A delegation of five urban planners, architects and developers from South Africa are coming to Baton Rouge tomorrow to learn best practices from the LSU AgCenter, the East Baton Rouge Parish Housing Authority and the Mid City Redevelopment Alliance.
With a theme of “Urban Revitalization,” the exchange is being coordinated by the New Orleans Citizen Diplomacy Council—a nonprofit that, among other tasks, arranges professional appointments and cultural activities for leaders sent to New Orleans through the U.S. Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program, which allows international visitors to share ideas and best practices with their professional counterparts.
Among this specific group’s main objectives: 1) Examine projects that mobilize citizens in distressed neighborhoods to support positive and sustainable revitalization efforts, with a focus on creative economy projects; and 2) analyze strategies that support gentrification without wholesale displacement of the poor from distressed neighborhoods.
Susannah Coolidge, executive director of the NOCDC, says the decision for the South African delegation to meet with the particular Baton Rouge organizations came from the state department in Washington, D.C., which could not be reached for comment prior to this morning’s deadline.
“They did some research on their own,” Coolidge says, adding delegates arrived in New Orleans yesterday and will be in Louisiana through Saturday.
They will begin Thursday at the LSU AgCenter’s LaHouse Home and Landscape Resource Center, a showcase home built and designed to be energy efficient, moisture-resistant, windproof, flood-hardy and tailored for Louisiana’s subtropical climate.
Afterward, delegates will meet with J. Daniels of the EBRPHA to hear about the organization’s plans to improve the historically neglected Ardendale neighborhood, as well as the $30 million grant it received from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
“I hope we demonstrate to them our resiliency, ability to learn from recovery, and strategies to mitigate adverse effects of disasters,” says Daniels, “as well as our innovation—being able to leverage federal, state and local resources to create better communities.”
From the Mid City Redevelopment Alliance, the group will learn about community-building and improvement projects.
