New Orleans Office of Recovery Management (NOORM) unveiled a $1.06 billion plan on Thursday March 29, 2007 to rebuild the city, saying they could no longer wait for federal aid 19 months after Hurricane Katrina.

The plan targets 17 "recovery zones" for commercial development, including hard hit areas such as the Lower Ninth Ward and New Orleans East.

I think we'll call this one the Blakely Plan for lack of another name. It draws from the $14 billion Unified New Orleans Plan (wishlist) but pretty much abandons the Westbank and other areas that had just traditional storm damage.

Emphasis on traditional marketplaces is commendable but like much of Blakely's work so far, it is hastily devised, factually impoverished, politically motivated and just plain dangerous given the performance and capability of the Corps in providing flood protection.

Then on April 24, 2006 NOORM announced a $1.5 Million Awarded to the Office of Recovery Management Funded Jointly by the Rockefeller Foundation, Ford Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to further integrate recommendations from the Unified New Orleans Plan (UNOP) and other planning initiatives into the recovery activities of city agencies.