What Is UNOP?: NEIGHBORHOOD Planning
While a bunch of us ironed out more of the upcoming Rising Tide Conference last night, it seems there was a showdown at the City Council meeting. As predicted, NOCSF/UNOP’s pitiful lack of PR and advertising for such an important meeting as Sunday’s Neighborhood Planning Workshop was brought up and several were lambasted by the council members present.
The drama aspect of the planning process boils down to a representation competition. A couple on the City Council and some NOCSF members may be guilty of wanting to place their own hand picks on the Planning Board. If so, it’s territorial pissing as usual in New Orleans. Big deal.
The bottom line, however, is that there are very few involved in this downward-spiralling planning process who really care about New Orleans’s neighborhoods and true citizen participation. This is why I emphasize the word “neighborhood” in the title of this post. If Oliver Thomas Arnie Fielkow suggested last night that the people have been given enough of a run-around and do not need another GNOF/UNOP talent show, he is right. His message should not be thrown out with the bathwater.
Citizen participation means ALL citizens - not those picked by NOCSF/Concordia or the City Council. We shouldn’t even be having this discussion until all New Orleanians are informed of the planning process and, along with their respective neighborhood organization, are given ample time to pick their planner and put together a coherent proposal for funding, e.g. MidCity Recovery Plan and the Broadmoor Process, discuss it with their planner and come up with feasibility and deliverables.
The unnecessary rush, egos tripping over one another and resultant standstill are only impediments to the democratic process. The final product will be the wrong or most vocal projects getting funded while neighborhoods that need the time and money get nothing.
Is this what the city and so-called community supporters want?
See previous articles in this series:
You Must Attend The Unified New Orleans Plan Meeting This Sunday
Related posts:
The trouble is that the timeline is 6 months which is not a lot of time to design a city wide comprehensive plan. But it has to be ready by January to be included into the LRA’s plans so it can be approved and aquire the adequate funding.
Of course having a month or two to bring the citizens in to learn about the teams and choose them is ideal but that time does not exist.
So instead we have these events, online and in person voting for teams and then once selected having citizens meet with their teams and participate in the planning process.
It is not perfect but the reality. Everyone should get on board so it works.
It’s enough time (and money) to arrange proper PR and advertising in the paper, TV and radio stations, flyers, mailings and word of mouth to get most citizens involved. The fact that even the average, well-read citizen, whether in a wet or dry neighborhood, in New Orleans has never heard of the UNOP is shameful. Especially since none of this really got rolling in the public eye until recently.
For a neighborhood to jump on a wagon thinking it’s their last resort when they haven’t even been included in a “process” is folly. “Yeah, everyone, get on board. Ask questions later.” Very democratic.
stop worrying about other people and groups of people to plan your future. everyone that wants to be involved should be involved by building their house or helping their neighbor with hers or whatever else you can actually do yourself. If I want to buy a house I don’t need a committee to tell me how to do it and where, just as Walgreen’s doesn’t need anyone to tell them where they should open a new store. People figure this stuff out on their own based on economics. The city already has some of the strongest neighborhood groups and historic preservation groups in the country. Let those things continue on the owork as they always have in conjunction with the building department when needed. I’m an architect and planner and it would be great to have grand ideas and people focused on making them happen, but it doesn’t happen. Get some people to plan out new schools and infrastructure and then let the economy do the rest. All the useless elected officials in the city and state should befocused on getting individuals money to rebuild and not worry about these planning teams. If everyone that wanted to rebuild their house could get the federal funding they deserve, no one would care about these formal groups and meetings.
Jack, you’ve addressed an important part of the problem: “If everyone that wanted to rebuild their house could get the federal funding they deserve, no one would care about these formal groups and meetings.”
When groups like NOCSF and GNOF sit between each individual and the money and the process becomes nebulous, it’s hard to get at the money.
Also, “Get some people to plan out new schools and infrastructure and then let the economy do the rest.”
Get whom to plan out new schools? Without neighborhood and community input?
when have you seen a neighborhood plan a school? it sounds like a great idea, but schools, roads, streetcars, etc. are things that are normally planned by those great people we elect to speak for us, not us ourselves. I know the new orleans government leaves a lot to be desired, but it is their place to do a lot of this. If they can’t take care of it why are they there? (lets not get into the fact that the idiot is still mayor)
If not those people at least let some people do it that have experience in education or whatever area is being planned. A lot of people might have problems with Tulane, but they got a grammer school up and running. Let a group from there and UNO and other institutions plan out the schools along with whatever is left of the department of education. ok, maybe not the DOE as their track record is part of what got us here.
Just noticed this article on the Council session, who characterizes the whole tone as “utter greed and power grab.”
I think we’re now paying the price for not having had a functional planning process in place. Instead, we’re having to invent one from scratch, with an artificial deadline in place and in an environment where many of the stakeholders (i.e., residents) are either not here or entirely too consumed with other matters to participate. I think this is largely the fault of past City Councils, who allowed many previous planning efforts to devolve into chaos. Remember the Master Plan? The matrix-based Comphrensive Zoning Ordinance rewrite? The Strategic Planning Initiative? All of these sucked up massive amounts of public participation and in the end, were sidelined so the Council could continue to have final say over the zoning process.
Hopefully we can get it right this time. It’s a lot of work, in any event.
I’ve thought since the beginning that the plan for a plan was flawed in the sense that you’re giving people a blank slate and telling them to start writing. Thing is, they aren’t knowledgable in what to write and don’t know where to begin.
Where the hell is the mayor in all this?
Where the hell are city planners?
Concordia has created an artificial Citizens Participation Network. This is the Smoke and Mirrors Plan. Viable, active meaningful participation is vital. Using the words “Honesty and transparency” means nothing. Concordia has been working on this for months. How hard would it be to have a PR campaign in place. One that includes ALL citizens in a real way. Not directing people to a web site thru comments on a blog? That has NOTHING to do with Democracy and transparency
This is an invitation to attend a meeting scheduled for Wednesday, August 9, 2006 at 2:30pm to discuss the New Orleans Community Support Foundation´s plans for communications and outreach strategies for the Unified New Orleans Planning Process. Please note that the meeting was scheduled for August 9th in order to provide ample notice to all interested parties. The meeting will be held at the Greater New Orleans Foundation´s offices at 1055 St Charles Avenue in room 101. Parking is available in the adjoining parking lot.
After interviewing five local firms, the NOCSF has retained the services of Peter Mayer Associates on an interim basis to assist with public relations and outreach communications activities. We are aware that there are many individuals and organizations that have an interest in offering suggestions for how this work might be handled over the long run. It is for this reason that we are seeking all suggestions, either by return email or in person at the August 9, 2006 meeting. Our intention is to use all input to confirm a strategy for moving forward.
We are aware that some individuals and organizations have expressed an interest in participation on a contractual basis. However until all input has been received and a strategy finalized the NOCSF is not in a position to determine what kinds of services may be required and what funding may be sought to accomplish these services.
We hope that you will work with us to move this important part of the project forward.
Steven Bingler
Jack: “If I want to buy a house I don’t need a committee to tell me how to do it and where, just as Walgreen’s doesn’t need anyone to tell them where they should open a new store. People figure this stuff out on their own based on economics.”
I can’t let that hang out there without commenting. Economics is not just a law of the universe. It is a body of laws created by people that guides the rules of property and transactions. In a democracy (ideally) the rule-making process is broad and deep so that the resulting economy doesn’t just benefit a narrow constituency. As such, people absolutely *do* have a right to have their values expressed in the rules for where a Walgreens should be placed and what it should look like, and *yes* if the neighborhood wants to say you can’t build a high rise on your property, they have a right to do that too.
The point is, people *should* participate in processes that form the institutions of our neighborhoods, and the character of our neighborhoods.
It’s absurd to suggest that all people should worry about is rebuilding their homes.
there are zoning laws, building codes, plan reviewers, and neighborhood groups that all already exist to decide what type of building should go where and how it should be located on the site or in the city. There is no need to create a new entity full of planners from outside new orleans to decide how to do this. Its already there. Those people are needed in mississippi because their cities were completely washed away. new orleans still exists, a new masterplan is not what anyone needs. what is needed is to rebuild and bring back people. I would love to be in charge of planning how to rebuild a section of the city, as most architects would, but do you really want that? The city is already in place, most of it just needs to be repopulated. If people could come back and live (rebuild houses) everything else will follow.
while I agree in principal. In reality we have a crippled economy and an understaffed Planning Commision. i want my City back, the way it was..that is not going to happen
Here’s a good response to this article describing criticism of the lack of leadership from both the Mayor and the Council by the Urban Land Institute’s senior fellow for housing.
Upshoot: “Good luck. You’ll need it.”
I’m no expert on planning, but if anyone wants to see the poster-child of the laissez-faire approach, take a look at the drug store on the corner of Napoleon and Claiborne. Beautiful, ain’t it?