“Three years after Katrina, the nation's most expensive
hurricane, which cost insurers an estimated $44 billion, came Gustav. As if New
Orleans needed its rebuilding project to get any harder. And yet, there’s hope.
To underscore how far the city has come since 2005,
alldaybuffet, a group of creative professionals focused on social innovation,
created the New Orleans 100, a list of projects that are bringing new creative
energy, attracting tourism, rebuilding homes, overhauling the educational
system, and stimulating economic activity. Here are 10 of the most innovative
ventures.”
The greenest of construction options is..."adaptive re-use and
preservation". That’s the response from The Landmark Society of Western New York
to Cathleen McGuigan’s September 15, 2008 article in Newsweek, entitled
"The Bad News About Green Architecture".
Their blog, "Confessions of a Preservationist", states:
“Although preservation doesn’t get a lot of attention as a
sustainable design or "green" building technique, there are
connections everywhere. Preservation has always been a green activity. New
construction, no matter how green it is, uses valuable resources and energy and
also creates waste. Furthermore, while the value of newer, greener construction
can’t be overlooked, it is crucial to understand that many of these
technologies are able to be applied to existing buildings.”
Continue reading “The sense of using what we have...” here.
Cole Judge is this week's 'New Orleans cultural rock star' on the 504Ward.com Web site! Cole was one of our super volunteers during Historic Green last March. As an AmeriCorps volunteer, she came to us through the Center for Bioenvironmental Research (CBR) at Tulane University and assisted both CSED and Historic Green in organizing the event.
504Ward.com is a new initiative designed to help young talent in New Orleans meet, learn, explore, connect and grow. Put simply: 504Ward's mission is to keep twenty and thirty-somethings living, working and helping to improve New Orleans. That includes the waves of students and young professionals who came to the city after Katrina to help her rebuild. Like the Web site says:
"For the first time in its storied history, New Orleans is saturated with talented networks of young people, who have followed the road less traveled all the way to the Crescent City. In what has become an incubator for innovation and intellectualism, New Orleans is watching the development of a generation of leaders, who will pay dividends to their country for generations to come."
There, you can also check out 504ward’s $100,000 Business Competition launched with The Idea Village to support entrepreneurs with business ideas that retain and engage the 23 – 35 year old demographic in New Orleans.
Curt Rohner, our fearless man-on-the-street for Historic Green last March, is featured briefly in a new documentary about rebuilding and recovery in NOLA that’s set to debut later this month. In “The New Orleans Tea Party”, filmmakers Marline Otte and Laszlo Fulop interviewed a priest, a cook, homeowners, neighborhood activists, student volunteers and many others over the course of a year and half. Also featured are Jimmy Carter on a Habitat for Humanity build, Wynton Marsalis, Pam Dashiell of Holy Cross, Tom Darden of the Make It Right Foundation – and our own Curt Rohner: “We may win the war on terrorism, but if we destroy the planet while we’re doing that...it’s a war lost, no matter what.”
Otte is associate professor of History with Tulane University and Fulop an assistant professor in the University of New Orleans' Film Department. They describe their documentary as chronicling:
“...the achievements of both the local residents and the millions of volunteers streaming to the region from all over the nation, while exploring the limitations and fragility of a recovery process built upon the shoulders of individuals operating almost entirely without government support. Throughout, the film thus examines larger themes relevant to American society today, culminating in a final discussion of American citizens' vision of and trust in democratic processes.”
One interviewee sums it up best, the reason for the film’s title: “I think that we’re back in Boston Harbor. I think this is the Boston Tea Party.”
A screening of "The New Orleans Tea Party" will be held Tuesday, October 28, 7 p.m. at the Freeman Auditorium in the Woldenberg Art Center at Tulane University. A reception follows. For more on this project and the filmmakers, go to The New Orleans Tea Party.
