To Rebuild or Not to Rebuild?

24 MB MP3

Joel Garreau wrote a provocative article in the Washington Post that’s lit up the Web and — thanks to Potter, our office. We’re thinking about a rebuilding show for tomorrow, one that takes into account many of Garreau’s points: tourist New Orleans vs. poverty ravaged New Orleans; race and class in 21st century American urban planning; the checkered history of previous attempts at rebuilding cities; and, above all, what it means, past the feel-good phrase itself, when we talk about “rebuilding.”

Ideas — and blog posts, and possible guests, and recommended reading — are, as always, welcome.

What a difference a day makes. We have three guests now, including Joel Garreau, and are refining the shape of the hour.

Joel Garreau

Author of Edge City and, most recently, Radical Evolution

Reporter for the Washington Post

[On the phone from Virginia]

Bill Shutkin

Author of The Land That Could Be

President and CEO of the Orton Family Foundation

Research Affiliate at MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning

[In a studio in Manchester, VT]

Pres Kabacoff

CEO, Historic Restoration Inc.

New Orleans native and second generation developer

[On the phone from Houma, LA]