I’m currently watching the rebroadcast of Thursday’s (July 27, 2006) City Council meeting with people speaking on behalf of the Unified New Orleans Plan. Representing City Council were Cynthia Hedge-Morrell (principal), Cynthia Willard Lewis, Arnie Fielkow and Stacy Head. From UNOP - Bobbie Hill/Concordia, Wayne Lee/GNOF, Ben Johnson/GNOF, Steve VIllavoso/Villavoso Associates, Nathan Shroyer/Neighborhoods Planning Network.

The Message For This Weekend: Sunday’s meeting is not a City-Wide Emergency Of Grand Proportions. If your neighborhood does not have a plan or you are unsure whether your existing plan is viable in its current incarnation, plan to attend the meeting at Pavilion of Two Sisters in City Park between noon and 4pm on Sunday, July 30th.

It is just absurd that New Orleanians have to go through a mental wringer to get to the point of Sunday’s meeting, which was not advertised (”no communications plan in place for the diaspora,” as Steve Sabludowsky of Bayou Buzz said), had no venue until recently and even suffered a recent time change. On top of this, the confusion propagated by the lack of open documentation on this process only holds us up further.

Considering the events of the past week and our current planning crisis (yes, the fact that we don’t have a plan is a crisis), the following are my findings, comments and recommendations.

To the ghost board of UNOP:

1. Accountability: By asking you to be more transparent and include members of their selection, City Council is not pulling fast ones on the process (never mind the fact that no one knows what the process is - we’ll get to that later).

As Cynthia Hedge-Morrell stated, if the process fails the people living in the neighborhoods in question, you are not going to be held accountable, City Council is. Bobbie Hill of Concordia isn’t answerable, Steve Villavoso of Villavoso Associates isn’t accountable and a neighborhood cannot take its lack of plan and progress to NPN, NOCSF, GNOF or any of these acronyms. IIt is, therefore, in the best interest of all New Orleanians that their elected representatives be as involved with the planning process as possible.

What level of community participation has NOCSF/UNOP had? Where are the meeting notes? What is the plan/process? NOCSF has five members - one each from the neighborhoods, mayor’s office, City Planning Commission, Greater New Orleans Foundation and City Council. Why only five members? Why aren’t each of the city’s districts represented so that their planning voice is heard? One person cannot speak for all neighborhoods.

2. Pre-existing Plans: If neighborhoods have so far compiled plans based on Lambert and under the auspices of the City Planning Commission, what is their recourse? Do they have to start formulating a plan from scratch or can they go to City Council with their current plan?

3. Timeline: When are we going to submit plans? And as a neighborhood representative said to the UNOP members, “Who gave NOCSF the power to tell neighborhoods that are ready to hold up and wait when you aren’t the elected representatives of this city?” Neighborhoods that are ready should go ahead, especially wet ones that go deeper into ruin the longer they wait. I agree with the idea of a two-part plan.

4. Input: To quote Steve Sabludowsky again, “[We] cannot have any kind of program without a well-developed communications package [whereby] the diaspora cannot offer their input into this process.” How will the UNOP address neighborhoods who live in exile and wish to come back?

5. District or Neighborhood Plans? - Sifting through Bobbie “By The People” Hill’s answer, it’s both. This is a question I hope to get an answer for on Sunday.

To City Hall:

1. Communication Aid: In post-Katrina New Orleans, the nature of communications has changed. Not everyone has access to the internet or cable TV (as Ms. Hedge-Morrell said) or lives in the metropolitan area. Also, our major papers and news stations have to serve as vehicles for important announcements such as Neighborhoods Planning meetings or Sunday’s UNOP workshop that are not wedged between Obituaries and Land Transfer announcements in section E of the paper. City Council does have the power, as Nathan Shroyer said, to help the planning process along by getting our media to announce on the front page and headlines these important steps for New Orleans.

If neighborhoods planning and getting LRA/Rockefeller money is not the most important thing right now, what is? So don’t tell me you don’t control the Times Picayune or other media, when they can be intimated by city government to pass on vital information.

2. City Council Representation In UNOP: If City Council members will be held accountable for the failure of UNOP, then the city council members themselves should be on the UNOP Board and not handpicked representatives.

Again, one person cannot represent all of city council just as one cannot represent all neighborhoods. To that end, I suggest one person per district is included in the NOCSF board to oversee the participation of their constituency and provide ample representation.

3. Intelligent Planning: New Orleanians in exile cannot be expected to return to their homes without the promise of jobs and worthwhile schools for their children. A house is expendable, a future is not. The pull of home is great, but if the expectation is a New Orleans Before Katrina, we are working towards the wrong goal. We have a chance to make it better this time around.

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This is a work in progress. Tomorrow, we hope to find out more about the UNOP and how neighborhoods without plans are helped. The proof is in the bathwater, y’all.

See previous articles in this series:

NEIGHBORHOOD planning
You Must Attend The Unified New Orleans Plan Meeting This Sunday

Related posts:

1. What Is UNOP?: NEIGHBORHOOD Planning
2. What Is UNOP?: You Must Attend The Unified New Orleans Plan Meeting This Sunday
3. What Is UNOP?: The History Of Post-K Planning and Sunday’s City Park Meeting
4. Too Many Soup Du Jours
5. Planning Presentation Marathon