NEW ORLEANS -- In what New Orleans hopes will be the birthplace of a new "renaissance," work is under way to revive and reunite two middle-class neighborhoods devastated by Katrina's flood waters.

The goal is to breathe new life into the area -- rebuild houses, schools, a shopping center and golf course -- and recapture the quality of life that for years made Pontchartrain Park and Gentilly Woods feel like suburbs in the city.

Bill Haber / AP

Actor Wendell Pierce listens to a question during an interview in this mother's Gentilly home

Today, it's tough to picture the family-filled neighborhoods that actor Wendell Pierce remembers from his childhood and developers hope to recreate. Pierce himself has trouble seeing past the abandoned homes, empty playground and shuttered school where his mother once taught.

"It's like Pottersville," said Pierce, who played Bunk Moreland in the HBO series "The Wire." He gingerly navigated the broken, quiet streets of his old neighborhood. The landmarks are where they should be, but "Oh my God. What is this?"

Nearly three years after Katrina, Pierce is leading a push to redevelop his old neighborhood, saying he feels obligated both to honor the history of the area and the generation he says created a Mayberry-like upbringing for him across a ditch from once-white Gentilly Woods. Many of the 2,584 residents here before Katrina were retirees like his parents, who bought their homes late in the segregation era, in the 1950s, when Pontchartrain Park was built specifically for middle- to upper-income black families.

Once a village

He heard stories, he says, of tour buses carrying curiosity seekers through the area and women home alone fearing for their safety. His recollections, though, are of another time; growing up in the 1960s and '70s, as white-flight from the city was helping change the face of neighborhoods like Gentilly Woods, Pierce recalls an overwhelming sense of community and freedom.

"There was the sense of a small village," he says.

Neighbors -- folks including teachers, coaches, police and a handyman -- knew each other by name, looked out for each other and made sure the kids finished their homework before running off to play or pick off errant balls on a golf course that stands like a lush island in the middle of his neighborhood.

"I just think of all my parents had to go through to make sure we had this idyllic upbringing," he said, adding that he couldn't walk away from the neighborhood in its "darkest hour."

Pierce hopes to give young families the opportunity his parents had -- a shot at being first-time homebuyers -- and make good on the investment he says his community made on him and others, like musician Terence Blanchard and former Mayor Marc Morial.

Bill Haber / AP

Pierce takes a pretend swing on the first tee of the golf course in his childhood neighborhood of Gentilly.

There isn't much to come back to yet; by one estimate, about 42 percent of the population has returned. In Gentilly Woods, which had a younger population and was predominantly black before the storm, about 58 percent of the population is back.

But the neighborhoods had key pre-storm elements that other hard-hit areas lacked that made this a more logical place for New Orleans' main redevelopment agency to focus attention. Among them: high rates of homeownership and community anchors like the golf course, universities, a retail center and green space.

"This could be the spot that starts the renaissance," said Rob Couhig, a board member for that agency, the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority.

Raymond Lation, who lives between two empty houses in his raised, rebuilt home across from the golf course, hopes so. He said Pontchartrain Park doesn't feel the same to him anymore. He hardly ever sees a city bus and from his front porch, the 71-year-old waves at those who pass, searching for a familiar face.

Building a dream

Work to renovate streets, a playground and the stadium where Pierce once played football and baseball are planned by the city or in their early stages. A plan for public schools, due this month, could play a vital role in bringing families back.

The availability of housing will, too. Much of the homebuilding planned will involve properties the state bought from homeowners who didn't want to rebuild.

Pierce's nonprofit Pontchartrain Park Community Development Corp. will be responsible for rebuilding homes in his old neighborhood; the for-profit, Washington, D.C.-based Telesis Corp. will do the same for Gentilly Woods. Their redevelopment plans, not yet made public, await NORA's approval.

Major investment -- potentially $50 million or more -- is expected for the area, not including public dollars for infrastructure such as streets and public buildings. While specific funding sources haven't been disclosed yet, the developers and NORA are optimistic the project will take off.

"Absolutely," said Richard Monteilh, NORA's director of development. "People are already (back), doing a good job, and that's without those big assets."

Bill Haber / AP

A picture from Pierce's childhood and a Mardi Gras throw are decorations in his mother's home.

Construction could begin as early as this fall, he said, with model homes to gauge demand and encourage homeowners who haven't rebuilt. Work on a planned 18-hole golf course, for which the city of Phoenix is helping raise money, could begin in September or October, and NORA is trying to buy or improve 50 lots around it, Monteilh said. NORA also is trying to buy a dilapidated mall at the foot of Gentilly Woods, hoping to tear it down and rebuild a town center that could include shops, restaurants and a grocery store.

"People want to come back to a village, not just a home," said Monteilh.

NORA hopes to have received by fall at least 500 properties that the state bought from homeowners uninterested in rebuilding here, with the anticipation of receiving perhaps hundreds more later. Residents want the neighborhoods to retain their pre-storm feel. That means modest homes, with nice front yards, aimed at working, middle-class residents. The new homes around the golf course, for example, would not be tiny cottages, Monteilh said, but it would not be an elitist community, either.

Rather than build new houses on piers or with first floors starting 10-feet up (styles popping up in other neighborhoods to guard against future flooding) Pierce and his partners want to build on terraces of earth built up from the curb, a style found elsewhere in Gentilly.

Focus will be placed on first-time buyers and keeping home costs at or below $200,000, Monteilh said. Mortgage assistance plans announced by the city and state could help. There also are plans to market to college students and professors.

Within a year, Monteilh expects work under way on the new shopping mall and the completion of a seniors' center, a "good number of houses" and the golf course.

Pierce said he wants to give people the opportunity "to buy into the American dream."

"We have a generation that is passing on," he said, "and we wanted to make sure they passed on the economic security that homeownership brings."

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)