Now, as the long recovery period begins, many still are daunted by a threshold question: Where do we start?

We think the answer lies in another threshold question: What are our priorities?

To answer that question, Gambit Weekly set out to ask as dozens of New Orleanians -- from a wide array of backgrounds and disciplines -- three fundamental questions about the rebuilding process:

• What should our priorities be?

• What elements of New Orleans must we preserve at all costs?

• What mistakes must we avoid at all costs?

The first step was tracking down local opinion-makers, business owners, artists, musicians, civic leaders and just plain folks in the aftermath of the New Orleans Diaspora. We ourselves had been homeless for almost two months. Finding respondents was difficult, but engaging those we found was easy. Everyone we located couldn't wait to help weave this tapestry of thought about New Orleans' future.

Maybe that's the real first step each of us can take: getting engaged in the process.

"We need, each of us, to take a serious inventory of our personal and collective pride in our city and each do our part to make that better," says Jonathan Ferrara, an artist who also owns Jonathan Ferrara Gallery. "We have a unique opportunity to make it better, but we can also screw it up."

That mix of hope and warning was a common thread.

"It's a new day in New Orleans, and we have the opportunity to paint a new picture of our city," says civil engineer and businessman Roy Glapion Jr. "This picture will represent the new New Orleans. Our old picture had many errors that seemed impossible to solve, such as crime and education issues. My concern is who's holding the paintbrushes that will define our city for the next century?"

The sense of opportunity was another recurring theme.

"Out of the tremendous pain and suffering that came at the hands of this catastrophic event, New Orleans now has the distinct, unprecedented opportunity of a second chance to right its wrongs, to replace its disparities with equalities, to integrate its segregated communities, to rank our children and their educational needs at the top of our priority lists," says Lynette Colin, branch manager of the HOPE Community Credit Union in Central City. "I pray that we seize this opportunity to make New Orleans what it should be -- one of the top ranking cities in the nation."

Others showed their grit.

"Adversity reveals character, it does not build it. I still believe in this city," says Rod West, chief counsel for Entergy.

Chef John Besh echoed that sentiment: "We don't need to sell our city -- just clean it up and it will return, better than ever. I've got everything riding on it."

"When we get discouraged, we need to remember that if our ancestors had quit when life got tough, none of us would be here," says Charlie Smith, a poet and lobbyist for the arts.

More than anything else, New Orleanians from all walks believe that the city must rebuild itself socially as well as physically and economically.

"New Orleans has the opportunity to become a model of urban renewal and revitalization," says Ron Forman, CEO of the Audubon Institute. "We must hold true to what makes us unique -- our culture, our history, our diversity, our lust for life. At the same time, we must fix what was and is broken -- our schools and the threat (and reality) of violent crime in our city. We will have resources we could not have imagined. But, we must reach across race, geography, history and politics to work together."

"As a community, we have to take ownership, but first we must avoid the racial divide that we've known," says Irvin Mayfield, jazz maestro, composer and artistic director of the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra. "Rebuilding New Orleans isn't a white or black issue, it's an American issue. We're all Americans and we should be proud of our city as Americans."

In that spirit, our first post-Katrina cover story also kicks off a three-part series, "The Road Back," with a discussion of our priorities, our heritage, and our aspirations as a community. We hope it's just the beginning of a productive American dialogue.

A note to our readers: The responses below represent just a sampling of the wonderful feedback we received. To see the full text of all responses, go to www.bestofneworleans.com.

Patrick C. Breaux, M.D.
President, Orleans Parish Medical Society
"Our three top priorities should be jobs, public elementary and secondary education, and health care. New Orleans should pursue economic development in biotechnology and information technology. To attract these jobs, however, we must solve our public education crisis in the city. Prior to Katrina, health care was the largest employer (if you include hospitals, physician practices, the medical schools, pharmaceutical companies, etc.) We had three academic medical centers, two medical schools, a vibrant private practice medical community and a safety net system for all citizens. We must preserve much of this infrastructure if we expect people to move back to New Orleans. Access to quality health care is a huge 'quality of life' measure that we should seek to ensure in the rebuilding process."

Dickie Brennan
Managing Partner, Dickie Brennan's Restaurants
"We need real protection. Solve coastal erosion and put in a levee system that will eliminate any doubt about the future safety of our citizens. Then, realign parish governments into 'metropolitan area services.' Other cities have had success coordinating basic services. Police, schools, and public transportation are all basic services. We don't need eight different police forces. We need one agency to take care of all the levees. We also must create a new business environment. Business needs a single entry point to government that is state-of-the-art and supports their efforts to locate and expand here. We have a tendency to prevent businesses from wanting to make investments in New Orleans because of old ways."

Stephen Perry
President/CEO, New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau
"All priorities should be wrapped in a refusal to accept mediocrity, the status quo, and reflect a commitment to national excellence. Priority one should be the re-establishment of the basic economics of the city -- the hospitality industry, the port and maritime industry, and the creation of unprecedented tax stimuli to make this the most attractive business zone in America. Priority two should be restoration of all essential city services (including a thorough cleaning of the city) utilizing a creative, incentive-driven privatization approach that makes New Orleans the leanest, most efficient city in the nation. Third should be the total re-engineering of the public school system, utilizing an innovative, downsized, charter school approach with new governance, school buildings, and freedom from old rules, barriers, and politics."

Lynette Colin
Branch Manager, HOPE Community Credit Union
"Develop affordable housing stock in diverse, integrated neighborhoods throughout the city -- neighborhoods that bear the distinction of a residential mix of socio-economic backgrounds that will encompass both rental and owner-occupied properties, complete with sustainable infrastructure. The timely attraction of adequate private reinvestment capital will greatly enhance public investment contributions for the rebuilding and revitalization of the New Orleans small business community. Priority must be given to small and disadvantaged businesses, non-profit organizations and micro-enterprises."

Sean Cummings
Developer
"We need to fundamentally reduce the cost of doing business in New Orleans, and we need to focus economic development on what we can be the best in the world at doing. This state needs to take the courageous step to eliminate all income taxes. Like nothing else, it will induce companies and people to stay, grow and even relocate here. To push us to new heights, we should bring a world-class culinary institute to New Orleans. With New Orleans to spice up the branding, this Institute could be the best in the nation, a culinary university which draws people from all over the region and the world."

Jonathan Ferrara
Artist, Gallery Owner
"Transparency must be a top priority in the rebuilding process. We, the people of New Orleans, must be able to see where the reconstruction money is going. Given our history of corruption, we must know that the dollars intended for rebuilding our great city are not going to line the pockets of 'connected' individuals."

Ron Forman
CEO, Audubon Institute
"First, build a safe New Orleans. Repair and rebuild our levee system. This is critical, and I'm certain it is on the mind of any individual or business considering staying or investing in New Orleans. Focus also on public safety and rebuilding our Police Department. Immediate attention must also be paid to the businesses New Orleans has and those we are on the brink of losing due to circumstances created by Katrina. Adopt a plan that will stimulate the economy and bring jobs back to New Orleans in the short term and focus on long-term growth."

Roy Glapion Jr.
Civil Engineer & Businessman
"Our top priority should be helping the people of New Orleans return to their quality of life as quickly as possible. In doing that, we must make certain that ALL local or Louisiana-based firms are being utilized in the rebuilding process. This is currently not being done. We also must make certain that the people of New Orleans are informed about the progress of our city."

Okyeame Haley
Attorney
"New Orleans' top three priorities should be competitive education, meaningful housing assistance, and compassionate capitalism."

Ray Manning
Architect
"Analyze, design and construct an improved levee system before June 2006. Prepare a comprehensive plan to rebuild New Orleans based on science, natural capitalism, equity and speed. Create a plan of evacuation for hurricane season 2006 that works for everyone."

Don Marshall
Executive Director, New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and Foundation
"Economic and cultural integration should permeate the three major components of rebirth -- education, economic development and neighborhood restoration. Public, private and parochial schools must develop collaborative relationships and put an end to our extreme segregation. ... Music and the Arts must be an integral part of learning. Partner with cultural institutions that expand learning opportunities: NOMA, Backstreet, LPO, Ashe, CAC, Mardi Gras, Ogden, D-Day, Jazz Fest. Build on our cultural economy: music, literature, culinary arts, film, theatre, architecture, folk life, crafts, dance, visual arts, celebrations, fashion and design. Stabilize endangered neighborhoods that contribute to the greatness of the community from Treme and Mid-City to the Ninth Ward and the Lakefront. Provide assistance to homeowners who do not have the resources to gut their home."

Kevin Martin
Civil Engineer
"Rebuilding priorities should include a sound flood protection system (levees, flood walls and pumps) that has the demonstrated integrity (design, construction and adequate maintenance) to protect the city against a Category 4 or 5 storm and its associated storm surge and rain. Another priority is an ethnically and economically diverse population. In addition, we must rebuild homes to meet contemporary building codes and, most importantly, to reflect the city's architectural and cultural heritage."

William T. (Ted) Mason III
CPA
"New Orleans' top priorities at the outset should be securing a commitment from the federal government to rebuild levees to protect the city from a Category 5 storm, having the business community take charge of getting the city moving forward and up and running, and getting the government out of the way of the business community."

Irvin Mayfield
Jazz Musician & Composer
"Rebuilding New Orleans will require more than just new buildings, streets and reinforced levees. It will require attention to culture/arts education, which gives our future generation hope and the tools to tackle complicated issues creatively. It will require attention to who gets decent-paying jobs. And it will require affordable housing for our returning evacuees. When new housing structures are developed, care should be taken to offer previous residents the opportunity to purchase."

Jim Randels
Teacher, Writer
"Reopen the public schools as soon as possible; develop the neighborhood public schools as key part of community hubs through which all sectors of society work, providing low-income housing and health clinics; and make the history and rebuilding of New Orleans the lens through which all students develop academic skills and take ownership of their city."

George Rodrigue
Artist
"Do everything possible to suspend the fear of another hurricane hitting New Orleans: fix the levees and the pumps. Realize RIGHT NOW that New Orleans depends on city, state, and U.S. government -- three areas of politics which all must be on the same page. This long journey will require the influx of new young people, who see opportunities to help the re-birth of the city. The question is, Do I bring it back, or does my son?"

David Rubenstein
Co-Owner, Rubenstein Bros.
"New Orleans' top priorities are really two priorities -- short-term needs and long-term needs. The short-term need is to plan the staging for repopulating New Orleans. This requires all resources to be directed and coordinated first to the neighborhoods. The long-term priorities are rebuilding our educational system and attracting industries that build our economic engines. We need careful planning of investment and capital. We need to re-visit our methods of taxation so that we become attractive to business."

Charlie Smith
Arts Lobbyist, Poet
"Begin immediately to rebuild the levees -- but also dam up the MR-GO and use it as a landfill for hurricane debris. Then rebuild the barrier islands and coastline. We also must provide infrastructure before asking people to return, unless they're part of the rebuilding."

Allison Stewart
Artist
"Our three priorities for rebuilding New Orleans should be education, education, education. Establishing a public school system that provides quality education to our children will create meaningful employment, attract new businesses, and reduce poverty and crime. We should use existing school sites to establish middle school and high school learning academies to teach basic skills for direct employment in specific job sectors such as the construction/building, culinary/hospitality and computer/graphics industries. Divide each student's day between academics and specific training programs taught by local master craftsmen and artisans. Partner with local and national businesses to sponsor these programs, provide teachers -- and, above all, hire the graduates."

Wayne Troyer
Architect
"Develop a grand vision that embraces and supports the diversity of our cultural heritages. New Orleans must become a city that is responsive to the changing needs of society in the 21st century. This would be accomplished by creating an urban plan that utilizes art, architecture, and landscape designs in making places that can enhance the human spirit and encourage creative expression. New Orleans is a city of overlapping cultures. Urban planning initiatives must promote sustainable, mixed-use neighborhoods and the elimination of segregation based on economics or race. Social and environmental changes cannot be isolated issues.... There are many specific architectural responses, but the main issues before us are planning and vision."

Robbie Vitrano
Advertising & Public Relations Executive
"If ever there has been a time to move past blame and excuses, this is it. It's time to drop, once and for all, this romantic notion of New Orleans as the northernmost Caribbean nation. There's not only room for us in America, we have something they all desperately want: a capitalistic opportunity in which both black and white can prosper; humanity and soul."

Judy Watts
Executive Director, Agenda for Children
"Public housing must be opened immediately. Thousands of low-income families are still waiting to come home while public housing stock ­ much of it in good condition ­ lies empty and idle. Schools and childcare must be in place by January. Families can't come back if these pieces are missing. Never before has the catch phrase 'children are our future' been more meaningful. A city without children literally has no future. And, there must be good jobs with decent wages and an organized effort to assist returning evacuees with securing employment.... Our businesses won't survive without a competent reliable workforce."

Rod West
Attorney, Entergy
"The top three priorities should be public safety (environmental, crime, water quality, sewerage, and utilities), a comprehensive temporary housing plan, and an urban planning model to focus spending priorities."

John Besh
Chef/Restaurateur
"The old charm of New Orleans should be preserved through its architecture, music, food and hospitality. That's a given. Meanwhile, we have to be careful about segregating ourselves from each other. Through the cultural arts, all races and creeds are brought together. Preserve the neighborhoods and the corner stores; these are the cornerstones of our community."

Keith Butler
Investment Banker & Real Estate Developer
"Read the architecture of old New Orleans, and you see in it a commitment to execution, high quality, and risk taking in design. Not only do we have to preserve those old buildings, but we also have to recapture the attitudes that put those buildings up. Imagine that two black developers built their office buildings in New Orleans in 1840 just as Paul Tulane was developing in the same square block. Houston and Atlanta have not yet caught up to that attitude. If we were able to recapture our past, we'd blow by our competition."

John Deveney
Advertising and Public Relations Executive
"Diversity has been our greatest strength. It created the cuisine, music, festivals and traditions for which we are globally renown. Our rich tapestry of diversity attracted $5.5 billion dollars spent by 10.1 million visitors last year and inspired some of the greatest artists of the past century. Respect and inclusion regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, faith, ethnicity or socioeconomic standing will allow us to maximize our cultural economy. This period gives us a chance to leverage that heritage to become the national role model for tolerance."

Roy Glapion Jr.
Engineer/Businessman
"We must preserve the 9th Ward, which is the true backbone of our old city, along with the East, Lakeview, Pontchartrain Park, the 7th ward, red beans and rice on Monday, and fried fish and potato salad on Friday. In short, we must preserve our culture, how we think, how we live, our way of life."

Okyeame Haley
Attorney
"We must preserve live New Orleans music; our civil rights history; brass bands; second lines; Mardi Gras Indians; the African retentions in New Orleans food, music, dance and language; and our architecture. We must bring back the people. Pre-Katrina New Orleanians must be given the first opportunity to repopulate and rebuild the city."

Wayne J. Lee
Attorney and Past President, Louisiana State Bar Association
"The city needs to fervently work to restore, preserve and promote the things that make New Orleans unique. Our musical, artistic and culinary heritage is part of the city's heart and soul. They make people from around the world want to visit and keep coming back."

Irvin Mayfield
Jazz Musician & Composer
"The majority of our historic architecture survived relatively well, but we can ensure that new architecture preserves the 'old' New Orleans spirit. Additionally, we need to make sure that jazz, Mardi Gras Indians, social aid and pleasure clubs, jazz funerals, second-lines, brass bands, local food, literature festivals, music festivals, museums, etc., return. When these return, then you'll know our folks have returned. Our culture is unlike any other in the United States, and it's this culture that brings people to our city over and over. We can't lose any part of this, or we'll lose a part of ourselves."

Echo Olander
Executive Director, KIDsmART
"The arts and culture of New Orleans are not just the soul but also the backbone of the community. They are created and perpetuated by the widest cross-section of the population. It is essential that the future New Orleans recognizes and supports all of the arts ­ architecture, music, theater, visual arts and the folk arts, which are the beginning, end and everything in between of New Orleans' soul."

Roberto Quintal, M.D.
Cardiologist
"New Orleans will only be New Orleans to the extent that we are able to preserve our multicultural heritage. New Orleans must maintain its 'flavor.'"

Jim Randels
Teacher, Writer
"New Orleans' most important asset is its 'blackness.' That's the root of our creativity and culture, our gift to the world through jazz, gumbo, Mardi Gras Indians, and social aid and pleasure clubs. That's been the backbone of our sense of justice and our greatest unity, as expressed in the 1866 Constitutional Convention for black suffrage, the Citizens' Committee's challenge to the Separate Car Act in 1892, the formation of American Federation of Teachers Local 527 in 1937 to fight for quality public education and equal pay for black teachers, and the development of world-renowned arts education programs."

Charlie Smith
Arts Lobbyist, Poet
"Ensure the preservation of all the historic things, architecturally and culturally, that make our city unique. Fight the urge to bulldoze or go for the quick fix. Do not rebuild expensive instant slums but do encourage home ownership in the salvageable neighborhoods. We are not, never will be, and should not seek to be Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, or, God forbid, Las Vegas. Preservation of the culture is inseparable from preservation of our architecture. People come to New Orleans to participate in and partake of our culture. If we lose that, we're just another urban area."

Wayne Troyer
Architect
"We must preserve our city's compassion, grace, and spirit -- and our existing architecture. The historic fabric of our architecture needs to be celebrated, restored, and maintained. Our celebration of life and all the ways that it is manifested -- food, music, art, dancing, and the sharing of our lifestyle with visitors."

Judy Watts
Executive Director, Agenda for Children
"Our people need ready access to reliable health care. This is especially urgent for low-income families. Charity Hospital has been a lifeline for poor people in our city for many years and with Charity facing an uncertain future, families are concerned about their health care needs being met."

Dickie Brennan
Managing Partner, Dickie Brennan's Restaurants
"Everyone must participate. We need to find ways to move certain segments of our community into the mainstream. I just read an article describing the 'underclass' of New Orleans. It basically explains a societal segment here that has limited access and no hope when it comes to contributing to the mainstream of our community. The bottom line is that this can't exist in a healthy new New Orleans."

Stephen Perry
President/CEO, New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau
"We must refuse to rebuild what we were. ... All of the talk has been about local vision. That is ridiculous. What we created here over the decades was the result of total absence of creative vision and the rejection of what it takes to achieve national excellence in multiple arenas -- education, government, business, and infrastructure. We heard one excuse after another about how we were different. We need new standards of excellence and new vision, the infusion of the best ideas from the best and brightest minds in America. Every time you hear that we must have local vision primarily drive the recovery, know that it is just code for protecting the way we were, doing it the wrong way, returning us to mediocrity."

Keith Butler
Investment Banker & Real Estate Developer
"Don't get bogged down. Don't back ourselves into a corner by telling everybody what they want to hear. New York did that with the families of 9/11. Four years later Ground Zero remains a hole in the ground in Lower Manhattan. Delays have been exacerbated as the state fights with the city. Sound familiar? Run the Commissions as meritocracies that defer to the best ideas, even if most of them come from one or two members. Then get to work, fast."

Lynette Colin
Branch Manager, HOPE Community Credit Union
"We must circumvent the segregation that existed in many low-income neighborhoods, i.e., the 9th Ward. And even further, we must prevent the erosion of infrastructure. We must provide for access in those communities where there is only limited availability or no existence at all of essential business services, such as financial institutions, shopping facilities, etc., only those that prey upon the residents of those communities."

John Deveney
Advertising and Public Relations Executive
"Corruption and the divisiveness of discrimination are fatal. We have to rebuild a playing field that is just and level. Our rebuilding will require all members of the community working together. 'Politics as usual' that has made our past leaders popular targets of federal investigations and indictments will evaporate the tremendous national and federal support required -- and available -- for this great undertaking. Abuse of power (from police brutality to cronyism) has to be relegated to the sadder chapters of our history. The ignorance of intolerance that breeds discrimination, oppression and violence can have no place here."

Jonathan Ferrara
Artist, Gallery Owner
"Politics and political in-fighting must not be allowed to prevail over common sense and a common cause. The world has seen our dirty laundry aired on CNN. Must we continue that with our politicians clamoring for control, or do we unite for a better future? We must avoid the decisions that are easy and politically expedient for ones that make sense for the long haul -- for the whole city, not just a specific constituency. We must think together."

Ron Forman
CEO, Audubon Institute
"The parochial politics of the New Orleans region were evident during the storm and have continued post-Katrina. Local officials continue to work in isolation to develop parish plans instead of looking at our region and working together to rebuild Greater New Orleans. How can we connect New Orleans to the east with Mississippi and to the west with Baton Rouge? In the next few years, the emphasis should be on healing our region. During this process we should focus on how to develop a strong middle class in New Orleans. Through job creation and wise land use that offers affordable housing, we should work to create a city that is no longer a city of haves and have-nots."

Okyeame Haley
Attorney
"Avoid quick fixes like numerous charter schools and casinos. Avoid rewarding those who demonize the poor."

Ray Manning
Architect
"The primary problem facing New Orleans is leadership. Not in terms of top-down leadership but the ability of new voices and all the voices that make of the city to speak for the least among us. Moving forward, all citizens need to know that their leadership truly understands their needs. Government and the social structure of our city turned its back on the neediest for years. Those in the social service professions shouted and begged for attention, but the low probability and high impact of a storm such as Katrina did not warrant the priority status when day-to-day issues such as a poor economy, failing schools and deteriorating infrastructure shouted equally or more. And wronged-headed thinking about civic pride that allowed too much attention on issues that sounded good but did not nurture our souls or respect the natural environment. ... We live in an environmentally sensitive zone. If that is not clear now, we are doomed. We all need to see that this community was always 72 hours away from chaos on any day prior to Katrina, and unless we truly change our thinking about what is important we cannot rebuild this city and its neighborhoods."

Don Marshall
Executive Director, New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and Foundation
"What mistakes must be avoided? Segregation in our schools, our neighborhoods, our businesses and institutions and in our minds. Lack of respect and support for education. Lack of proper training for our workforce. Poverty and unemployment. Wages that don't reflect the cost of living. Inability to see past perceived differences and work together for the good of the entire community. We need hospitals working together, schools working together, races working together, politicians working together. Constantly lowering our standards and expectations. Not having floodgates at all canals where they meet the lake. Underpasses that allow water to flow all over the city instead of using the railroad tracks as a second levee -- and not filling in the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet."

William T. (Ted) Mason III
CPA
"The greatest mistake would be to think we can rebuild New Orleans as it was. We have the opportunity before us to transform New Orleans into a great place to do business and live -- and to miss this chance could mean the death of the city."

Jim Monaghan Jr.
Proprietor, Molly's At the Market
"One mistake we should avoid in rebuilding New Orleans is the re-creation of political fiefdoms, whether it be the School Board, City Hall, the Levee Board or the Sewerage and Water Board. These boards and all levels of government should work cooperatively with the understanding that they work for the citizens of New Orleans. Communicating with the people they represent would be a great way to begin again."

Echo Olander
Executive Director, KIDsmART
"We must fight against cookie-cutter neighborhoods that pay no attention to the environment or communities living in them. Let's examine cutting-edge practices of environmental protection and eco-friendly communities using the architecture and the craftsmen of the city. Let's love our land in a way that is sustainable and healthy for all."

Henry F. Owsley
Investment Banker
"Avoid re-ghettoizing the city and allowing the bureaucracy to reassert itself in unproductive ways."

Roberto Quintal, M.D.
Cardiologist
"We have to prevent the clustering of poverty in certain areas of the city. This type of economic segregation is, I believe, the principal culprit of high crime rates."

Jim Randels
Teacher, Writer
"We must own up to the vast inequalities and disunities, rooted in racism and economic class divisions, that we have allowed to grow in New Orleans. The most obvious manifestation of this, in addition to the shameful images broadcast to the world in the days following Katrina, is our education systems. We have separate schools--even within our public school system--for the haves and the have-nots, for the students who have demonstrated prior success in school and those who have not. We must eliminate disunity and separatism in education; the neighborhood public school, without selective admission requirements, is the one public institution where all citizens and families should come together."

George Rodrigue
Artist
"The biggest mistake everyone made was in not taking the city's vulnerability seriously. This hurricane has changed all that and more -- for the good and for the bad. To permanently protect the city against these natural disasters is a challenge not only for the city, but also for America."

Allison Stewart
Artist
"The greatest mistake of the 20th Century was for the middle and upper classes to abandon the public schools. Post-Katrina New Orleans must rebuild its public education system from the ground up. It is now up to all citizens of New Orleans to demand that every child receive a quality education. The old system doesn't work. We need smaller, neighborhood schools with smaller classes; teachers who have mastered the subjects they teach; and more hours of instruction per year. Fiefdoms such as the school board and teachers unions should give way to leadership that places the needs of children first."

Wayne Troyer
Architect
"We must avoid 'Disneyfication' of our architectural heritage. Architecture must be responsive of its time and place. A contemporary work executed with skill and integrity creates a wonderful and stimulating dialogue between the old and the new. Contemporary architecture can be humanistic and technically advanced. Replication of old styles diminishes the original."

Robbie Vitrano
Advertising/Public Relations Executive
"Mayors (or other leaders) as kings instead of public servants. This is an indictment on the population (not elected officials), by the way. As a whole, we have a dysfunctional relationship with our public leaders, surrendering our power and ideals, expecting either generosity (homestead exemption) and/or a savior, both of which abdicates personal responsibility.

"Parochialism. Bring in the outside world. Integrate contemporary ideas and practices into our cultural legacy. Embrace universal standards of excellence (where appropriate). Go on the offensive. Drop fear. Don't simply protect, create.

"Redundancy. Trim the deadwood. Too many well-intended, but poorly executed arts/political/community projects preserve mediocrity and overtax limited resources. Define great, reward accordingly and hold everyone accountable.

"Neglecting environmental issues. The reaction to this storm should not be nature as enemy, but nature as inevitable reality, and perhaps one day, as ally."

Judy Watts
Executive Director, Agenda for Children
"The combination of race and poverty created a fault-line in the aftermath of Katrina that must not be ignored. As we rebuild our city, let's come together to confront and eliminate the manifestations of injustice and inequality and set an example for the rest of the nation. This will require a plan, not just more discussion. It means examining the evidence ­ beginning with the appalling illustrations that were in everybody's face during and after the storm ­ and acting with honesty and integrity to right the wrongs for this generation and future generations."

Rod West
Attorney, Entergy
"We must avoid expecting (or wanting) our city to return to 'normal.' We also must avoid relying on old paradigms -- such as the politics of race and class -- to address public education, health care, and economic development initiatives.

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• Donn Young

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• 'We need to make sure that jazz, Mardi Gras Indians, social aid and pleasure clubs, jazz funerals, second- lines, brass bands, local food, literature festivals, music festivals, museums, etc., return. We can't lose any part of this, or we'll lose a part of ourselves.'
  -- Irvin Mayfield, jazz musician, composer

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• David Lee Simmons
• 'Develop affordable housing stock in diverse, integrated neighborhoods throughout the city -- neighborhoods that bear the distinction of a residential mix of socio- economic backgrounds.'
  -- Lynette Colin, branch manager, HOPE Community Credit Union

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