Posted on 09/06/2005 7:28:34 PM PDT by RGSpincich
New Orleans is the most urban area hit by Katrina and the most likely to be cut up by land grabbing public entities. From a municipal view point, every parcel of property is blighted and is subject to eminent domain proceedings. New Orleans will sieze upon this trajedy to remove unwanted neighborhoods in favor of lucrative tourist attractions. What do you think?
The area was what would today be called "unbuildable", and quite a bit of it was already "brownfields", unsuitable for human habitation. The soil is permanently saturated, and there is no underlying rock strata for some distance down, making piles only marginally practical. There are a number of old dumps, on which soil was just graded over, some of them not up to anything like Superfund mitigtion standards.
The street levels that are 15-20 feet below the average water level in the Mississippi and Lake Pontchartrain, are subject to seepage even when there is a low water level and no rain. The discharge pumps run continuously, like a huge sump, pulling the ground water out, and leaching a good deal of these contaminants already in the water away from the old dump sites. This discharge has been going into the lake and the river for decades, then eventually discharging into the sea.
Should New Orleans be rebuilt? Maybe, but not anywhere on these old swamps and bayous. Most places like the 9th Ward should be allowed to revert to a more natural state. Practically all the residents who once lived there are either gone, or dead, in the past week.
With or without water features?
The "poor" of New Orleans will not have the same situation as before. Mnay will not return. There will be a big push for Habitat for Humanity type housing but high rise and more expensive housing developments will dominate because land costs will be high. Developers will turn NO into a mini NY City. Possibly a water oriented community (no joke). New Orleans could become major city in South in 5-10 years. There will be a small business called, "Dunk the Mayor" where for one dollar, you get a chance to knock the mayor into a pool of sludge.
Would YOU want to live in a house that had been soaking in a toxic cesspool for two weeks?
If Speaker Hastert has any say, the money will carefully guarded. N.O. and Louisanna have no money. It will be all Fed Money. Lots of strings and IOUs.
Bet on it!
Some states have better deals than others. Look to the ones with current or recent Dem Govs. Medicaid is a State decision and varies greatly in coverage. It broke Indiana.
That's what I'm thinking.
Wonder if the race pimps will squeal like stuck pigs if mostly illegals get hired on to do reconstruction?
Maybe their heads will explode from the conundrum.
If'n I owned some property that was 10-20 ft under water I'd welcome some public entity excercising eminent domain paying me for it. My insurance would only cover the above ground property thus I'd get rebuild money but I think if I was in that situation I'd prefer to move on... just my musings.
Some portion will leave, but the vast majority will stay. I do alot of business with the latino (Don't call all of the Mexicans!) community here in North Carolina and my guess is that 85% stay.
Well, just think rationally about it. Much of New Orleans will be unlivable for many months, if not a year or more. The people who have been moved will gain resettlement assistance, and the quality will be relatively high because of public relations. For that matter, if we wanna be crude, public assistance is much superior in these other states than in New Orleans. People who want them will find jobs, and in either case they will settle down.
As New Orleans gets rebuilt, there will surely be economic incentives to pull people in. These will be skilled people by and large, not the sort that populate slums. The demographic profile of the city will change totally. The construction activity will by and large pull in the usual typology, and that will be heavily Latino. A lot of immigrants will be attracted to the opportunities, and they will be heavily Latino. Moreover, there is likely to be an influx of whites comparable to what always happens in gentrifying urban neighborhoods, since in a sense that's what's gonna happen: radical gentrification.
Explosive or not, that's just how it's likely to play itself out.
We shall see how the clash between PC politics and economics plays out. I hope that you are right. But obviously, Dems in Louisiana are upset about the out of state roots thing.
It is never Fed Money, it's your money.
oh now that's bad
A Mexican gent (from Puebla) in New York told me that the overwhelming majority of Latinos in North Carolina are from Mexico. He had two sisters living in the Charlotte area.
i sense casinos
Up until now New Orleans would have had a tough time in court showing that obtaining large tracts of property was for the common good. Now, thanks to the Supremes, they can package that property and offer it to developers to increase the tax base. The mayor just ordered evacuation of the entire city, excepting Algiers. My tin foil says some people won't be coming back and not by their own choice. Is it possible that Nagin has developer cronies that covet certain pieces of property?
Disney could build another park with a lot of water rides.
If New Orleans must get rebuilt on the scale that most people expect, then the landscape will end up totally different. I would be very surprised if parts of the city aren't raised, perhaps the greater part. Regardless, there will be substantial land set aside for parks, cultural activities, and public buildings. That's what I expect. The complexion of the city is likely to be totally different.
Of course, mine is the most optimistic view, but the precedents are supportive when looking at other large-scale planned communities in the U.S. and around the world. I suppose it's possible that it could all be a fiasco, but I doubt it.
And, for what it's worth, the political landscape as well will be forever changed in Louisiana. I expect it to become solidly Republican myself.
Whatever you're on, I want some. :)
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