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Rebuilding New Orleans

Community Congress Participants Overwhelmingly Support UNOP Plan Going Forward
91% of Attendees at Recovery Meeting Back Draft Plan

January 20, 2007
Press Release

NEW ORLEANS (January 20, 2007) – Nearly 1,300 New Orleanians participated in the Unified New Orleans Plan’s (UNOP) final citywide town hall meeting, called Community Congress III, to review recommendations for rebuilding the city. Citizens attended simultaneous gatherings in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston and New Orleans, which were linked together via the Internet.

From left: N.O. citizen votes electronically; Chairman of UNOP's Community Support Organization, Dr. Vera Triplett
addresses all venues electronically; New Orleanians consider options

During Saturday’s meeting, New Orleans residents discussed several of the major elements of the recovery plan, including safety from future flooding, rebuilding safe and stable neighborhoods, affordable housing, and public services. In addition, attendees reviewed a framework for city agency and government approval and implementation of the plan.

At the end of the day, participants were asked to gauge their level of support for the plan. Over 90 percent both expressed their support for the draft plan and their commitment to staying engaged as this plan moves forward through approval to implementation.

The recovery strategies that comprise the draft plan are a direct result of the input from New Orleanians, who expressed their preferences for how the city should be rebuilt through surveys, district-level meetings, previous planning processes, and at Community Congress II in December 2006. At Community Congress II, New Orleans residents from across the country met to discuss their priorities for rebuilding. The result of this input is a draft plan that responds directly to the community’s directives and provides an equitable strategy for rebuilding a safer, smarter, and stronger New Orleans.

The final round of citizen input will be incorporated, and the plan will be presented to the New Orleans City Planning Commission at the end of January. After receiving additional citizen feedback from two public meetings, the City Planning Commission will then vote to adopt the recovery plan. After adoption by the City Planning Commission, the plan will then be sent to the City Council and Mayor for final approval. Once approved, the plan will be provided to the Louisiana Recovery Authority, which is overseeing the state’s hurricane recovery efforts, as well as to federal officials and other funding sources to facilitate rebuilding of the city.

From left: New Orleans City Council Member Cynthia Hedge-Morrell,
Mayor Ray Nagin, Planner Troy Henry

A preliminary report from Community Congress III was issued during the January 20 meeting. The final report with complete results will be available in the coming days at www.UnifiedNewOrleansPlan.org.

Community Congress III was organized and facilitated by UNOP in partnership with AmericaSpeaks, the non-profit organization that has orchestrated dozens of large-scale town meetings across the country, including a 5,000-person meeting in New York City to enlist citizen input for redeveloping the World Trade Center site after 9/11.

The UNOP process is funded by The Rockefeller Foundation, The Greater New Orleans Foundation, and the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund. Additional funding for public outreach and engagement has been provided by: the Case Foundation, the Carnegie Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, DaimlerChrysler, the Ford Foundation, the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation, the Louisiana Recovery Authority, Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation, The Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the Surdna Foundation. For more information about UNOP, please visit www.UnifiedNewOrleansPlan.org.

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