Renia Ehrenfeucht

Planning, Population Loss and Equity in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina

Abstract Shrinking, slow-growth and fast-growth cities have different opportunities and constraints. This paper uses New Orleans following the severe flood damage from the 2005 hurricanes as a case study to investigate the challenges to developing equitable and effective plans in a city with significant population loss. By addressing four elements that are necessary for effective planning in depopulated areas—strategies for targeted investment and consolidation; alternatives for underused areas; mechanisms to reintegrate abandoned parcels; and plans for infrastructure and service provision—we argue that the lack of effective tools was a pivotal impediment to effective planning.

Young Professionals as Ambivalent Change Agents in New Orleans after the 2005 Hurricanes

After the 2005 hurricanes, newcomers arrived in New Orleans to help rebuild the city. The influx of one identifiable group, young professionals and postgraduates, raised hopes and concerns that New Orleans would gentrify. Based on semi-structured interviews with 78 young and mid-career professionals, this paper examines how the young professionals approached an ambivalent situation where they were working to rebuild a better city while retaining its distinct cultural qualities, given that their presence itself contributed to the cultural change. They reconciled these tensions with an appreciation for localism that, for newcomers in particular, was expressed through knowing and responding to longtime residents instead of working against the social displacement that their presence could facilitate.

Art, public spaces, and private property along the streets of New Orleans

In this article, I investigate how and why a street art controversy that emerged in post-Katrina New Orleans was transformed from a dispute over property transgressions to a broader struggle over the meanings of art amidst the city’s devastated condition. The controversy began when a street art initiative by the New Orleans artist Rex Dingler invoked a backlash of anti-graffiti activism. In response, local artists began painting on the walls. When the locals were joined by artists from different cities, the discussion intensified about the merits of street art as well as commentary on and reflection of a city facing systemic decline and property abandonment. Street artists, anti-graffiti activists, and property owners negotiated local private property by placing, removing and retaining graffiti, and both locals and those with no New Orleans attachments had influence. The controversy illustrates how private property functions as a public institution in addition to a system of private ownership.

Precursors to Planning: Regulating the Streets of Los Angeles, California, c 1880–1920

From the 1880s to the 1910s, the Los Angeles city council actively regulated street activities and fulfilled requests for street improvements. These divergent but related public interventions were significant planning precursors. The city council categorized, delineated, and regulated street activities and helped to make the rapidly changing city legible. The city had limited interest in the specific activities however. In contrast, travel became the explicit purpose of municipal action, and municipal professionals, most notably engineers, took responsibility for the streets. This article examines the relationship between the efforts in Los Angeles, California to regulate street life and the ways that the streets were created as distinct spaces of mobility.

Nonconformity and Street Design in West Hollywood, California

Nonconforming people and activities challenge municipal governments. Using the US city of West Hollywood, California, as a case study, this paper argues planning tools such as design interventions for commercial streets cannot intentionally include nonconforming people or activities. West Hollywood drew national attention when it incorporated in 1984 as a progressive city with unique demographics, most notably a high percentage of gay residents. In the subsequent decades, it became a more exclusive city of leisure and entertainment. This case study helps explain why the redesign of its commercial streets became more exclusive despite the citys continued progressive politics and commitment to diversity.

Moving to a shrinking city? Some suggestive observations on why college-educated professionals came to New Orleans and why they stayed

The 2010 Census showed population increases in urban core neighbourhoods in US shrinking or legacy cities. Influenced by Florida’s creative class theory, municipal leaders in shrinking cities have sought to attract and retain creative and college-educated residents as a revitalisation strategy and implemented amenity-based policy initiatives. Nevertheless, when compared with strong market cities, weak market cities have fewer amenities and less robust job markets. Why college-educated professionals would choose to live in cities with weak job markets and declining services is not well explained. Based on findings from two sets of interviews conducted five years apart with college-educated professionals living and working in New Orleans, we found that a subset of professionals seeking opportunities to assist in the recovery were drawn to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. They subsequently stayed because they valued the pace of their life and the ease at which they could maintain professional and personal networks, more than specific amenities. They stayed even though they found professional opportunities to be limited and considered some amenities and services including parks and transit worse than other cities where they had lived.

Do food trucks and pedestrians conflict on urban streets

In the late 2000s, food trucks became common in US cities and municipalities debated controversial food truck regulations. When they justify the regulations, municipalities raise safety, health and general welfare concerns, including potential pedestrian congestion. This paper uses the insights from pedestrian behaviour research to determine whether food trucks interfered with pedestrian flow. Based on direct observation of food truck customers and customer-pedestrian interactions in and near the Chicago Loop, the findings show that food trucks served customers most often without interrupting pedestrian flow. In part, this was due to the street furniture zone, including trash cans, bike racks and utility poles that created waiting space along the kerb. During periods of crowding, pedestrians adeptly manoeuvred through lines of food trucks. Food truck customers were also responsive to pedestrian flow and the lines moved in ways that reduced impact.

Just revitalization in shrinking and shrunken cities? Observations on gentrification from New Orleans and Cincinnati

ABSTRACT In the last decade, shrinking cities have begun to gentrify, leading to optimistic narratives about their recovery. Redevelopment policies, however, can exacerbate social and spatial inequities if explicit efforts do not promote social justice. Drawing on evidence from Cincinnati and New Orleans, we explore 3 components of just revitalization: avoiding displacement, connecting longtime residents to new opportunities, and reducing decline in neighborhoods that are not revitalizing. The article then examines 3 reasons these objectives have been difficult to achieve: the timing of anti-displacement policies, the mechanisms used to connect long-term residents to economic opportunities, and how cities address conditions in neighborhoods that are not growing. The analysis shows that the cities are adopting mechanisms to spread the benefits of revitalization, but without explicit policies targeting low- and moderate-income residents, neighborhoods in shrinking cities can become unaffordable and gentrification will increase inequity.

Derailed Values: Planning Education, External Funding, and Environmental Justice in New Orleans Rail Planning

Studio courses can transform practice and impart planning values, but increasing university expectations around revenue generation could create barriers for these objectives. To understand how funding demands could impact planning education, we examine a New Orleans–based case study in which external funders pressured university stakeholders to change a studio course. The studio, focused on environmental justice and freight rail planning, remained much the same, but shifted from an advocacy framework to a technical approach. This approach did little to impart social justice values or transform practice, but planning education can still support social justice values.

Beyond the Jobs versus Amenities Debate: Understanding the Migration of Educated Workers and Implications for Planning:

A skilled workforce is essential to regional growth and competitiveness, yet what is needed to attract and retain a talent base is a matter of long-standing debate. Through a qualitative longitudinal study of educated professionals who moved or returned to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, we identify the particular aspects of “jobs” and “amenities” respondents valued, highlight the complex and relational nature of the migration process, and examine how locational priorities shift as life circumstances change. Understanding the place-specific and institutional qualities that affect mobility and how individuals negotiate the migration process are essential to attract and retain skilled workers.