Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005, but in the subsequent ten years, the city has demonstrated both remarkable resilience and frustrating stagnation. In Reforming New Orleans, Peter F. Burns and Matthew O. Thomas chart the city’s recovery and assess how successfully officials at the local, state, and federal levels transformed the Big Easy in the wake of disaster. Focusing on reforms in four key sectors of urban governance―economic development, education, housing, and law enforcement―both before and after Katrina, they find lessons for cities hit by sudden shocks, such as natural disasters or large-scale financial crises.One of their key insights is that post-disaster recovery tends to limit local control. State and federal officials, national foundations, and local actors excluded by pre-Katrina politics used their resources and authority to displace entrenched local interests and implement a public agenda focused on institutional and governmental change. Burns and Thomas also make clear reform in New Orleans was already underway before Katrina hit, but that it had focused largely on upper- and middle-class residents, a trend that accelerated after the storm. The market-centered nature of the reforms have ensured that they largely benefited city and regional elites while not significantly aiding the city’s working-class and impoverished populations. Thus reform has come at a cost and that cost, in the long term, could undermine the political gains of the post-Katrina era.

Reforming New Orleans: The Contentious Politics of Change in the Big Easy

History

Burns, Peter F.

Thomas, Matthew O.

Americas

Cornell University Press

On any given day, there are over 100,000 youthful offenders held in a variety of residential placements, from community-based wilderness experience programs or group homes to high security facilities that are almost indistinguishable from prisons. In addition, thousands of juveniles are incarcerated in adult jails or prisons and some will serve the rest of their lives behind bars. Despite a 200-year history of holding juveniles in these settings, there is a gap in our knowledge about what actually occurs within these places. There are assaults, murders and suicides, as well as staff and resident misconduct, medical misadventures, unintentional injuries and mismanagement. On the other hand, there are thousands of hard-working, dedicated, and professional staff members in these facilities who enthusiastically work toward the rehabilitation of these young people. The contributors to this volume examine some of the key issues and trends within contemporary juvenile corrections, highlight promising rehabilitative practices, and identify the challenges of working with these youth.

Juvenile Corrections

Politics & Social Sciences

Ruddell, Rick

Social Sciences

Newgate Press

Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005, but in the subsequent ten years, the city has demonstrated both remarkable resilience and frustrating stagnation. In Reforming New Orleans, Peter F. Burns and Matthew O. Thomas chart the city’s recovery and assess how successfully officials at the local, state, and federal levels transformed the Big Easy in the wake of disaster. Focusing on reforms in four key sectors of urban governance―economic development, education, housing, and law enforcement―both before and after Katrina, they find lessons for cities hit by sudden shocks, such as natural disasters or large-scale financial crises.
One of their key insights is that post-disaster recovery tends to limit local control. State and federal officials, national foundations, and local actors excluded by pre-Katrina politics used their resources and authority to displace entrenched local interests and implement a public agenda focused on institutional and governmental change. Burns and Thomas also make clear reform in New Orleans was already underway before Katrina hit, but that it had focused largely on upper- and middle-class residents, a trend that accelerated after the storm. The market-centered nature of the reforms have ensured that they largely benefited city and regional elites while not significantly aiding the city’s working-class and impoverished populations. Thus reform has come at a cost and that cost, in the long term, could undermine the political gains of the post-Katrina era.

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Books by Thomas, Matthew O.