News
Big Boxes Bad Choice for New Orleans, Says Blakely
July 9, 2007
Original The Times-Picayune (posted on nola.com) article→
Stay Local! archive of this article ↓
“The city’s been so anxious to get development, it’s made poor choices,” he said. “You don’t bring big boxes into the middle of the city and expect your neighborhoods to survive.”
The Time-Picayune
Big Boxes Bad Choice for New Orleans, Says Blakely
The following article is based on an interview with Ed Blakeley conducted by Planetizen Managing Editor Christian Peralta and Planetizen Assistant Editor Nate Berg on June 3, 2007, in New Orleans.
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[New Orleans recovery chief Ed] Blakely committed to only a one-year stint when he signed on in January to lead the city’s rebuilding effort. And although he has said he plans to stick around longer than that, he clearly believes he won’t be around to finish the job.
The recovery itself is likely to take as long as 40 years, or the duration of the restoration of Berlin after World War II, Blakely said in an interview posted last week by The Planetizen, a Los Angeles-based “public-interest information exchange” for urban planners.
“I think we’re going to see signs of both recovery and signs of places where the recovery hasn’t taken hold in five years, and that’s normal,” he said. He predicted that some sort of recovery office will be needed for the next two decades and that work will continue for twice that long.
Blakely said citizens’ recovery efforts have generated a realistic, though perhaps overly detailed, blueprint for rebuilding. But he also blamed city officials for making mistakes soon after the flood that could impede long-term success.
“Some things are more difficult now because the city has done what too many cities have done: They’ve allowed the big boxes to destroy local shopping,” he said. Since Hurricane Katrina, a handful of mega-hardware retailers have opened around town, but there is little evidence that small retailers have gone out of business or chosen not to return because of a big-box presence.
“The city’s been so anxious to get development, it’s made poor choices,” he said. “You don’t bring big boxes into the middle of the city and expect your neighborhoods to survive.”
Blakely also said he’s not into franchises, nor spending a lot of time or money recruiting small businesses.
“We’ve got plenty of smart people here. They can grow their own businesses. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to make a grocery store or a coffee shop or a jewelry store,” he said.
Finally, Blakely acknowledged that his cocksure attitude has evoked mixed reactions from locals. True to style, though, he said he’s not bound to change his tune anytime soon.
“There are a lot of people here who don’t like my personality,” he said. “But I am what I am. I’m a quarterback, and every time I walk into the huddle, I’m looking everybody up (and saying), ‘This is a play, guys: fourth-and-2. We’re going to make it.’
“Fortunately, we’ve made it. So I’ll change my personality when that stops,” he said, though he did not name the precise goals he thinks the city has achieved.
[from a 6-28-07 Planetizen Podcast: http://www.planetizen.com/node/25365]
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