Builders dream of a better Haiti

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The first e-mail went out within hours of the Jan. 12 earthquake, calling together some of Haiti’s most prominent architects, engineers and urban planners. The next day, 50 people showed up at a house in the hillside suburb of Petionville and went to work.

They have met every day since, gathering around a table in a courtyard under the shade of a spreading almond tree. Their goal is simple. It is also audacious. They want to plan a new Haiti.

And not just new buildings. A new economy, a new political culture, a new way of thinking. And yes, a Haiti that would look very different from the one that existed before the quake.
‘We don’t want to talk about rebuilding,’ said the group’s guiding spirit, industrial engineer Jean-Marie Raymond Noel. ‘We want to talk about a new project, a new vision. ... We can’t hope to be in the same situation as before the quake. It was not good.’

Continue reading ‘Builders dream of a better Haiti’

-- Mitchell Landsberg reporting from Port-au-Prince, Haiti

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U.N. troops try to control the crowd of thousands trying to get sacks of rice at a food distribution center. Credit: Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times