Andres Duany Fixes Mississippi

The guy who helped launch the new urbanist concept is working with Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour on how to redevelop the hurricane-damaged Gulf Coast, says USA Today.

More than 100 architects, planners, transportation specialists, etc. from around the country are meeting in Mississippi today to talk about how to rebuild 11 communities along 120 miles of coastline. Besides the enormous scale of the damage, New Urbanists like Duany will have to overcome that peculiar Mississippi resistance to anything that comes from the mouths of non-Mississippians.

"Mississippi has a chip on its shoulder," said Marty Wiseman, director of the Stennis Institute for Government at Mississippi State, tells USA Today. "We want help, but we don't want people to tell us what to do."

Says the story:

Duany says the key is to create incentives for developers to build the way a community wants.

"The developers will do as told so long as the path is easier," he says. "Right now, the easiest path is building junk. We'd like to rebalance that through pre-permitting. Nothing will be imposed. ... Everything is incentive-based."