OM DENNE EPISODE
Cities across the country are confronting one of the defining questions of our era: Who has the power to decide how a city prepares for – and survives – climate change? And New Orleans is a city that lives on the direct shoreline of that question. It is a waterfront city below sea level, ringed by industrial corridors, and still managing the health and economic ripple effects of Hurricane Katrina 21 years later. Yet it is also a city of extraordinary cultural resilience and community ingenuity.
To begin our New Orleans city series, Kresge President and CEO Rip Rapson sits down with Helena Moreno, the current and 63rd Mayor of New Orleans, to discuss:
How stormwater management and ways of “living with water” are on the near-daily meeting docket
The opportunities she sees for New Orleans as an aerospace and biomedical hub
The importance, potential, and early successes of her investment in New Orleans East, including progress and success in small business development
Prevention strategies that have brought violent crime to a historic low
Finding efficiencies and partnerships after inheriting a $200 million dollar budget deficit, and how she is supporting programs that don’t traditionally fit under the umbrella of “essential city services”
How students are her biggest inspiration for keeping “this amazing historical magical city moving forward”
Next episode (out October 14th) we meet the first of our three featured New Orleans PathBreakers.
In this city series, we are talking to leaders across New Orleans who are building climate solutions with community self-determination. Next week Tracey and Jamie will be back in the host chairs and talking with Mina Seck, Community Food Director at Sprout, about who gets to control community land and build food sovereignty in New Orleans.
Subscribe to PathBreakers on [Spotify] | [Apple Podcasts] | [YouTube]
Learn more about Mayor Moreno: https://nola.gov/next/mayor/home/
Listen to all of Season 2 at https://pathbreakers.kresge.org
Host: Rip Rapson, President & CEO, Kresge Foundation
Co-Hosts: Tracey Pearson and Jamie Bennett
Producer: Juliet Hinely
Managing Editor: Krista Jahnke
Production support: Jennifer Kulczycki and Tracey Pearson
Video interview captured and edited by by Gumbo Productions
Logo animation: Collin Leix
Special thanks on this episode to Frederick "Wood" Delahoussaye and the team at Gallier Hall, Jennifer Kulczycki Director of External Affairs and Communications at Kresge, and to Kresge’s American Cities, Health and Environment Programs, especially Monica Valdes Lupi, Alejandra Hernandez and Jan Delatorre.
Thanks for listening! And please stay tuned for more from New Orleans.
