Returning to the City

Chapter 4 serves as a key chapter to show the long-term consequences of the civic-oriented recovery, in terms of widening the racial and social disparities across the city. In this chapter, I investigate the relationship between community civic structure and the patterns of repopulation after Katrina. Using a novel data set on the repopulation of the entire New Orleans neighborhoods for ten years, I find that structural conditions based on civic organizations such as churches, schools, and childcare centers lead to two disparate patterns of recovery in the long run. In a high-lying location, civic structure facilitates repopulation and reduces vulnerabilities in a way that was expected. However, in low-lying neighborhoods, civic-oriented repopulation is much slower than high-lying communities, and active civic performances increase social vulnerabilities by attracting low-income, minority populations. This, I argue, creates a two-tiered city with an enlarging gap between the city’s safe and vulnerable areas.