The City of New Orleans is poised to

The City of New Orleans is poised to invest at least $1.2 billion in reconstruction, possibly beginning as early as this April, recovery chief Edward Blakely announced March 23. “By September, we want to see cranes on the skyline,” Blakely said. The money — a combination of federal housing block grants, federal hazard mitigation funds, a bond issue approved before Hurricane Katrina, and cash from “blight bonds” — would be distributed across the city, with 40 percent of it targeted to approximately 16 redevelopment zones where clusters of housing and other development will be built.