Former New Orleans authority talks safe city planning

According to a panel on campus Wednesday, it’s time for city planners to rethink the way they rebuild cities devastated by natural disasters.

Ed Blakely — who served as Executive Director of Recovery Management for the city of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina — spoke in Meyerson Hall on the importance of safe city planning and natural disaster awareness. As part of Penn’s “Year of Water” campaign, the Center for Public Health Initiatives and the Penn Institute for Urban Research hosted the discussion, which attracted about 30 Penn students, professors, community members and several Federal Emergency Management Agency representatives.

According to Blakely, many major cities are located near coastal areas, which makes them more susceptible to weather hazards such as hurricanes and tsunamis.

“There’s not a safe building if you don’t put it in a safe community,” he said.

He listed Philadelphia as one of the cities he believes is at risk, along with London, Shanghai and New Orleans.

City planners need to make changes, Blakely added, in order to mitigate weather-related devastation.

He addressed his concerns by detailing the story of two cities: New Orleans and Brisbane, Australia. Both have been devastated by major natural disasters — the former left waterlogged after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and the latter still recovering from the catastrophic flooding that hit in December 2010. He blames poorly designed infrastructure, such as failed levees and inadequate draining systems, for the damage these coastal cities suffered.

While a common course of action in the wake of devastation is to rebuild, Blakely urges city planners to be more prudent in their reconstruction plans.

“We will rebuild where nature allows us to rebuild,” Blakely said, stressing that inland areas are preferable to flood-prone areas.

Anthony Riederer, a Masters of city planning student at Penn who attended the event, agreed. “It’s a nice sound bite to say that we are going to rebuild, but it may not be in the best of public interest,” he said.

Rebecca Wetzler, also a Masters of city planning student, felt the event could have addressed rebuilding issues in greater detail. “Personally, I thought it was inspiring, but I wish it was more on specific steps individuals can do despite not having [city-planning expertise],” she said.

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