Resilience and Opportunity by amy liu roland v. anglin richard m. mizelle allison plyer

Author:amy liu, roland v. anglin, richard m. mizelle, allison plyer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-06-20T16:00:00+00:00

10

A Tale of Uneven Comebacks:

Community Planning and Neighborhood

Design on the Mississippi Gulf Coast

Mukesh Kumar

T he devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina on the Mississippi Gulf Coast was soon followed by optimistic public statements regarding recovery and renewal. The Mississippi Renewal Forum, organized by the Governor's Commission on Recovery, Rebuilding, and Renewal and the Congress for New Urbanism in October 2005, brought visions of a better future for the coast. The so-called design charrette sought to provide clarity on directions for rebuilding, largely influenced by the principles often found in the new urbanism paradigm. But experiences along the Gulf Coast since then have varied according to local preferences for urban forms instead of adhering to the common vision proposed in the design charrette. Those preferences range from emphasis on compact traditional neighborhoods to sprawling and highly commercial casino-based economic growth.

This chapter presents an analysis of planning efforts in municipalities along Mississippi's Gulf Coast. These municipalities form the Mississippi Gulf Coast Urbanized Areas, from Waveland on the western edge to Moss Point and Pascagoula on the eastern edge. The experiences of these communities have been quite varied, sometimes as a result of federal and state policies but often for local reasons. This analysis of planning efforts on the Mississippi Gulf Coast partially explains the uneven nature of comeback efforts and outcomes and draws insights that may be helpful in planning for rebuilding after future disasters.

The rebuilding and recovery efforts on the Mississippi Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, while unique at the time, were also remarkably similar in their rhetoric to earlier experiences in the history of cities. American examples include the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 and the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. 1 In both cases, the disasters were reframed as opportunities for progress and positive change. Efforts at rebuilding in the aftermath of natural disasters in most cities have often exhibited two distinct tendencies: one with an emphasis on resiliency and the other emphasizing opportunity. Resiliency is usually immediate—a short-term vigorous attempt to reclaim a place as if the disastrous event were simply an inconvenience. Opportunity, on the other hand, usually covers a longer period and involves rethinking of social, political, and economic arrangements. While formulaic assertions of resiliency appeal to people's instinctive desire to bounce back to normalcy, descriptions of opportunities often focus on a long-standing regard for progress and growth in a wider context. Similar tendencies were well displayed in the arguments immediately following the disastrous date of August 29, 2005, when Hurricane Katrina struck the 120-mile Mississippi Gulf coast.

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