Rebuilding New Orleans: Editor’s Introduction

Authors:
John F. McDonald

Start Page: 197
End Page: 212
Volume: 15
Issue Number: 2
Year: 2007
Publication: Journal of Real Estate Literature

Abstract: The Review Articles section of this issue is devoted to real estate issues involved in
rebuilding New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. This introductory essay describes the recent economic history of the New Orleans metropolitan area and its central city. Compared to Chicago in 1871 and San Francisco in 1906 at the time of their disasters, the economy of New Orleans was stagnant when the hurricane struck. Rebuilding has proceeded very slowly. The essay also sets out some fundamental economic issues in rebuilding the city. The flood control system must be repaired and upgraded because its failure to perform as expected was found to be responsible for most of the flooding. A simple economic model is introduced to show that, if the
optimal flood control system is put into place and other critical public services are restored, the private sector will rebuild New Orleans at the economically optimal scale. Additional research is needed to make the simple model more realistic.