Archive for Preservation in Print
A Big Loss for the New Orleans Community
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Pam Dashiell
We at the Preservation Resource Center are deeply saddened to say goodbye to one of our close allies, Pam Dashiell. Pam passed away on November 30, 2009. She was a tireless activist for the Holy Cross and the Lower Ninth Ward neighborhoods, as well as a member of the Neighborhood Conservation Districts Committee 
. We have enjoyed working with Pam over the years.
“I knew Pam from the late 1980’s and was thrilled to get her involved with PRC. Pam is one of the reasons we developed our partnership with Holy Cross, in 2003. We will miss her tremendously, as will the neighborhood and the city as a whole.”
– Patty Gay, Executive Director of the Preservation Resource Center.
Pam left some very big shoes to fill in our community.
Please see the next issue of Preservation in Print for a full write up on Pam’s contributions.
The Public Works Mosaic: Stimulus Now, Dividends Later
Posted by: | CommentsThe Public Works Mosaic: Stimulus Now, Dividends Later
Reprinted from the March 2009 issue of Preservation in Print
By Robert D. Leighninger, Jr.
President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus package is the most comprehensive public works program since the New Deal of the 1930s. The bill includes more than just highways and bridges, which were the focus of a more recent 1950s public investment blockbuster that built the Interstate Highway system. The bill includes cyber-technology efforts like broadband Internet access and better management of medical information, energy efficiency and conservation projects, aid to states for healthcare and education, better unemployment benefits and more tax cuts. The bill is intended to create an immediate boost to the economy and long-range dividends from shoring up crumbling infrastructure. In both regards one can look at the New Deal for inspiration, guidance and caution.
Public memory of the New Deal is quite limited, even among experts. Few realize how many and varied the New Deal’s Depression-fighting interventions were. There were at least 12 separate building initiatives, with different organizational structures, leadership and goals. All deserve closer inspection because all had notable successes and equally important limitations. Critics point out correctly that the New Deal was an amazing hodge-podge of often contradictory initiatives and did not end the Depression; a World War was required for that. They note that a roaring recession in 1937 almost wiped out the gains made in the first four years. But they don’t add that the recession was caused by FDR’s misguided attempt to balance the budget by cutting the public works programs. He soon realized the mistake, and by the time the war came along, the numbers were moving back in the right directions.
Click here for more great photos of WPA projects around New Orleans! |
But whether the New Deal ended the Depression or not is an irrelevant debate. The important thing is that the public works programs did have an immediate effect on the economy and did leave behind a lasting legacy of physical and cultural infrastructure, which we have been using for more than 70 years. In Louisiana, 11 parish courthouses, whole university campuses, scores of school buildings, a remodeled French Market, the Huey P. Long Bridge, water and sewer systems that prevented public health crises in many towns and cities, City Park in New Orleans, and Charity Hospital are a few examples of New Deal contributions to the state landscape.