Lack Of Leadership In New Orleans Rebuilding

"Tied in knots by racial and class divisions, they have given storm-battered homeowners and landlords little guidance on whether and how their neighborhoods would be rebuilt. While surrounding areas were developing their reconstruction plans, New Orleans' leaders ignored or rejected the work of two blue-ribbon planning groups. Eventually, separate planning efforts emerged â€" one funded by the council through a no-bid contract, the other by the Rockefeller Foundation and backed by the state disaster-recovery agency. Those efforts are now being reconciled, but the city's rebuilding road map won't be finished until at least year's end...It's some consolation that New Orleans' leaders haven't moved the city in the wrong direction. They just haven't moved it in any direction."