Project Sprout

Project Sprout is a unique strategy for urban revitalization based on the premise that failure reveals opportunity. Shifts in New Orleans’ demographics and economic prospects, coupled with catastrophic flooding from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, left many of the city’s neighborhoods devastated by blight and environmental contamination. Through a productive stabilization strategy that unlocks the potential of blighted land, Sprout will transform marginal properties from public health threats into nodes of community redevelopment.

Through the planting of bio-energy gardens that include plants like sunflowers, Project Sprout will:
1. Remediate soil
2. Yield a crop for bio-fuel production
3. Provide green-collar job training
4. Create hope in communities that suffer from the companion problems of blight and illegal dumping.

As a deliberately transitional strategy, Sprout helps to reposition underutilized land for redevelopment, urban farming, or community recreation space. A phased pilot project will roll out beginning in Spring 2009.