ABSTRACT

The best information about displacement, including the neighborhood location and social composition of affected people, is based on counts of the population living in areas that were flooded. The notion of neighborhood triage was implicit in the proposals made by the Bring New Orleans Back Commission in the public report of its Urban Planning Committee in January 2006. In conjunction with public support for homeowners over tenants and the plan to demolish most public housing, market-based policies point toward a future in which New Orleans will also have a smaller share of black residents, tenants, and poor and working-class families. Although Hurricane Katrina reshaped the political map of the city by suppressing the vote in the poorest and blackest neighborhoods, the dynamics of the mayoral campaign represent a more remarkable shift in the composition of support for the winning candidate, Mayor Ray Nagin.