Urbicide - Cases - New Orleans

New Orleans

The destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 has been interpreted as the culmination of political and policy-driven urbicide that has been played out over many decades of corrupt politics, exemplified by leaders such as William J. Jefferson which led to waste and outright theft of civic funds by elected officials from all socioeconomic backgrounds. While natural disasters such as Katrina cannot be considered urbicidal in and of themselves, such disasters can, due to flawed governmental legislation, affect socioeconomic groups disproportionately. In the case of New Orleans, the areas of the city that were hit hardest included neighborhoods from all socioeconomic backgrounds. Areas housing members of the lowest socioeconomic classes lacked the resources to rebuild and re-establish their communities. Higher income neighborhoods were able to raise funds for additional security and civic improvements through tax levees and private fund raising efforts. Impoverished neighborhoods dependent upon city's resources were unable to successfully re-establish themselves without federal Hurricane Katrina disaster relief. According to urbicide scholar Andrew Herscher, "Katrina's effects…were but the last and most visible traces of a chronic disaster, an urbicide fabricated not by military action but by policy and ideology."

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