NAGIN: WE WILL HAVE "THE HOLY TRINITY OF RECOVERY"
Posted on 12/15/2005 10:08:51 AM PST by Ben Mugged
President Bush will request billions more to help rebuild the levee system in New Orleans, Louisiana, Donald Powell, the top federal official for reconstruction, announced Thursday.
"The levee system will be better and safer than it's ever been before," Powell said at the White House.
When asked if the levees would be built to withstand a Category 5 storm, officials used broader language instead, promising that the city's citizens would be safe and the levees would be "stronger and better."
"The federal government is committed to building the best levee system known in the world," said Powell. "It's a complicated issue." (Watch Powell announce more money for New Orleans -- 2:54)
The announcement came after Bush met in the Oval Office with Powell, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Lt. Gen. Carl Strock, the head of the Army Corps of Engineers.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Welcome to FR (relatively speaking)
I'm such a giving person.
Phew, I am glad Nagin was at the meeting...I am sure he had a lot of great insights to contribute. So $3B seems reasonable assuming the levees really do hold in future storms. Now what are Blanco and Nagin going to do with the other $247B they requested?
This is more interesting by who WASN't there then by who was.
No Governor Blanco, no Senator Landreau. I suppose they have cast their fate to the wind. Mayor Nagin, on the other hand, who USED to be a Republican, seems to be right in the thick of it. Nagin could be useful in grooming a new society and culture of New Orleans, one, dare I say it, of a more conservative bent.
Then again Nagin is the Mayor of NO and should be there. Thus my political speculation is for nought.
Wow, the Nawlins criminal politicians are gonna have to work overtime to figure out how to steal that much money.
I had always though Nagin only switched parties because of the truth that New Orleans was 70% black (meaning, 70% Democratic, at base)
One thing people forget about New Orleans is that, in Orleans Parish itself, Bush won the white vote. While it is true they have a gay community, and it is true they are run by Democrats, I never thought of New Orleans as a liberal city. With a few minor exceptions, New Orleans has always been a certain way, few places in America resist change more than it. One thing that could be done is to bring back the New Orleans of my fathers time, the New Orleans that was the one area of Louisiana that actually stood up to Huey Long, etc.
I met Nagin several times, all on business trips, (before Katrina), he seemed to me to be an intelligent man, a man who gave a damn about the city, and he has impressed me in office, most people not from the coast don't realize that more than any Mayor in recent history, he tried to root out corruption, and he cracked down on the brake-tags (I never understood what one of those was)
Use the buses to fill the gaps. They didn't use them before.
I suppose a Category 5-proof levee would cost $5 billion. But maybe it's just my optimism.
I think New Orleans should be rebuilt only if the residents of Louisiana are willing to pay for it.
In other news, ground broken on new casino construction!
It would be better to buy every New Orleans family a brand new house in the state of their choice and bulldoze what's left of the city. You would save money now and in the future too.
*ping*
I agree. If the levees are built two criteria:
1)No residential in the flood zones
2) No money given directly to the city or state as they misued it last time!
why not just burn it. same result.
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