Dutch Dialogues Principles in the New York Times: It Takes a Neighborhood

Author and urban critic Roberta Brandes Gratz shares her perspective on New Orleans' urban renewal in her article It Takes a Neighborhood, published on NYTimes.com on September 29th, 2010.  Small-scale, incremental changes enacted across the city, she says, can have far-reaching impacts.  The potential of Dutch Dialogue proposals at the scale of the home and lot are one such example:

"The big question, of course, was how to take things to the next level, how to use the strength of local involvement to spur citywide change. Architect David Waggoner, for example, demonstrated how a waterfront city like New Orleans could “embrace water” by adopting an “ecological” instead of an “engineering” model for infrastructure. It doesn’t take the Army Corps of Engineers, he said. Both on a backyard and citywide level, Waggoner showed how many small adjustments in the landscape—uncovered bayous, porous driveways and streets and bioswales, among others—can become the basis of a more protective infrastructure."