Post-Katrina New Orleans is full of lessons for how not to rebuild a city, but today's violence at NO City Hall over the proposed federal demolition of several housing projects is a critical one.
Seen from both sides, the clash highlights how racial and economic diversity is critical to a community's strength, whether in the South or elsewhere. On one hand, single-race housing projects are a terrible idea, since they artificially segregate a city. On the other, mixed-income developments such as the ones proposed by HUD in place of the old projects are questionable, too, as to whether they will really provide housing for everyone, or are just a trick to get the city to approve something that will in actuality drive the poor out.
We're lucky in this part of Atlanta to have intact neighborhoods that are changing with market forces, not nature's forces. But what's happening in New Orleans is a reminder that, whatever labels we wear, we belong together.
(Picture: Katrina comes ashore in August, 2005.)
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