An investigative News Source for the Gulf Coast: Local in Purpose, National in Relevance
While the rest of the country stares down the double-barrel of an unending recession and a deflated press corps, we in New Orleans have already felt the bullet. Nearly four years after the levees broke, vast swaths of the city have not been rebuilt. Homes still bear the tattoos of post-flood searches. Schools remain boarded. Nearly a third of the city’s pre-storm population is not back. Here at NOI, we have long believed that without a deepening of the city’s discourse, the city’s recovery will continue to falter.
In order to progress, city residents must engage with the dire issues we face — a broken criminal justice system, failing schools, an inadequate health care system and a level of disinvestment in our neighborhoods that would be unthinkable in most other American cities. WIth this in mind, Karen Gadbois and I are developing New Orleans Public Record. Working with us are other dedicated New Orleans writers including former T-P editor Jed Horne and author Ethan Brown.
The Public Record will be a digital news magazine focused on core issues facing the Gulf Coast — criminal justice, the economy, education, the environment, land use and politics. The mission of the site is to empower Gulf Coast communities with the information and analysis necessary to advocate for more accountable and just governance. It will do this by delivering groundbreaking, data-driven investigation and analysis on these issues that are so critical to New Orleans and other Gulf Coast communities as they continue to recover and regenerate.
Last week, our effort received support from The Zeitoun Foundation a New Orleans-based nonprofit providing grants to New Orleans organizations dedicated to rebuilding and fortifying the city and aiding its residents. The Zeitoun Foundation was formed in order to distribute the funds garnered from Zeitoun, a nonfiction book about the post-Katrina experience of a New Orleans family written by Dave Eggers and published in July of 2009. Transforma Projects provided support for NOPR’s citizen journalism training program. Transforma is a grant-making initiative funded by National Performance Network, with major contributions from the American Center Foundation, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Annenberg Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Joan Mitchell Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
NOPR will serve as a communication and research tool for a coalition of New Orleans-based initiatives to make decision-making, public policy, and legislation, at the local, state, regional, and federal levels more transparent and accountable to the public. The other members of the New Orleans Coalition on Open Governance include: The Neighborhood Partnership Network, The Citizen Participation Project, The Greater New Orleans Data Center, The Greater New Orleans After School Partnership, The New Orleans Institute, The Public Law Center, Louisiana Rebuilds, The Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana, Puentes New Orleans, The New Orleans Office of the Inspector General, The Urban League of Greater New Orleans and Nolastat. As a research and communication tool, NOPR will make public information more accessible and provide analysis to equip advocacy. The coalition is supported by a grant from George Soros’ Open Society Institute .
Our organization will be “local†in its purpose yet national in its impact, as the recovery of the Gulf Coast represents one of the greatest tests of our democracy in its history. The struggles of post-Katrina and Rita communities—decaying infrastructure, no-bid contracts handed out by local governments, massive displacement of population due to loss of housing—are experienced nearly everywhere in America right now. Similarly, reforms in charter education, public housing and environmental protection that have emerged in the region over the past three years are instructive to communities around the country. In addition to the national relevance of Public Record’s content, its organizational structure would serve as a model for other regions seeking a forum for data-driven, analytic journalism at a time when access to information is expanding, but the forums for engagement shrinking.
In addition to articles, slide shows, videos and map created by regular contributors and citizen journalists, we will regularly publish opinion pieces from outside contributors.
Every issue of the publication will reflect the site’s mission of empowering Gulf Coast residents with the information and analysis necessary to advocate for more accountable and just governance. We hope that you will support us in our mission.
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COMMENTS
This sounds fantastic — I’m really looking forward to what y’all dig up. Best of luck.
Looking forward to reading more!