Katrina: An Opportunity for Economic Development to Re-Invent Itself?

ED Futures Editorial
By Don Iannone, Publisher

"Most of those in need of help after Hurricane Katrina have now been reached, the evacuation of New Orleans is largely complete, and engineers have started to pump water out of the flooded city. Who is to blame for the botched relief effort: George Bush, local officials, or no one in particular?" Source: Economist.

There is no escaping the finger-pointing that will grow as Katrina and its handling (mis-handling) becomes the biggest political football that America has seen in a long time. And if we are not careful, some could eventually point fingers of blame at economic development organizations for not doing more to help New Orleans and other Gulf Coast communities rebuild their economic bases.

Why is Katrina so special; perhaps in some ways, more important than 911? I would like to say it is because of the thousands of lives lost, the destruction of one of our nation's biggest cities and its surrounding Gulf region, and the economic costs that must be paid over several generations to rebuild what used to be there. Instead, racial politics and the widening gulf between the haves and have-nots in society are the major reasons why Katrina is such a big issue that people will hold onto for a very long time.

The issues of race and social and economic disparity are always there. They weren't resolved by the Civil Rights Movement, or other turning and tipping points in our nation's history. The disenfranchised in society cannot be bought off with a re-vamped minority business set aside program, or a new inner city home-building program. Their pain is too great and our ability to understand and respond is too small.

American society is out of whack, and the political extremes our nation has seen the past two decades have not helped restore our much needed sense of balance. More and more people are falling through the cracks. The cracks have widened, allowing not only Blacks and other racial minorities, but an entire middle class in American society, to fall further behind. Economic development has done virtually nothing about these issues. Why? Because we fear the political football created by racial politics and the worldwide war between the haves and have-nots.

How is the economic development community responding to our "Gulf Disaster?" I'm not talking about just the economic development organizations in New Orleans and the surrounding region. How can the national economic development community help the area get back on its feet? What lessons must we learn from this disaster? For one, every economic developer in America should be disturbed by what Katrina showed us in New Orleans and other impacted Gulf Coast communities about human pain and suffering. It should motivate us to do more to bring about a new generation of broad-based economic prosperity that touches all people.

We must do more!

Katrina could be an opportunity for New Orleans and the Gulf Coast to re-invent themselves and adopt a more sustainable development path in the future. The communities along the Gulf have long defied Mother Nature and her fury. Maybe this is a good time to design communities that live in harmony with nature's rules. Katrina can also be an opportunity for economic development to re-invent itself within a more sustainable development model, and also truly help those who need our help the most, and that is not Wal-Mart and the Bank of America!

Let's not let this opportunity slip away, and simply wait until the water recedes, so everyone can return to "business as usual." Instead, let's use this situation as an opportunity to re-make economic development with the really big issues in mind.