Giving Up on New Orelans

Los Angeles Times ^ | December 6, 2005 | Mike Tidwell

[HoHoeHeaux]

We may as well abandon the Big Easy because the White House is killing a plan to protect the city from the next Katrina.

By Mike Tidwell

MIKE TIDWELL is the author of "Bayou Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana's Cajun Coast" (Pantheon, 2003).

AS WE NEAR the 100-day mark since Hurricane Katrina hit, it's time we ended our national state of denial and abandon New Orleans for good.

We should call it quits not because New Orleans can't be made relatively safe from hurricanes. It can be. And not because to do so is more trouble than it's worth. It's not. Instead, the hammers and brooms and chain saws should all be put away and the city permanently boarded up because the Bush administration has already given New Orleans a quiet kiss of death.

Although he has encouraged city residents to return home and declared "we will do whatever it takes" to save the city, President Bush last month refused the one thing New Orleans simply cannot live without: a restored network of barrier islands and coastal wetlands.

Katrina destroyed the Big Easy — and future Katrinas will do the same — because 1 million acres of coastal islands and marshland vanished in Louisiana in the last century because of human interference.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-tidwell6dec06,0,2886301.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions

[BlueStateDepression]

1 million acres of coastal islands and marshland vanished in Louisiana in the last century because of human interference

BAN THE HUMANS!!!!!!

[caryatid]

President Bush last month refused the one thing New Orleans simply cannot live without: a restored network of barrier islands and coastal wetlands.

God, alone, has the capability of restor[ing] a network of barrier islands and coastal wetlands ... that manmade activities have helped to destroy.

Not everything in this world can be fixed by throwing unlimited quantities of money at it. It is time for people to wake up and realize that.

[GaltMeister]

Ho-Hum. Another "BUSH'S FAULT!" article from the la slimes.

Liberal idiot 'journalists' are really getting stale.

[Ninian Dryhope]

It is below sea level and sinking fast. It was a dumb place to put a city and it would be even dumber to rebuild it were it sits. Just have the downtown, the French Quarter, and the port.

As long as I can get Muffulettas at the Central Market, that is enough New Orleans for me.

[Mark was here]

We should call it quits not because New Orleans can't be made relatively safe from hurricanes. It can be.

Sure it can, all it takes is a few truck loads of dirt to raise the city to around 100' above sea level.

Question is is it worth it?

[GSlob]

New and Improved Orleans (NIO) will be built on a different terrain - and with a different human material. I'd suggest Amish country of OH/PA.

[Wally_Kalbacken]

Not to mention that the essential predicament is the choice between a navigable river and a sustainable city. If you get the channeled river, controlled to be navigable by freighters carrying the vast majority of ag exports from the middle third of the country, you don't get even distribution of the silt carried by the river. If you let the river meander, as it did prior to 1928, you cannot navigate in a practicable manner. One or the other, not both.

I spent very little time in New Orleans in the past - but by my general observation - it's an uphill argument for restoration of the city.

[glowworm]

It is already mostly dirt from the delta build up. Personally, I would love to sell a few mountains of real limestone fill from any one of our many mountains.

We have a bunch of them and could easily sell a few and float them down the Missisip.. SMILE Problem Solved!

[Graybeard58]

Sure it can, all it takes is a few truck loads of dirt to raise the city to around 100' above sea level.

Do you have any idea how many cubic miles of dirt that would take?

[caryatid]

It was a dumb place to put a city ...

It was not a dumb place to put a city. They built the city on the first high land upriver from the Gulf of Mexico. THEY did not build in the swamps 300 years ago ... that was left for the folks of the early 20th century who believed themselves invincible. The old city ... the French Quarter, the CBD, the Garden District, and Uptown/Carrollton appear to have fared well ... anything beyond Freret [away from the River], I hear, flooded badly.

Invincibility obviously was a flawed concept.

---

I second the motion on the Muffalettas from the Central Market. And they always had big jars of my all time favorite Jordan Almonds ... my mother would buy a nickel's worth for me when I was a little girl ... I remember walking around all day clutching that little brown bag ... Old times there are not forgotten ....

[Cyber Liberty]

It seems like only yesterday the greens were lamenting the lost swamps of southern Iraq. Ruined for all time when Saddam drained them you know. Forever dried up.

'Till the US got there.

[facedown]

Any wonder why the LAT continues to lose readership?

[Mark was here]

Do you have any idea how many cubic miles of dirt that would take?

Enough to bury the current city.

Maybe it would be best to save wear and tear on all the trucks, and let those who want to assume the risks, do so at their own peril and live in a submarine with a screen door.

[sit-rep]

predictable...

[Roverman2K]

I know LAtimes is only sliming Bush here, but I for one do not want to have my tax dollars sent to pay for anymore LA, FL or any other damn state that has me bailing our coastal casinos and mobile home parks year after year.
FEMA should not be paying for any of this.
The states should, its their issue.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Exactly. I suspect NO is going to be a much smaller city with the people mostly living in the historical high areas.

[stylin19a]

The start of Coastal island and marshland restoration began in April 2005, that phase was to be complete October 2005.

enter Hurricane. 64,000 MORE acres lost..

can these marshlands be restored in a year ? No
Can a Katrina like hurricane hit again in a year ? Yes

how long has this plan been on the table ? Think "pre-Bush"

[caryatid]

  ** Louisiana PING **

---

[ If you would like on or off the LA Ping List please FReepmail
me and your name will be added to or taken off of the list. ]

[TheOracleAtLilac]

Curious:

Was this from the news or op-ed section of the LAT ?