When the federal levees in New Orleans failed in August 2005, approximately 80 percent of the city was flooded while the business district and main tourist centers were relatively undamaged. Many neighborhoods were inundated, left in ruin, making Hurricane Katrina the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history.
Now, with more than $1.63 billion invested in long-term neighborhood revitalization, there is construction in every neighborhood in New Orleans: From police and fire stations, hospitals and clinics, roads, schools, community centers and libraries to recreation centers, parks, playgrounds, pools and athletic stadiums. Ten years after Hurricane Katrina, the city is rapidly progressing and the New Orleans Recreation Development Commission (NORDC) is on its way to becoming a world-class recreation department. Under Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s administration, more than $157 million has been committed to new and improved recreation facilities; the recreation department’s budget has tripled; programming for youth, teens and seniors has increased; and new policies and training have been adopted in an effort to create an organizational culture of excellence.
An Already Broken System
The immediate aftermath of the Hurricane Katrina shed light on an already broken New Orleans Recreation Department (NORD) that had been experiencing a variety of issues, including high turnover among leadership, diminishing community relations and aging infrastructure long plagued by a dire lack of funding. In 2008, the city council hired a consulting firm to develop a report on best practices for parks and recreation. The findings of the report called for the overhauling of the NORD and produced a series of recommendations by an appointed advisory board.
One of the many recommendations included a proposal to establish a 12-member commission, supported by a voter-approved property tax, that would start at a millage rate of 2.5 and eventually grow to 7.5. The advisory board also recognized the vastly different experiences at NORD sites across the city. There was tremendous inequity and disparity between playgrounds in certain neighborhoods, and Hurricane Katrina exasperated the inequalities.
By early 2010, the city’s immediate financial outlook was bleak — with less and less funding budgeted for NORD, the financial shortfall prevented the department from offering a wide variety of programming and a plan for rebuilding the department was not firmly in place.
A New Era
Mayor Landrieu took office in May 2010 with a vision for creating lasting change and rebuilding the city better than ever before. Mayor Landrieu believed that all residents of New Orleans deserved a world-class recreational experience and the administration moved quickly to deliver on hopes and promises for a better recreation department.
Also in 2010, the New Orleans Recreation Development Foundation was established to stimulate public interest in and raise and distribute funds to benefit the creation, preservation and maintenance of recreational facilities and other leisure programs and activities in New Orleans, including supporting the efforts of and raising and distributing funds for NORDC. In 2011, the city council moved to change the charter, allowing for the creation of the NORDC.
The primary goals of the public-private partnership include creating a sustainable, permanent governance structure; providing governance that includes key stakeholders from the private sector, schools and city government; and creating a structure to allow the recreation department to leverage city resources with private funds, grants and other funding opportunities.
Capital Improvements: Since 2010, NORDC has grown from four to 10 recreation centers and, each year, continues to be bigger and better with more facilities and improvements across the City of New Orleans. Many centers and playgrounds were demolished after Hurricane Katrina and are now replaced by brand new, state-of-the-art facilities where children and families can play and grow. Amenities at the various recreation centers include indoor and outdoor swimming pools, indoor and outdoor basketball courts, football stadiums, baseball stadiums, tennis centers, track and fields, commercial kitchen and concessions, fitness rooms, dance rooms, game rooms, senior centers, health clinics, multipurpose classrooms, reading rooms, music rooms and arts and crafts classroom
Athletics: From basketball and football, to cheerleading, tennis and volleyball, NORDC offers 10 organized sports to youth and teens ages 5–14.
Aquatics: In 2010, NORDC operated eight outdoor pools and zero indoor pools. This past summer, NORDC operated 15 pools — 12 outdoor and three indoor — and the summer pool schedule was extended an extra three weeks.
NORDC’s SPLASH! Swimming and Safety Program provided summer camp youth with a course to help improve swimming skills, confidence and water safety awareness. In summer 2015, 3,930 youth completed the SPLASH! Swimming and Safety Program. Weekly topics included safely entering a pool, moving in the water and swimming strokes.
Summer Programming: When Mayor Landrieu took office in 2010, he recognized the need for creating more opportunities for youth and teens to learn and grow during the summer months. At that time, NORDC only offered 12 youth summer camps and programming for teenagers was nonexistent.
This past summer, NORDC hosted 39 youth camps (ages 4–12) that served more than 3,900 kids across the city through partnerships with schools, nonprofits and faith-based organizations. The camp programming offered an array of academic, cultural and recreational activities, including free field trips to the Audubon Zoo, the Aquarium of the Americas and NORDC pools for swimming lessons.
NORDC also hosted 10 teen camps (ages 13–17) that served almost 1,200 teens across the city. In partnership with JOB 1, the city’s office of workforce development, teen camps offered local teenagers career exploration seminars to allow for exposure to a variety of fields. In addition, teens earned a $75-stipend per week.
In 2010, Share Our Strength, an organization started in 1984 by the brother and sister team of Bill and Debbie Shore — initially in response to the famine in Ethiopia, but which focuses today on making No Kid Hungry a reality in America — joined with Mayor Landrieu to launch the New Orleans “No Kid Hungry” campaign, a public-private partnership working to end childhood hunger. The campaign is working toward that goal by connecting kids to federal nutrition programs, including free school breakfast, free afterschool meals and free meals during the summer. This year, NORDC served more than 196,000 free nutritious breakfast and lunch meals to youth and teen camp participants.
Cultural and Special Programming: With music and dance as the fabric of the New Orleans culture, NORDC offers an array of dance, music and art classes to residents of all ages.
NORDC Teen Council: Launched in 2012 and funded by Chevron, the NORDC Teen Council empowers youth (ages 12–17) by developing a social growth environment through structured teen programs. These emerging leaders actively participate in civic and community engagement by designing and implementing city-wide teen programming. At each monthly NORDC Commission meeting, a teen is selected to address the commission with a report on recent and current activities. The teens also speak personally about what the Teen Council means to them. As a group, the council plans and implements monthly community service activities, monthly meeting discussions, guest speakers and social engagement activities.
Senior Programming: In addition to the many activities available for all ages, NORDC offers fitness, dance, choral classes, and special events exclusively for seniors 55-plus years young.
While the damage and destruction of Hurricane Katrina left an unforgettable mark on the City of New Orleans, undoubtedly one of the great successes to emerge in the storm’s aftermath is NORDC. With new leadership and governance, as well as unprecedented funding, the department is now poised for continuous improvement that will lead to national accreditation and innovative programming for all residents.
Sarah McLaughlin is the Director of Communications for the City of New Orleans.