Rebuilding the City

Chapter 3 addresses how civic engagement affects the physical rebuilding of a broken city. Based on the data set of more than five thousand post-disaster building permit applications submitted during the early period of recovery, this chapter examines the ways in which civic capacity influenced the process of property reconstruction after Katrina. I find that high levels of local political participation led to a greater number of building permit approvals as well as faster issuance of permits. While affirming the positive aspect of civic capacity on service distribution, the findings also reflect the dilemma of reconstruction because the physical rebuilding occurred in a haphazard pattern without a reference to the long-term, coherent planning. The strength of civic power revealed the lack of local government capacity to enforce strict building regulations, leaving the city no less vulnerable to natural hazards than it had been before Katrina.