Vox posts the following recovery plan from David Brooks of the NYT:

If we just put up new buildings and allow the same people to move back into their old neighborhoods, then urban New Orleans will become just as rundown and dysfunctional as before.That's why the second rule of rebuilding should be: Culturally Integrate. Culturally Integrate. Culturally Integrate. The only chance we have to break the cycle of poverty is to integrate people who lack middle-class skills into neighborhoods with people who possess these skills and who insist on certain standards of behavior.

He then blasts the plan in this response:

Can anyone spot the flaw in this argument? (Hint: it's the same flaw that caused busing to fail.) You see, functioning middle-class families don't like being used as the tools to fix the struggling lower-classes, to say nothing of the completely dysfunctional middle class.White people don't move out of a neighborhood because they fear the nice, middle-class black couple who just moved in or because they are unregenerate racists who don't want to set eyes on a darkie from their front lawn, they move out because they know that less desirable elements are likely to begin knocking around the neighborhood in a relatively short period of time.If the government imposes Mr. Brooks' cultural integration solution, the first thing you'll see is a rash of For Sale signs as the white middle class and the black middle class will race each other to escape the meltdown.

I have to disagree with Vox here on one premise. I agree that this plan cannot be mandated by the government or any other entity. However, lately I have become a fan of John Perkins and what he calls the Christian Community Development Plan, which has begun in many areas around our nation and several countries. Basically, he describes that when the white flight happened in the late 60's and throughout the 70's, not only did the people leave, but when they left “real estate values plummeted and properties quickly deteriorated…the quality of education declined…as the spiritual and moral leadership withdrew, the churches soon followed…thriving business districts eventually boarded up as merchants pursued new opportunities in the ‘edge cities’” There is nothing left to build the community around, thus the inner cities have deteriorated into a place of severe depravity. His solution (and one shared by other experts on the city including Ray Bakke, probably the foremost expert on creating a theology for the city in Christian arenas) is what he would call relocation, asking families from the suburbs whom the Lord has called to move back into the city and provide a foundation for that area (Bakke actually calls for a tithe of people to move back in, one in ten from suburban churches). And it seems to be working, as he cites several examples of areas where this has worked, including Northwest Pasadena. Yes it is dangerous, and yes it takes the urging of the Holy Spirit to make any sense at all. Likewise as I've stated, one cannot mandate this, it must be voluntary. But I agree with Perkins and Brooks in the example above that it may be the only way to bring stability back to these areas and provide a foundation for redevelopment.