Big Easy Can Reclaim 'Ambience'
Oct. 1, 2005 — -- Dr. Scott Cowen, the president of Tulane University in New Orleans, rode out Hurricane Katrina on campus as long as possible, until leaving on a battered boat he patched up.
Now, Cowen has been appointed by New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin to a 17-person commission to design a framework to rebuild the city.
"I think we have to have a very comprehensive plan to rebuild the city," Cowen said.
"At this stage in the planning process, everything should be on the table," he added. "We have an unusual opportunity here in New Orleans to build everything from the ground up. Everything should be considered conceivable until proven otherwise."
The rebuilding plan would look at everything from housing, to K-12 education, to transportation, to economic development, Cowen said.
But he also acknowledged that time is of the essence.
"Speed is the most important thing to keep in mind, because we have a city that was decimated," Cowen said. "So our planning process that would normally take anybody else perhaps years to do, we really have to do in about 90 or 100 days because we don't have the luxury of taking months to rebuild this particular city. I think we're also going to have to prioritize very carefully.
"The ambience of the city will be back within a year," he said. "In terms of our population and everything we know about New Orleans, it will probably take many, many years to get back."
He described New Orleans' plight over the past few weeks a "surreal experience."
"I never could have imagined in America that you could have a city that was totally nonfunctioning for as long as New Orleans has been," he said.
