Oct. 4, 2006
Role of Business, Policy and Design Discussed at Panel on New Orleans
By Rob Meyer

The Graduate Business Council at the McCombs School hosted a panel discussion on the rebuilding efforts in New Orleans Oct. 4 that offered perspectives from the areas of business, policy and design.

John Butler, a professor of management at McCombs and a New Orleans native, stressed the importance of business. “All great cities in America have had great entrepreneurial immigrants,” said Butler, director of the Herb Kelleher Center for Entrepreneurship and the IC²Institute at The University of Texas at Austin. “Who comes back to New Orleans? It’s going to be those people who are innovative and see a future for themselves.”

Representing the Workers Defense Project, an Austin-based workers’ rights group, Tomas Aguilar discussed the conditions of immigrant laborers now in Louisiana.  He described horrible living conditions, a variety of health and safety issues and other abuses, such as unpaid wages. “There are a lot of hidden stories you don’t hear about,” said Aguilar, speaking passionately about the need for future policy to consider the racial and class aspect of the new New Orleans.

Don Baylor of the Center for Public Priorities Project discussed the housing problems for all of those displaced in Texas and the advocacy work his organization has done to secure an additional $420 million in housing funds from the federal government. Baylor also talked about the importance of the availability of homeowners insurance as a factor in determining the future of many residents of New Orleans—a difficult problem considering the vast power that the insurance companies have in the policymaking process.

Jason Sowell and Rachel Brown of the UT Austin School of Architecture worked on a research project that looked at the ways in which city planning, designing a better levee system and flood protection program and building construction can play a part in making New Orleans safer in the future.

One aspect of a flood protection system Sowell pointed to was returning the natural wetlands system to the New Orleans area, which was effectively killed by the levee system put in by the Army Corps of Engineers.

“For every kilometer of wetland that is vibrant and healthy it reduces storm surges up to a meter,” Sowell said. “That in combination with rebuilding some of the barrier islands would be a first line of defense necessary with the storms that are going to continue to occur.”

The panel was moderated by Kevin Watts of the Graduate Business Council, an MBA student organization.