Let's build a new New Orleans

nwitimes.com ^ | Sunday, September 11, 2005 | Morton Marcus

[dirtboy]

This guy misses the point. It isn't about re-building the coastal towns to meet some kind of liberal zoning utopia.

It's about giving those living in the affected areas an option, IMO: If you want to rebuild a bit inland, past where the surge hit, we'll give you aid. If you insist on building right on the shore because you like the view, don't ask us to subsidize the risk you are taking, and rebuild on your own.

Even the fedgov, as dense as it can be at times, quit rebuilding towns build in a floodplain that, surprise, flooded - and used the rebuilding money to move them to higher ground. The same should happen here - if we're gonna fork over tens of billions of dollars, let's not just set up the bowling pins for nature again with that money - let's make sure we are reducing future risk.

[kinghorse]

1st step: empty out the underclass and send them to Houston
2. appeal to Fed largesse
3. fill in the land
4. Build upscale housing where the slums once existed
5. Profit!

I don't like this one little bit. Haiti and Louisiana have a common heritage of slavery, sugar, voodoo and suffocating corruption.

Not one red cent to a corrupt regime! Are you willing to trust your money with Blanco, Landreiu and Nagin?

[babyface00]

Given what we know today about urban design...

Yeah, we can draw our inspiration from those stunning examples of urban design all over the country...like Detroit.

[Tennessee_Bob]

Let's build a new New Orleans

And using lessons learned.

Inland. And above sea level.

[null and void]

Although he doesn't address the issue of New Orleans being below sea level, not a bad read.

IMHO, we should send NO all our garbage. Collect municipal refuse from the entire Mississippi basin and pile it on NO. Add mix mine tailings, slag and construction debris. Build a Tel 20-30 feet above sea level and cover it with 5 ft or so of dirt lay utilities and cover with another 5 ft of dirt and topsoil.

The new city - Tel New Orleans - would become the South's new 'shining city on the hill'. And being well above sea level immune to storm surge, and above the mosquitoes!

The project could even be self funding if NO charges reasonable disposal fees...

[ArmyTeach]

Given our safety regulations today, none of those great masterpieces of human engineering would exist today,either!

[Paloma_55]

Let those who rebuild use the following criteria.

1) Use your own money
2) Construct the lower floor out of concrete walls 12 feet high.
3) Raise the existing structure on top of it.
4)For buildings that are already multi-story, don't put anything on the lower floor that you don't want to see underwater.
5) Put your school buses on higher ground
6) If you have a porta-potty company, locate it near the stadium and on high ground
7) Use your own money

[BookaT]

Wouldn't that be Newer Orleans? I guess upon completion it would also be Newest Orleans.

[ghitma]

Why?
So we can go through this disaster 10 years from now?
So whites can be vilified as racists again even though we donated millions without a second thought?
So the MSM can twist and pervert the story to blame whites, and Conservatives and give a free pass to libs and Dems.
I don't recall being asked the color of my skin when I donated hundreds of dollars, whites have been attacked an vilified by the black community and its so called leaders.

Never again for me. Call it "White Rage".

No I don't think so, plow it over and give it back to nature and the hell with it.

[Cat loving Texan]

The idea of turning New Orleans into a landfill is a good one. They have done this successfully before. It would raise the city, bury toxic waste and revitalize a region.

I strongly disagree with the premise that we should turn New Orleans into the mecca of the gulf coast. Clearly Texas and the Flordia Gulf Coast have demonstrated that they have already become vibrant econimic forces. We don't need the failed Louisiana political corruption damaging that.

[null and void]

Unfortunately the Mississippi river doesn't tie in to the world's oceans in Texas or Florida.

Geography sticks us with something near New Orleans for a major port.

It doesn't stick us with corruption, we did that to ourselves. We have the power to change it.

[driftless]

I was just out west with my wife where we watched the story unfold from out motel rooms each night. Her suggestion and mine, if they choose to rebuild on the same site...which seems most likely, is to haul in millions of tons of rock and dirt to raise the NO at least ten feet above sea level. Of course that idea will be ignored as will the one to rebuild the town further inland. They'll simply shore up the levees somewhat...and watch when the town is flooded again sometime in the near future.

[null and void]

Yeah. Sad, ain't it?

[little jeremiah]

What do you mean "WE"?

Whose money are they talking about? If it ain't private money, it's stealing.

[FLCowboy,]

Given what we know today - there would be no Golden Gate Bridge, No Moffit Tunnel, no Hoover, Boulder or Grand Coulee Dams, no bridges in the Florida Keys, no high rise buildings, no airports ...

I heard today that 30 years ago, the EPA stopped the rebuild of the levees in NO.

[Johnny Crab]

I was just out west with my wife where we watched the story unfold from out motel rooms each night. Her suggestion and mine, if they choose to rebuild on the same site...which seems most likely, is to haul in millions of tons of rock and dirt to raise the NO at least ten feet above sea level.

Ah, we're pumping a "wetland" now! And filling it in!! Greenies(and I don't mean Tulane) are gonna be mad!

Actually I agree with your comments(NOLA resident 1959~1989). The last two of my Jefferson Parish/NOLA-based family are permanently relocating(one already has to Texas). The rest are on the Northshore.

[scouse]

A more comprehensive approach is appropriate. Let's consider the Gulf Coast as a region, centered on New Orleans, that stretches from Florida to Texas.

Don't let us consider the Gulf Coast as a region centered on New Orleans. Better we just consider New Orleans as a trap for tourists looking for a risque good time where they can hear some Dixieland Jazz. Then rebuild the city in Malibu California or even San Francisco.