Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
municipal election campaign. The BNOBC recommendations were rejected by the
public and the mayor had to abandon the whole project for lack of federal funding,
and incorporate the work of the BNOBC into the Unified New Orleans Plan
(UNOP) controlled by the state of Louisiana. Even if the idea of restricting the
reconstruction of the city was not abandoned (plan ABC), the conclusions of the
UNOP (January 2007) failed to recommend guidelines for comprehensive urban
planning (master plan). Nowadays, risk-mitigation relies primarily on structural
protections, strengthening the Hurricane Protection System (HPS), and not reducing
the city footprint.
Board (district)
: A district board is an elected authority responsible for providing
and maintaining local public services. There are school boards (school district
boards), levee boards (flood protection district boards), etc.
Brain drain
: A selective immigration policy used to attract the best scientists and
engineers by offering them high wages. The policy has been openly practiced by the
United States since the Second World War. Since the Immigration Act of 1990, the
H1-B visa is specifically designed to facilitate the entry of talented specialists to the
United States.
Brown vs. Topeka board of Education
: A 1954 landmark decision of the
Supreme Court which ruled out segregation in public schools.
Brownfield redevelopment
: Brownfields are land previously used for industrial
purposes. The
r
edevelopment program was designed to restore abandoned sites and
convert them to new urban uses by creating new uses and improvements.
C
Cajuns
: descendants of Acadians, a French-speaking population driven from
Nova Scotia by the English in the mid-eighteenth century in the wake of the French-
Indian wars against the English (1754-63) and who settled in the Mississippi delta.
Their distinctive cultural and linguistic identity long kept them marginalized and
poor until they became a tourist attraction.
CBD (central business district)
: Business districts located in the center of American
cities, generally characterized by a concentration of high-rise office buildings that are
frequently monuments to the companies who build them and that define the skyline of
the city where they are located. With few exceptions, American cities that are otherwise
rather uniform can be identified by their business district skyline.
