How to do it right
Interestingly, the Unified New Orleans Plan is being funded through private donations, including $3.5 million from the Rockefeller Foundation. Judith Rodin, president of the Rockefeller Foundation, knows something about reviving neighborhoods. As the president of the University of Pennsylvania, she spearheaded the West Philadelphia Initiative, an all-out effort to pull the neighborhood around Penn back from the brink. Penn worked with residents and business owners to transform the area. Everyone who is familiar with West Philly knows the neighborhood was once a dump. All is changed there now.
The story of Penn’s urban leadership and collaboration with neighborhood residents and businesses is recounted in Chapter 5 of Designing Public Consensus.