Monday, August 28, 2006
Cincinnati Change on this one year Hurricane Katrina
Cincinnati Change on this one year Hurricane Katrina Anniversary believe that we have a plan to aid in which the playing field for the moderate to poor income consumer in Gulf through a alliance with companies from Cincinnati who will concentrate it's efforts in New Orleans.We believe that if we lose New Orleans then we lose more than those poor black people that is the image of New Orleans. We lose ways of life that are unique to America. This includes a unique New Orleans perspective, jazz, gumbo ya-ya.
The Mission of Cincinnati Change through a operation called Gulf Change will address the needs of the people who were left behind long before the vicious winds and violent waters of Hurricane Katrina & Rita came along to wash them away. We are now picking up on this date the development of Gulf Change with a group of partners that includes Architects and Engineers.
Citizens are resourceful and through our membership in two premier grassroots organizations, The National Community Reinvestment Coalition and Acorn, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now with whom we will work with in the flood zones and the close neighborhood after neighborhood as we tie together the opportunities to develop businesses owned by the people of Gulf.
- create the digital infrastructure that will help frame a vision for rebuilding that serves the interests of all residents and is connected to like people in greater Cincinnati;
- use the expertise of contractors hired by Cincinnati Change to develop specific plans and proposals that are technically informed and resident-led that focus on those who have the least;
- support the development and operation of 1,000 community based businesses;
- create the infrastructure to support the message that resident voices must be consistently heard by city, state, and federal officials as key decisions are made in the months and years ahead as we create housing opportunities for 20,000 households through a investment in a mutual fund, and;
- make sure that over the next three years that at least 50% of the job opportunities go those who are designated as hard to serve.
The release of billions of dollars in federal recovery funds for New Orleans, as well as some private grants, depends on the formation of a single master plan covering everything from city-wide infrastructure issues to neighborhood-specific projects. In a July 5, 2006 press release, Mayor C. Ray Nagin, the New Orleans City Council and the Louisiana Recovery Authority (LRA) announced their agreement to adopt a common plan, to be overseen by the Greater New Orleans Foundation's (GNOF) New Orleans Community Support Foundation (NOCSF).
Among other things, the New Orleans Community Support Foundation calls for each of New Orleans' 73 neighborhoods to select from a recommended (selected by an expert national review panel) list of professional architects, urban planners and other professionals to assist in their efforts and/or endorse projects already in progress, spearheaded by the BNOB, the Lambert-Danzey group, and by the neighborhood groups themselves over the many months that no other resources were available.
Planning Teams
On June 5, 2006, the NOCSF issued a Request for Qualifications for parties interested in participating in their recovery process. A panel composed of one representative of the City Planning Commission and four "nationally recognized planning experts sifted through the 65 applicants to establish the official list endorsed for the Unified New Orleans Plan. Concordia coordinated the selection process, but was not involved as a voting member. The final list was recommended to the board on July 21, 2006:
Neighborhood and District Planning
ACORN Housing's New Orleans, LA branch. Acorn Housing (ACH) is a non-profit organization that was established to help low-to-moderate-income people become and remain homeowners. ACORN Housing Counselors make the homebuying process more accessible to first-time buyers. Instead of having to approach bankers or contend with brokers, first-time homebuyers can meet ACORN counselors in the local ACORN Housing office to pre-qualify for a mortgage.
AHC is governed by a diverse five-member Board of Directors whose professions range from a self-employed consultant who retired after 23 years working with 3M as a Senior Analyst to a long time activist and resident of East New York. The Board is best described as a dedicated and diverse group of individuals that is committed to seeing that AHC achieves its mission.
H3 Studio, of St. Louis, MO
Goody Clancy, of Boston, MA
EDSA of Columbia, MD
Frederick Schwartz Architects of New York, NY. Frederic Schwartz Architects have been selected to lead a neighborhood and district planning team for the City of New Orleans and to design affordable, sustainable, quality housing in the historic Lower Ninth Ward.
Frederic Schwartz is currently a finalist in four international competitions -- the Global Green affordable, sustainable housing initiative in New Orleans; a new airport terminal in Madurai, India; the New Silk Road Project in Xi'an, China (with CED alumni and THINK team member William Morrish); and the Paterson New Jersey Master Plan. His winning designs (national competition entries selected unanimously by 9/11 family members) for two memorials are now being realized. The Westchester 9/11 Memorial will be dedicated on September 11th, 2006, and the New Jersey State 9/11 Memorial will be dedicated on September 11th, 2007.
As the winner of a New York metro area architect/developer competition, the new 500,000 sf "Kalahari"-- the largest affordable, sustainable, quality housing project in Harlem--is now under construction. After teaching a Fall 2005 design studio "Cities in Crisis: New Orleans" at Harvard Graduate School of Design, he was invited to chair an international conference in Basel, Switzerland, give five lectures in India and at Berkeley and Harvard on post-Katrina and post-9/11 planning initiatives.
Neighborhood Only Planning
EDAW's Atlanta, GA branch
E. Eean McNaughton Architects of New Orleans, LA
Burk-Kleinpeter of New Orleans, LA
Williams Architects of New Orleans, LA
HDR of Omaha, NE and HOK of Tampa, FL
Duany Plater-Zyberk of Miami, FL
KL&M of New Orleans, LA and CH Planning of Philadelphia, PA
NOW, a joint venture between Eskew+Dumez+Ripple of New Orleans, LA, Chan Krieger Sieniewicz of Cambridge, MA and William Morrish of Charlottesville, VA
Davis Brody Bond of New York, NY
Torre Design Consortium of New Orleans, LA
City-Wide Infrastructure
Villavaso and Associates and Henry Consulting of New Orleans, LA
Public Meetings
On July 24, 2006, a meeting open to the public was announced by the NOCSF on BayouBuzz.com and on the Unified New Orleans Plan website, scheduled for July 30, 2006. An advertisement was placed in the Times-Picayune for two days before the meeting date. The time and location of 12:00 PM to 4:00 PM at The Pavilion of Two Sisters at City Park were posted at a later date. The agenda for the July 30 meeting was to "begin the process for community members to be involved in the selection of the technical assistance teams of professionals to support them in neighborhood, district and city-wide planning."
July 30, 2006 Attendees were directed to sit in the partitions designated for their official district. All 73 of New Orleans' official neighborhoods (as delineated in the 2004 map issued by the Greater New Orleans Coummunity Data Center (GNODC) were grouped into 13 Planning Districts. Actions undertaken by the attendees in the District sessions included redrawing their neighborhood boundaries, selecting the number of special "project areas" within their district and the number of planning teams required to attend to them, and generating lists of criteria and questions for the planning teams. Controversy surrounded the meeting and its organization during and after the event.
August 2, 2006 On August 1, 2006, short presentations were made by the NOCSF's teams in preparation for each districts' vote on their top three preferred teams. There was a two-hour period for attendees circulate among the booths set up by each of the 15 Neighborhood and/or District Teams, after which each team was allotted 12 minutes to make a presention. This meeting unfortunately coincided with the National Night Out Against Crime (NNO), which prevented many people who are active in their neighborhood associations from coming, since plans for NNO events were made before the announcement of the UNOP meetings. Votes online or via fax were to be accepted until 5:00 PM on Monday, August 7. After the votes are tabulated, the CSO will begin defining scopes and fees for neighborhood projects and assign planning teams to the 13 districts based on the districts' preferences as well as "capacity and cost," although what relative weight each of these concerns will be given is not stated.
ACORN Rebuilding Alliance convenes in Baton Rouge Nov. 7-8th Displaced New Orleans residents and leading urban planners, architects, and affordable housing specialists will meet in Baton Rouge November 7-8th for the ACORN Community Forum on Rebuilding New Orleans, a two-day conference to develop rebuilding plans for New Orleans that speak to the needs and dreams of the city’s low and moderate income residents.
Displaced New Orleans residents, representatives from AKSA (ACORN Katrina Survivors Association) and leading urban planners, architects, and affordable housing specialists will meet in Baton Rouge November 7-8th for the ACORN Community Forum on Rebuilding New Orleans, a two-day conference to develop rebuilding plans for New Orleans that speak to the needs and dreams of the city's low and moderate income residents.
Attendees plan to tour New Orleans neighborhoods on Monday, November 7th from 10am-5pm, The Conference itself will begin at 6pm that evening in Baton Rouge, and continue the morning of Tuesday, November 8th through 6pm.
Develop Neighborhood Plans Inclusive of Public Comments Aug to Oct 2006
Completion of Final Neighborhood Plans; Deadline for Submission of Neighborhood Plans to the City Planning Commission Early November 2006
City-Wide Framework & Plan Production (Inclusive of Integration of Neighborhood Plans) August to Jan 2007
Public Meetings & Input on the City-Wide Plan Jan to Feb 2007
Final Plan Edits & City Planning Adoption Feb to Mar 2007
Submit to City Council for Review & Adoption April to May 2007
