As the powers that be debate how to rebuild New Orleans, the business of real-estate development -- where and how to erect industrial, commercial and residential properties -- is seen as the engine that will drive and stimulate the city's rebirth. However, Mayor Ray Nagin has put the demolition of the city's Ninth Ward on the table. Of its 20,000 residents, most were African American, and many are poor.

		Denys Candy, a community development and management consultant, is the founder of Community Partners Institute, based in East Liberty.

I would like to remind the urban planners there (and here) what we have learned from 50 years of American urban renewal projects, what Pittsburgh and other cities know firsthand -- demolition doesn't renew. It destroys communities and devastates people. Ultimately, it weakens a city as a whole, because the repercussions of social and psychological displacement extend far beyond the physical parameters of the demolished site.

During the 1950s, Mayor David Lawrence sought to address overcrowding in Downtown Pittsburgh by envisioning a "Golden Triangle" that would stretch from the Point, up through the lower Hill District, a closely packed place with homes and shops full of the smells of active living and ethnic cooking. Land was taken by eminent domain and cleared, displacing thousands of people, most of them African American.

I have spoken with long-term Hill residents who continue to harbor sadness (and anger) at the losses brought about by urban renewal -- economic opportunities, friends and family, social and cultural vibrancy. Harlem Renaissance poet Claud McKay dubbed the Hill "the crossroads of the world." When the lower Hill was demolished, some of Pittsburgh's magic disappeared.

In recent years, things have improved in the Hill District. Real-estate development successes are evident, but for some long-term Hill residents, several of the new developments, while welcome, evoke no connection to the rest of the Hill District -- past or present. Their experience is a common one. Contemporary urban development tends to take place on parcels of land, designed with minimal relation to the surrounding environment. In spite of good intentions, we construct buildings fast, rather than renewing communities well.

It is a challenge to follow the advice of famed architect Christopher Alexander and his colleagues, who urge us to design and build a place in ways that "repair the world around it, and within it, so that the larger world at that one place becomes more coherent, and more whole." It is possible, however, to compose a vision that relates to the deeper essence of a place, and it is happening in the Hill.

Since 2002, the Find the Rivers! initiative has forged a multiorganizational partnership among Hill District residents and civic leaders to work together to support revitalizing by remaking connections to the rivers. Residents have participated actively in the planning process from the very start, and the current project of the partnership -- a new design plan for Kirkpatrick Street -- arose out of residents' cherished memories and lived experiences in the Hill.

When a design plan is drafted this way, the site of development bears an air of intimacy that visitors will feel, because the plan will carry the visual signs of a beloved place. And this practice gives residents a sense of ownership, so that they are drawn to become stewards of both the design plan and the site.

Find the Rivers! has five main principles, which the partnership has honed through trial and error. All can be adapted for the rebuilding of New Orleans.

Uncover the essence of the place -- from all available sources. Gather people's histories and lived experiences. (This is especially important when demolition is being considered. It always makes more sense to demolish a building or a community when one is looking from the outside. Think of the value of the place from the perspectives of those on the inside, irrespective of their political power.)

Explore the natural environment as an economic asset. See its beauty from the get- go and make it a foundation of building plans, not a cosmetic afterthought.

Learn "organic partnering" skills -- what I call organic partnering requires urban professionals to re-make conventional habits in partnering. A project's success is measured in terms of its process as well as its final expected outcome.

Be a steward of land, buildings and people.

Remember that economic, physical and cultural health are interrelated. All across the United States, urban renewal contributed to higher rates of ill health for everyone in affected communities. (The Hill lost its jazz clubs. The return of musicians must be part of rebuilding New Orleans.)

My experience in the Hill District, in my home town Dublin, Ireland, and elsewhere has shown me how healing it is for residents to be actively involved in renewing their communities and neighborhoods. There are resources and technologies available to achieve such involvement on a large scale.

The question is: Do we have the political will?