I found last week in New Orleans that you only have to drive about a half mile from the French Quarter, down Decatur Street and past Cafe Du Monde, making a left on Elysian Fields Avenue, to find single-family houses boarded-up and still bearing the spray-painted markings that are the hallmark of Katrina-affected homes. The question in my mind becomes, in circumstances such as these, what needs to fall into place in a city to bring people back home?

First, warning and apologies that this post is about as looong as the Mississippi River. For heck's sake, it's so long it has subheads. I'm talking seven screens long at 1024x768-- might want to grab a drink first. But rebuilding the city is just such a rich problem and so vast in scope.

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