The phrase “The Perfect Storm” has come to mean a lot of things.  Most notably the unique and singular coming together of disparate forces to mark a disaster.  In that context the City of New Orleans experienced the perfect storm not just from the meteorological confluence of isobars that would create hurricane Katrina, but in the impact and aftermath of a city torn by racial strife, economic division, identity politics, poor management and even poorer public policy.

It it’s true that one should never let a crisis go to waste, many within New Orleans did not.  In Katrina they saw an opportunity to remake the city anew.  But in whose image and at the cost of whose future?

This is the New Orleans that Gary Rivlin captures in Katrina: After the Flood

My conversation with Gary Rivlin: