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Newsletter
Summer 2005
Katrina and the Demographics of Destruction and Reconstruction
 In
the wake of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans and other parts of the
Gulf Coast region need to be rebuilt in a sustainable and socially
just way. It will cost well over $100 billion in federal funds
to rebuild the region. The People who lived in the areas of New
Orleans that were still flooded days after Hurricane Katrina struck
were more likely to be black, have more children, earn less money,
and be less educated than those in the rest of the city. People
of color and low income communities disproportionately bear the
burdens of the Katrina disaster, and disproportionately stand to
loose out on the benefits of recovery and relief.
Normal federal contracting rules have been largely suspended in the push to help
people displaced by the storm and reopen New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. The
administration has already waived the federal law requiring prevailing wages
be paid on construction projects underwritten by federal dollars. Hundreds of
millions of dollars in no bid contracts have been issued with more to come, and
the region will be rebuilt with no guarantee that it will be done so in an environmentally
friendly way.
The City Project and Marc Brenman, Executive Director of the Washington
State Human Rights Commission, have developed recommendations to
help ensure the fair distribution of the benefits and burdens of
reconstruction, while promoting democratic values of full information
and full and fair public participation in the rebuilding process.
The recommendations can be found at www.cityprojectca.org/general/neworleans.html.
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