New Orleans neighborhood plans unveiled

Almost 13 months after Hurricane Katrina plunged New Orleans into crisis, hundreds of people flocked to City Hall on Saturday to view the final planning reports for 46 flood-damaged neighborhoods, from eastern New Orleans to Lakeview.

For the professional planners hired by the City Council to sketch out ways the flood-ravaged sections can recover from the storm, this was game day.

Break out the overhead projector.

The final reports, the culmination of a monthslong planning project paid for by a $2.9 million grant from the City Council, together represent the most detailed citywide planning effort, after planners chosen by Mayor Ray Nagin's Bring New Orleans Back Commission failed to deliver a broad recovery plan, citing a lack of money.

But the council-generated plans together hold a price tag of more than $2 billion, a tab greater than what is expected to be available to New Orleans from federal Community Development Block Grant money to be doled out by the Louisiana Recovery Authority.

from the Times Picayune

links to the plans from the Times Picayune