Rebuilding Vs. Remodeling
Friday, April 14, 2006Video, photos and background information on The Gulf Coast: Road To Renewal
GHARIB: Even before hurricane Katrina, the Gulf coast was one of the poorest regions of the United States. So in the state of Mississippi, some urban planners see the rebuilding process as a tremendous opportunity to transform devastated towns. But as Jeff Yastine reports, many of the residents simply want their home towns restored to the way they were before the storm.
JEFF YASTINE, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: To understand the difficult decisions people in the Gulf coast are now facing, you have to take a drive along the Mississippi beaches. Eventually, you`ll come to the city hall of Pass Christian, which faced Katrina`s 40-foot storm surge head on, sweeping away doors, windows and city documents. Drive a little farther down the beach and you`ll come to what`s left of Maria furze`s home, a place she comes back to even now, looking for what the storm swept away.
MARIA FURZE, PASS CHRISTIAN RESIDENT: That`s something my son made. That I`ll keep.
YASTINE: But as locals like Maria look for cherished mementos, they`re facing new dilemmas, such as deciding whether to rebuild their homes in the same locations.
FURZE: On my street, you can see there`s only four of us rebuilding. Everybody else at the moment has walked away or is on hold completely and just has no idea what they`re going to do.
YASTINE: One of the biggest worries for people all along the Gulf coast is the cost of rebuilding. New Federally mandated requirements mean that destroyed homes like this one must be built higher, much higher to survive another Katrina-type storm. That also means it`s more expensive to rebuild and that worries some people here.
Pass Christian is not only grappling with the cost of rebuilding, but what the town will look like when all that rebuilding is finished. It`s hard to tell now, but for 150 years, Pass Christian, population 6,000 before Katrina, had always looked and felt like a seaside village. But that could change as pressure grows to quickly rebuild the tax base. That could mean that instead of towering centuries old oak trees, that towering condominiums could instead become a part of the community`s skyline.
JIM SCHMITT, PASS CHRISTIAN RESIDENT: The concern is that we`ll lose the town to outside economic pressures, in terms of those pressures were already here before the storm, in terms of development, hi-rise condo development and that type of thing that just weren`t in the character of what we were here for in this town. So we worry a lot more about losing the fabric of the town than we do about another hurricane.
YASTINE: Some urban planners think there is a way to preserve that fabric with the help of this planning book, called a "smart code." It puts down in print planning and zoning rules to guide how Pass Christian could be rebuilt, yet retain its village character. For example, the freight railroad tracks that run through the center of the community would be converted into light rail and lined with walkways. Even the local Wal- Mart, built a few years ago facing the beach and also destroyed by Katrina, could be rebuilt as a kind of new town plaza. Wal-Mart executives say they`re interested in the plan. Laura Hall is an architecture consultant hired by the town.
LAURA HALL, PRINCIPAL, FISHER & HALL URBAN DESIGN: The people here who have this vision, who have been living in such a beautiful place and remember the way it was, it gives them hope that their town can be rebuilt in an efficient way, in a way that makes it easy for developers to do what they want. I think the main thing is it gives them hope that it`s possible.
YASTINE: Work crews are slowly clearing the last of the most heavily damaged buildings, leaving a blank slate for owners and the community.
LORETTA LIZANA, PASS CHRISTIAN RESIDENT: I collect coins and I lost a lot of my coins.
YASTINE: Loretta Lizana has her own blank slate, the lot and the foundation of a home she lived in for 16 years. Like so many of her coastal neighbors, she`s not sure when, or if, she`ll rebuild. But she says her biggest worry is what uncontrolled development could do to her town.
LIZANA: My heart is here. I want to stay here. And my family is here. People want to come back, but if we don`t get anything to come back to, if our town turns into condominiums, casinos, tourists, whatever, then we`re out.
