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| Exploring the Future of Our Cities | Exploring the Future of Our Cities |
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| NEW ORLEANS — How do the greatest cities succeed? | NEW ORLEANS — How do the greatest cities succeed? |
| The question could not come at a more critical time, as cities around the world face challenges — and opportunities — unimagined in human history. By some estimates, 68 percent of the world’s population will live in cities by 2050. Will city dwellers have sufficient housing? Can police forces cope? Will food distribution be adequate? What about the effects of climate change? Will technology provide the answers? | The question could not come at a more critical time, as cities around the world face challenges — and opportunities — unimagined in human history. By some estimates, 68 percent of the world’s population will live in cities by 2050. Will city dwellers have sufficient housing? Can police forces cope? Will food distribution be adequate? What about the effects of climate change? Will technology provide the answers? |
| Experts across an array of disciplines are meeting in New Orleans to tackle these and other questions at the Cities for Tomorrow conference hosted by The New York Times and the NOLA Media Group, publishers of The Times-Picayune and NOLA.com. | Experts across an array of disciplines are meeting in New Orleans to tackle these and other questions at the Cities for Tomorrow conference hosted by The New York Times and the NOLA Media Group, publishers of The Times-Picayune and NOLA.com. |
| Convening the event in New Orleans could not be more meaningful. This year, the city is celebrating its 300th anniversary — and its resilience in the face of three centuries of extraordinary physical and cultural adversity. Its latest catastrophe occurred just 13 years ago, when Hurricane Katrina breached the city’s flawed storm defenses and left a devastated New Orleans behind. | Convening the event in New Orleans could not be more meaningful. This year, the city is celebrating its 300th anniversary — and its resilience in the face of three centuries of extraordinary physical and cultural adversity. Its latest catastrophe occurred just 13 years ago, when Hurricane Katrina breached the city’s flawed storm defenses and left a devastated New Orleans behind. |
| Among the conference guests are policy and government officials, entrepreneurs, cultural and sports figures, thought leaders, and industry executives. | Among the conference guests are policy and government officials, entrepreneurs, cultural and sports figures, thought leaders, and industry executives. |
| Topics include the race among tech companies of all kinds, along with venture capitalists, to invest in urban areas large and small — like Amazon’s plan to move to New York and suburban Washington; efforts to promote environmental resilience with an eye toward social equity; techniques for working effectively with state, federal and even international counterparts to advance local interests; thoughts on conquering the urban income divide; and the impact of athletes-as-activists on cities and the nation. | Topics include the race among tech companies of all kinds, along with venture capitalists, to invest in urban areas large and small — like Amazon’s plan to move to New York and suburban Washington; efforts to promote environmental resilience with an eye toward social equity; techniques for working effectively with state, federal and even international counterparts to advance local interests; thoughts on conquering the urban income divide; and the impact of athletes-as-activists on cities and the nation. |
| On a lighter note, the conference is acknowledging the food and music scenes that have helped make New Orleans so famous. | On a lighter note, the conference is acknowledging the food and music scenes that have helped make New Orleans so famous. |
| Some of the guests include the mayors of the cities of New Orleans, San Diego and Seattle; Mitch Landrieu, a former mayor of New Orleans who was the state’s lieutenant governor during Hurricane Katrina; Steven Case, a venture capitalist; Walter Isaacson, an author and professor at Tulane University; Grant Hill, co-owner of the Atlanta Hawks; Adam Silver, commissioner of the N.B.A.; Stefano Boeri, architect and city planner; Emeril Lagasse, the celebrated chef; and Jon Batiste, bandleader and musical director of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.” | Some of the guests include the mayors of the cities of New Orleans, San Diego and Seattle; Mitch Landrieu, a former mayor of New Orleans who was the state’s lieutenant governor during Hurricane Katrina; Steven Case, a venture capitalist; Walter Isaacson, an author and professor at Tulane University; Grant Hill, co-owner of the Atlanta Hawks; Adam Silver, commissioner of the N.B.A.; Stefano Boeri, architect and city planner; Emeril Lagasse, the celebrated chef; and Jon Batiste, bandleader and musical director of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.” |
| Speculation about the 2020 presidential field is already heating up, and Mr. Landrieu has been mentioned as one of more than 30 potential Democratic candidates. But in the conference’s opening panel on Thursday evening with Dean Baquet, the executive editor of The Times, Mr. Landrieu declined to answer a direct question about whether he would run. | Speculation about the 2020 presidential field is already heating up, and Mr. Landrieu has been mentioned as one of more than 30 potential Democratic candidates. But in the conference’s opening panel on Thursday evening with Dean Baquet, the executive editor of The Times, Mr. Landrieu declined to answer a direct question about whether he would run. |
| “Probably not, but if I change my mind, you’re going to be the first to know,” he said, before rushing off to catch a plane. Maggie Astor | “Probably not, but if I change my mind, you’re going to be the first to know,” he said, before rushing off to catch a plane. Maggie Astor |
| Mr. Lagasse and Barbara Lynch are two of America’s most successful chefs. But that success comes at a price. In a conversation with Sam Sifton, food editor at The Times, both offered a grim take on the pressure that real estate developers are putting on restaurateurs across the nation. | |
| “Boston is brutal right now, because we’re going through this really huge growth spurt,” said Ms. Lynch, who owns eight restaurants in the city and has won three James Beard Awards. | “Boston is brutal right now, because we’re going through this really huge growth spurt,” said Ms. Lynch, who owns eight restaurants in the city and has won three James Beard Awards. |
| She sees developers latch on to young chefs eager for their own restaurants, but then they lock the chefs into high rent, she said, and demand 6 percent of sales. “They’re using your name,” she said. | She sees developers latch on to young chefs eager for their own restaurants, but then they lock the chefs into high rent, she said, and demand 6 percent of sales. “They’re using your name,” she said. |
| Mr. Lagasse, whose restaurant empire has its headquarters in New Orleans with outposts in Florida, Las Vegas and Pennsylvania, also complained about being squeezed by rising real estate costs. | Mr. Lagasse, whose restaurant empire has its headquarters in New Orleans with outposts in Florida, Las Vegas and Pennsylvania, also complained about being squeezed by rising real estate costs. |
| “We as an organization have had to make a decision,” he said. “We’re not going to do that. We’re not going to renew that lease.” Todd A. Price, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune | “We as an organization have had to make a decision,” he said. “We’re not going to do that. We’re not going to renew that lease.” Todd A. Price, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune |
| Cities that have been through disaster learn one important lesson: “Nature wins.” | |
| That succinct message came from Edward M. Emmett, the county judge for Harris County, Tex., which includes Houston, on a panel with Carmen Yulín Cruz, the mayor of the city of San Juan, P.R., and LaToya Cantrell, the mayor of New Orleans. | |
| These local leaders agree that while you can’t fight nature in terms of the disasters that have hit their homes — Hurricanes Harvey, Maria and Katrina — you can learn to live with it, even as climate change promises to make such crises even worse in the future. | |
| “It’s recognizing that you have to look at stormwater management as a system,” Ms. Cantrell said. “You can’t pump your way out of it; it’s not just pumps and power.” | |
| Instead, she added, preparing for disasters and recovering from weather challenges requires many different strategies including “holding that rainwater, keeping the flow from going into the drains faster, raising your homes above the flood line.” | |
| Of course, Ms. Cruz said, understanding the challenge doesn’t make it easy to address. “You have to sort of fly the plane and fix it at the same time.” | |
| Dealing with the challenges of weather and climate requires a new way of seeing the world, Judge Emmett said. Texans have seen themselves, historically, as being in a battle with nature. “We were going to tame nature, by gum,” he said. “We were going to build and keep growing.” | |
| Now the realization is that people have to “stay out of nature’s way,” even though too many people still live not only in the floodplain, but also in the floodway, putting themselves directly at risk. “Texas is big on freedom,” he said sardonically. | |
| Ms. Cruz said disaster recovery meant “engaging in a massive battle over gentrification.” Poor people can be displaced in a recovery as speculators buy cheap land hoping to make a score. | |
| Ms. Cantrell said the rules regarding recovery could work against those of limited means, since recovery money is often tied to the value of a damaged home before a storm. | |
| “No matter where you live, Sheetrock costs the same,” she said, and so the income disparities grow worse even in the process of rebuilding. She recommended “gap financing” to address the issues, and to keep gentrification from driving people out of their neighborhoods. | |
| The most important message of rebuilding, Ms. Cruz said, is “making sure people understand that they can come back and that this is their home.” John Schwartz | |
| It’s not the type of crime that typically ends in arrest: a murder in a parking garage after a suspected drug deal. But a camera from the New Orleans Police Department’s $40 million camera system caught high-definition images of the probable killer. | |
| The department disseminated clear images and made an arrest within a few days, Michael S. Harrison, the police superintendent, told the privacy expert Julia Angwin. | |
| “That’s how we are able to go to surviving victims or families and tell them that justice has been served,” Superintendent Harrison told Ms. Angwin in a panel discussion on Friday on the future of policing. | |
| Though Ms. Angwin raised civil-liberties concerns about the use of the cameras and their oversight, Superintendent Harrison, who is usually reserved, was uncharacteristically enthusiastic. “Any sheriff or law enforcement executive who does not have this is living in the Dark Ages and working behind the times,” he said. | |
| Superintendent Harrison said the city’s 300 cameras were placed on public poles on public streets and that staff members from the city’s Real Time Crime Monitoring Center tapped into the images only when prompted by a 911 call reporting crime in the area. He calls it a “crime-fighting tool,” not surveillance. | |
| He says that residents and businesses are now able to buy their own cameras, and that they opt into use by the center to deal with routine nuisance crimes like drug dealing and illegal dumping. “Who doesn’t want to identify the murderer?” Ms. Angwin asked. “But what about the protester, the dumper?” | |
| Ms. Angwin also asked about oversight. How could citizens be assured that protocols were being followed, she asked. And did everyone in New Orleans know how to deal with images generated by the camera system? | |
| “We have a clear system in the offline world,” she said. Probable cause is clearly defined in court, for instance. “And we know what happens afterward: how to challenge that warrant in court.” | |
| Dealing with legal matters generated from online images is much more murky, she said. Katy Reckdahl |