The Razing Tide of the Port of New Orleans: Power, Ideology, Economic Growth and the Destruction of Community

Abstract

This study aims to contribute to a critical diagnosis of Hurricane Katrina s impact on two communities in the New Orleans area: the Lower Ninth Ward and St. Bernard through a systematic inquiry into the built environment and social inequality. A socio-historical investigation of the Port of New Orleans and its major 20th-century infrastructure projects, two ship canals called the Industrial Canal and Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet which transformed the built environment of the Lower Ninth Ward and St. Bernard, is presented. The historical analysis focuses on the political power and ideological discourses of the growth coalition that ruled the port through a nonelected board known as the Dock Board. The author argues that business elites affiliated with the board remade the built environment in their own interest without consideration of the local communities. The implications of this history for a critical understanding of Hurricane Katrina are explored.