Description
Book SynopsisIn Reforming New Orleans, Peter F. Burns and Matthew O. Thomas chart the city's recovery and assess how successfully officials at the local, state, and federal levels transformed the Big Easy in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Trade ReviewThrough the conceptual lenses of 'political arrangements' and ‘policy agenda fidelity’ the authors set out to explore the ways extralocal actors and reform-oriented players have used their resources and authority to change pre-Katrina governance configurations and... capture eloquently the identity of the pre-Katrina status quo and the longstanding patterns of corruption, patronage and mismanagement that characterised the city institutions and officials prior to the storm. It will be a critical resource for academics, researchers and practitioners in the field of disasters, urban politics and urban sociology.
-- Angeliki Paidakaki * Urban Studies Journal *
Not surprisingly, Burns and Thomas find that pre-Katrina New Orleans was governed by multiple political arrangements with weak fidelity to policy agendas (5).... It's important to remember... that in a political arrangement that results in a greater chasm between rich and poor, barriers to affordable housing, persistent inequities in education, and a racially disparate criminal justice system, we all lose.
* The Journal of African American History *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Rebuilding Governance, Politics, and Policy in New Orleans 1. Pre-Katrina New Orleans 2. Reform and Economic Development 3. Democracy versus Reform in Pre-Katrina Education 4. The Most Reform-Friendly City in the Country 5. From Mismanagement to Reform in Housing 6. Public Safety or an Unsafe Public? Conclusion: The Effects of Sudden Shocks on Governance, Politics, and Policy
