Rebuilding the Gulf Coast

The following are recent articles about rebuilding New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. What are your thoughts? How should the AIA get involved in the planning and rebuilding process? And should architects advocate for a different way of life? Comment below through the comments button.

Plans afoot to rebuild New Orleans: They say New Orleans will never be same again. And they mean it, too...Now property developers, urban conservationists and city planners are expecting schemes that once competed for funding to find a new lease of life.- BBC (UK)

Reviving a City: The Design Perspective: Architects and planners worry that developers might try to recreate some fairy-tale version of the city,,,urged a rethinking of New Orleans's sprawl, arguing that the city should be consolidated.- New York Times

Why New Orleans must be rebuilt: Cities are collective works of art, and this is one of America's masterpieces. How it should rise from the floodwaters is a tougher decision. By Blair Kamin- Chicago Tribune

Should we even rebuild New Orleans? For a long time, New Orleans has been fighting a war with nature, and it finally lost. Why fight that war again?- Chicago Tribune

A Rush to Set Up U.S. Housing for Storm Survivors: The government is beginning what urban planners are calling one of the biggest bursts of federal housing development in United States history.- New York Times

For Architects, No Blueprints for Recovery: Many New Orleans firms that will help rebuild their city set up in Baton Rouge, where they struggle to salvage their practices and plot uncertain futures. By Christopher Hawthorne- Los Angeles Times

Among the ruins, something to build on: ...if the decade's other giant rebuilding effort — the bungled plan for ground zero in New York...is any guide, we should probably move directly into cynical mode... By Christopher Hawthorne- Los Angeles Times

9/11: Will The Lessons Learned Help New Orleans? By Tom Angotti- Gotham Gazette

Tears for New Orleans: Memories of One City, and Concerns for Others. By Sam Hall Kaplan- LA Downtown News

Buried Treasures: Storm's Toll On Culture: "It's not just the architecture, it's the culture, the music, the food. You can't have any of it without the architecture." By Linda Hales- Washington Post