Liberal Talk Radio

New Orleans developers are building more mixed-income, multifamily units:

Real estate specialists predict that these projects will serve as catalysts for the neighborhood’s revival. “The Tulane corridor will transform into something it hasn’t been for 50 or 60 years,” said J. Mark Madderra, a principal in Madderra & Cazalot, a mortgage banking firm, who is a co-author of the multifamily report. Domain is also planning a third apartment house, with 72 units, in the neighborhood, on Jefferson Davis Parkway.

After Katrina, there were lots of discussions of grand plans to remake the city (as there were in New York after 9/11), most of which came to nothing. But a few, more subtle changes, based on new market conditions and opportunities, could make a significant change.

For more on this, check out this 2006 NYT Magazine article on the New Urbanists efforts to remake Biloxi, MS after Katrina. Fascinating account of what happens when well-intentioned outsiders try to remake a city.