Live from New Orleans; A Sense of Urgency

“There are just three big cities in the United States that are ‘story cities’ – New York, of course, New Orleans and, best of the lot, San Francisco.” — Frank Norris.

John Tepper Marlin quoted Norris’s when asked his impressions of the Crescent City. As it happens, each of these three “story cities” has suffered a major disaster within the last 20 years: New Orleans was devastated by Hurricane Katrina, of course, while New York suffered the attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001 and San Francisco bore the brunt of the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989.

These pillars are all that is left of Fitzgerald’s, a popular seafood restaurant that had been located right on Lake Pontchartrain. An entire lakeside “restaurant row” was destroyed by the floodwaters. Photographs by Richard H. Levey

A damaged boat house near the 17th Street levee. Both of these images are from an area roughly five miles north of the French Quarter.

Marlin is not only aware of this, he was personally involved in one city’s recovery. As chief economist and senior policy advisor for the Office of the New York City Comptroller, he helped write a report on the economic impact of the 9/11 attacks on the city.

There are parallels between these events although the costs associated with Katrina’s devastation will outstrip those of New York and San Francisco combined, and perhaps by multiple amounts. In fact, Katrina trails New York City’s damage only in body count – and figures on the number of people killed because of the hurricane and the flooding are far from complete.

If there is a link between the World Trade Center attacks and Katrina, it is in a sense of urgency, according to Marlin. Marketing messages, whether for fundraising or commercial boosterism, would do well to build on this.

“When there is a disaster, there is an immediate outpouring of wanting to help.” he said. “You want to capture that immediately, and that is why the Internet is so helpful. But you have to find out whether there is a sense of the public being bored and moving on.”

The first Mardi Gras celebration after Katrina has put the New Orleans recovery efforts back in the news. But the Mardi Gras season winds up on Feb. 28, and it will be up to the city to keep its message in the public eye, Marlin said.

“I would orchestrate something I could videotape or photograph, such as a float with www.katrinarelief.org across its side, which highlights the need,” Marlin said. People have a concern: Is this the right group to give to? I would go through all of the photos and look for one s that support my case. You have to show public spiritedness.”

Indeed, boosters should not necessarily shy away from touting the city’s rebuilding efforts. “So many people want to come to New York City and see the hole – see with their own eyes there is no World Trade Center and maybe have a moment of silence,” Marlin said.

He continued, “The nice thing about New Orleans is that it is about eating and drinking and listening to music, and these all bring in money. New Orleans should have some way of showing what happened to people and making money.”

The city should not worry about attracting workers – even non-resident workers – to aid in the rebuilding efforts. “The worker population will come, “ he said. “Workers just need a place to live. When I was young I lived in barracks because there was a good job building the St. Lawrence Seaway. If you pay people, they will come.”

Ah, but there’s the rub. New Orleans is perilously close to running out of money, and the fact that it was not able to attract major corporate donors to sponsor Mardi Gras didn’t help – especially as the city incurs a significant amount of police and sanitation costs in conjunction with the festivities. In fact, the only corporate sponsor it signed up was the maker of Glad Trash Bags, which donated 100,000 trash bags and a sum in the low six figures, well short of the $2 million the city had been hoping for.

As for post-Mardi Gras recovery, Marlin believes that when it comes to a city’s economic health, “density is destiny.” Rather than favor a series of corporate tax incentives to lure or retain businesses – the Monty Hall “Lets Make a Deal” approach, he calls it – he favors a five-option approach cities can take to grow their economies.

1. Invest in infrastructure. This includes municipal –backed projects that allow a city to grow, “Some monuments are durable and useful, like the New York City subway system, the water tunnels or the USTA Tennis Center,” he writes on his Web site, http://www.cityeconomist.com. “The key to this strategy is to pick something useful to build, that pays for itself and doesn’t displace too many voting residents.”

2. Create an efficient city. “In the United States, the great innovation in the cause of efficiency was the city-manager form of government – the idea of having a city managed by a paid professional appointed by the elected City Council.” Marlin admits “running a city is the hardest of the five options because it requires leadership and skill for a mayor to get the most out of city workers.”

3. Attract companies with tax breaks or planning help. “The advantage of this strategy is that with these tax breaks the Mayor can be seen to be doing his or her best to keep business in town. The problems with the strategy are:

A. The taxes have to be paid by someone. If businesses are given breaks, then everyone else must cover the shortfall;

B. If the tax abatements really do make a difference, they may merely keep alive a company for a few more years that will not be able to stay competitive much longer;

C. Companies will line up for their share of tax breaks even if they have zero interest in leaving town; and

D. The process of awarding tax breaks may be or may be made to appear subject to political influence.

4. Attract and keep creative people. Marlin holds with Richard Florida’s opinion that the “creative class” is the key to the future of cities. These people can be lured with relatively low-cost projects such as designating bike paths and supporting art centers.

5. Build the “Ideas City.” Merlin recommends that universities become more commercial in the commercialization of their knowledge by focusing on academic excellence and ties between universities and businesses.