Posted on 09/13/2005 7:48:55 AM PDT by Willie Green
At the moment, rescue and relocation are the primary concerns along the Gulf Coast ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. In time restoration will become the leading issue.
Most property owners from Mobile, Ala., to New Orleans will want their buildings repaired or replaced. They will seek to recreate the past instead of looking to the future.
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. This area is highly attractive for an extraordinary variety of commercial and recreational purposes. It also is hurricane prone.
Given what we know today about urban design, would we develop Mississippi cities like Biloxi, Gulfport or Pass Christian, or even New Orleans as we did in the past?
(Excerpt) Read more at thetimesonline.com ...
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.
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?
And using lessons learned.
Inland. And above sea level.
Given our safety regulations today, none of those great masterpieces of human engineering would exist today,either!
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
Wouldn't that be Newer Orleans? I guess upon completion it would also be Newest Orleans.
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.
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.
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.
Yeah. Sad, ain't it?
What do you mean "WE"?
Whose money are they talking about? If it ain't private money, it's stealing.
I heard today that 30 years ago, the EPA stopped the rebuild of the levees in NO.
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.
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.
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