Gentilly Project maps reconstruction efforts after hurricane Katrina
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—March 21, 2008
CONTACT: Kim Keating,
603-646-2733
HANOVER, N.H.—The highly anticipated results of the Gentilly Project, which completed its third mapping of the post-Hurricane Katrina reconstruction efforts of the Gentilly neighborhood in New Orleans, Louisiana, were shared with Gentilly residents yesterday at a gathering at the residence of Dartmouth alumnus and New Orleans resident Richard Tupler.
Project director Quintus Jett, senior research fellow at the Center for Digital Strategies at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, discussed levels of progress in reconstruction in the neighborhood. He compared the results to previous mappings of the district, which was home to roughly 45,000 residents prior to the hurricane. The results revealed the progress made in rebuilding and revitalizing the district since the Gentilly Project team last mapped the district in March of 2007.
The Gentilly Project was developed by Jett in an effort to develop an efficient system for mapping local conditions in recovering neighborhoods. "This project’s mission is to serve as catalyst, innovator, and prototype for future community disaster responses and recoveries, involving private citizens, NGOs, and social enterprises," he said.
Over the past week, the Gentilly Project—led by Jett and 10 college students from Dartmouth College's Tucker Foundation—teamed up with local residents to walk and map the 22 neighborhoods of Gentilly, an area that contains approximately 15,000 residences. The last two mappings were completed by similar groups of Dartmouth students.
Project teams walk the streets of Gentilly with special handheld devices, coding individual homes based on observations of reconstruction status—blighted and untouched homes, homes under construction, renovated or occupied homes, and vacant lots. This year, a new category was added: homes that have been gutted but appear to be dormant in construction efforts.
Residents and local business owners have used the data from the last two mappings to better allocate rebuilding resources and to help identify the progress of their own community, which provides incentives for residents to continue reconstruction efforts and for others to return to their communities. "Our mission is really about developing a sustainable process not just about collecting data," said Jett. The project aims to enable communities to drive their own recovery and rebuilding.
The Gentilly Project's efforts have drawn interest from developers looking to make decisions on where and how to invest in the area. For this third mapping, the Dartmouth team was joined by students and volunteers from other universities, including Princeton University and the University of New Orleans. Additionally, the project plans to collaborate with the City of New Orleans in its mapping efforts within the next week.
Founded in 1900, Tuck is the first graduate school of management in the country and consistently ranks among the top business schools worldwide. Tuck remains distinctive among the world's great business schools by combining human scale with global reach, rigorous coursework with experiences requiring teamwork, and valued traditions with innovation.
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