Dear John ,

I am a New Orleans native, an assistant professor in geography, and knowledgeable about transportation and land use issues. I was asked to submit ideas to you. Here is a bulleted set of ideas that I have thought about extensively for 20 years or more.

• Put knowledgeable people from New Orleans and from SE Louisiana on your committee.
• Put people on your committee who do not have an interest in profit
• Focus on passenger rail between New Orleans and Baton Rouge as a framework for densification and redevelopment
• Jefferson-St Bernard and Orleans need to be merged into one entity
• Ultimately the "metropolitan area" of New Orleans should really be the Baton Rouge-New Orleans metropolitan area.
• Baton Rouge should densify without expanding its physical footprint.
• Lakeview, Gentilly, Nola East and most of St Bernard should be turned into wetlands. Eventually, Metairie and Kenner along the Lakefront should also come down.
• The natural levee should densify by building on surface parking lots. The density should be the scale of the French Quarter
• The new housing would have mixed income, mixed uses. The African American middle class of Gentilly should get priority for re-locating on the natural levee Uptown.
• The levees system should be reduced in scope and managed as a leaner, more efficient network protecting the natural levees areas
• Local agriculture and seafood should be promoted and traditional rural-urban divides need to be rethought.
• Crevasses should be allowed up and down the Mississippi River to replenish the backswamps and marshes.
• Shipping should continue, but at a smaller scale. Smaller ships. Port activity dispersed between New Orleans-Baton Rouge, and New Iberia Area
• Atchafalaya should get more flow of the Mississippi
• DO NOT support Third Delta Conveyance - it is not the answer.
• New Orleans needs to focus on bicycles and transit, not roads and parking
• While tourism should continue as an economic pillar, it should be focused on eco-tourism and culture of Louisiana, and not gambling or drinking
• Harrahs should be turned into a museum about this disaster, how it happened, and the relationship between humans and the environment
• The economy should also focus on universities and the arts. UNO should be moved downtown where the high-rise office buildings currently stand empty and useless.