The other is less tangible -- the emotional attachment to a city or a neighborhood. There's a powerful human desire to return to that and restore that.

New Orleans was slowly sinking, literally and figuratively, well before Katrina.

That's what gives me the most confidence about its return. The cultural provenance of New Orleans stands out in a way that isn't true of other parts of the South. Having this identity that people care about could be critical, especially since there are events where the outside world looks in.

We're trying to conceive of a system aimed at reuniting communities through communications technology, ... The Resilient City: How Modern Cities Recover From Disaster.

That's what gives me the most confidence about its return, ... The cultural provenance of New Orleans stands out in a way that isn't true of other parts of the South. Having this identity that people care about could be critical, especially since there are events where the outside world looks in.

People say the city will recover, and the question is, whose city? Is it the city that the tourists see or is it the broader city that really only came to the nation's consciousness after the hurricane?