In the Fall of 2005, in the months after Hurricane Katrina’s devastating hit on the Gulf Coast, a group of civic-minded New Orleans residents formed the Bayou District Foundation. Their vision was to assist in the rebirth of the City of New Orleans by helping to restore the areas in and around New Orleans City Park. Today that vision is a reality. Bayou District Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit whose members include highly engaged community leaders within both the City of New Orleans and the State of Louisiana.
Bayou District Foundation is constructing a mixed income residential community on the site of the former St. Bernard Public Housing Development and in surrounding neighborhoods. Bayou District Foundation is working with New Schools for New Orleans to introduce a K-8 charter to the St. Bernard neighborhood and is partnering with the City of New Orleans and the Recovery School District to bring a world class college prep high school to the Bayou District. The Bayou District Foundation effort also includes the restoration of New Orleans City Park’s recreational and golf facilities.
The East Lake Model
The Bayou District Foundation concept is based on the successful model of the East Lake Foundation in Atlanta, Georgia. The famous East Lake Golf Club, where golf legend Bobby Jones played his first and last round of golf, had deteriorated throughout the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. Crime, drug trafficking, and poverty in the surrounding area had increased to the point where one police officer called the neighborhood "Little Vietnam.” In 1995, through the East Lake Foundation, Mr. Cousins created a public/private partnership with the Atlanta Housing Authority and set out to rebuild and renew the neighborhood through a mixed-income model, while simultaneously restoring the golf club to its former glory. As the project developed, a charter school and a YMCA were added to the plan. East Lake is now a thriving mixed income community with a great local school system bordering public and private golf facilities. These facilities provide recreational avenues to the neighborhood with profits from golf operations directed to support programming within the East Lake Community. The Bayou District Foundation, through the assistance of the East Lake Foundation, is working to replicate the East Lake model in New Orleans.
St. Bernard Housing Community
Following the passage of the U.S Housing Act of 1937, the St. Bernard Project was built to serve low-income New Orleans residents in the 1940s. Initially, the housing community consisted of 744 units in 74 buildings constructed on 31 acres of land. St. Bernard expanded in 1949, adding 700 more units. With this expansion St. Bernard Housing Community became the largest public housing development in New Orleans.
St. Bernard initially was more than a housing project. A support system of necessary community services slowly became part of the area. Among these were the Union Baptist Theological Seminary and Asia Baptist Church, which operated a day care center. Built in 1980, the St. Bernard Area Community Development Center was an effective educational, social service and recreational resource for families in the area.
Despite the positive attributes of the development, the St. Bernard Housing Community became widely recognized locally and nationally for its deterioration—both physically and as a safe community. In the two decades prior to Katrina, the St. Bernard Housing community saw the number of available housing units drop from 1400 to 900 because of poor maintenance and upkeep. Overcrowding became a huge issue in addition to a precipitous rise in violent crime as the drug trade overwhelmed the local community.
In addition to these serious problems, the St. Bernard Housing Community was serviced by some of the weakest public schools in the City of New Orleans. The two schools located in the community, Vernal J. Waters Elementary School and Phillips Jr. High School, were underperforming academically and had extreme security, maintenance and financial issues. Realizing the need for transformation, KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) was awarded a charter by the Orleans Parish School Board to take over Phillips Jr. High School thirty days prior to Hurricane Katrina.
Hurricane Katrina
The entire Gentilly and Bayou St. John community was devestated by Hurricane katrina on August 29th, 2005. The St. Bernard Public Housing Community was flooded by with 4 to 8 feet of water. The two schools located in the community, Vernal J. Waters Elementry and Phillips Jr. High School were also substantially damaged. Flooded for over 3 weeks, the buildings and schools that make up this community were damaged beyond repair.
Prior to Katrina only 963 units out of 1300 units within the St. Bernard Housing Community were eligable to be occupied. Given this fact and the enormus damage cuased by the hurricane, the City Council of New Orleans voted in December 2007 to raze the St. Bernard Housing Project and three other projects around the city. The buildings were demolished in the 1st and 2nd quarter of 2008 and a 'clean site' was delivered in July 2008.
New Orleans City Park
Just west of the St. Bernard Housing Community lies New Orleans City Park. New Orleans City Park is the one of the largest urban parks in the United States at over 1300 acres. The park has served as a cultural, recreational and athletic center for the City of New Orleans for more than one hundred years. City Park has hosted concerts by everyone from The Beatles to Pearl Jam and had active softball, baseball, golf, soccer and tennis leagues. City Park was also the site of countless neighborhood and family gatherings, in addition to other cultural and athletic events like Celebration in the Oaks and the Crescent City Classic 5K. 
In terms of acreage, golf dominated the City Park footprint. Three 18 hole golf courses and a full driving range took up over 700 acres of land. Hundreds of live oaks and magnolias filled City Park while natural bayous and thousands of flowers added fishing and bird watching to the list of activities.
Moving Forward
With early support from the New Orleans-based Fore!Kids Foundation, the Baton Rouge Area Foundation and the Greater New Orleans Foundation, the Bayou District Foundation's story continues as more and more join in the effort to rebuild New Orleans. Tom Cousins of East Lake Foundation and former President George H.W. Bush serve as Bayou District Foundation's Honorary Chairmen, and even renowned Chef Emeril Lagasse of New Orleans has joined the effort. 
In December, 2008, political and civil leaders joined with former St. Bernard Housing residents to break ground for what will become close to 1,000 mixed-income housing residences. The building project has been assigned to Columbia Residential, a national leader in mixed-income residential construction, leasing and property management. Columbia predicts the community's first new tenants will move in by the Fall 2009.
Since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, an entire American city has struggled to recover, readjust and rebuild. However, the Bayou District Foundation’s goals go beyond “re-doing” anything. The Bayou District Foundation hopes to join with community leaders to serve as an "instrument for change" to make New Orleans even better than it was before Katrina. Bayou District Foundation will transform people's lives, providing them with the opportunities that all citizens should enjoy and that New Orleans had not provided in the past. Bayou District Foundation will provide quality housing, education and recreation for the New Orleans residents who truly make this city a place unlike any other.
