see if there would be a chance that they could go to better understand the real estate opportunities and ramifications left in the storm’s wake. Frantz thought there was great opportunity for real estate students to learn on the trip and the plans were set.
Two weeks later the students left Ithaca at the crack-of-dawn and began a caravan to Newark Airport. After a long day in cars, planes, monorails, and finally buses the students were pleased to land in warm New Orleans. The empty airport was an early indication of the empty neighborhoods they would soon see.
Over the course of the next week three different teams took on three different projects. One team worked with the non-profit community group Beacon of Hope on surveying, photographing, and cataloging the status of the Lakewood neighborhood. The students evaluated each home in the neighborhood to see if they had to be demolished, were under-construction, or owner occupied. The information collected during the week was then added to their Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to help Beacon of Hope get help where it was needed, to better allocate government funds, and to encourage relocated homeowners to return to the neighborhood. Program in Real Estate students Maya Barrera and Joe Matthews were particularly interested in the on-the-ground market research that was being collected. All the traditional market research programs were un-useable, census data was no longer accurate, populations were scattered, and the experts were gone; the New Orleans community was doing real estate research the way it was done “back in the day” – with worn shoe leather.
The information collected was used early on in the recovery effort to provide local businesses with market information. Beacon of Hope approached the local grocery store and was able to show them that there were residents living in the community. The grocer took note of the demand and weeks later reopened his store—other businesses quickly followed. By bringing retail back to the neighborhood, recovery efforts made by homeowners were eased.
Another team worked with the Vietnamese Community Development Corporation (CDC) in writing a development proposal. The Vietnamese community, unlike most of the communities left ravaged by Katrina, took control of its rebuilding efforts before the local government had offered any assistance. During the trip to New Orleans, the CDC was working on plans to develop a senior retirement community, a charter school and a community garden. Robyn Stokes and planning student Erica Guiterrez helped the CDC develop their written development proposals and offered general planning and development insight to the CDC plans.
The third team labored in the sun to rebuild and reroof the home of Pastor Darby in the 7th Ward. Pastor Darby is the leader of the One Faith Church, which is a center of community life for local residents that also provides social services. He and his wife lost their home in Katrina and have been traveling six hours each way from their temporary residence in Texas every weekend for services. At Pastor Darby’s house the team was encouraged by the vibrancy of the elderly neighbors who worked tirelessly to get their neighborhood back in shape. Also working at the house was Ithaca native Sue Cosentini who has spent many hours rebuilding the house in collaboration with other volunteers from Ithaca’s Temple Tikkun V’Or.
After work each day, students spent the evenings learning about efforts of different groups including a round-table discussion and dinner with Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) founder and chief organizer Wade Rathke. The students also spent time touring some of the hardest hit neighborhoods across the Gulf Coast from Waveland, Mississippi to the Lower Ninth Ward. When not engaging in the various after hours education, students were able to enjoy some of New Orleans’ finest Cajun and Creole style cuisine.
Most striking to the real estate students was the grassroots effort being made by people without experience and expertise in real estate, construction, or planning. If fact, they learned that approximately 80% of the rebuilding efforts were led by non-profit or faith based groups. Everyone walked away from the trip with a greater appreciation of the extent of devastation and of the continuing need for assistance in New Orleans.
Author: Maya Barrera, Cornell Program in Real Estate Student