Posted on 01/21/2006 5:58:55 PM PST by securityMama
PASS CHRISTIAN, Miss. (AP) -- Dreams of the future here are just sketches: Friendly streets lined with a welcoming mix of homes, stores and sidewalks. Neighborhood parks for play, picnics and a shady respite from the Southern sun. A bustling waterfront.
Reality lies on the ground, for mile upon mile of this hurricane-blasted stretch of Gulf Coast, a mess of splintered homes, flattened trees and tent cities housing hundreds still homeless nearly five months after Katrina.
Many people are neck-deep in that reality, scratching for the basics of meals, shelter and a job. But a high-powered group of community leaders, elected officials and architects are busily hammering out an ambitious framework for what could come next - to rebuild the entire 80-mile stretch of Mississippi's coast in a way that could produce a new model for small towns.
They are creating a test case for a different vision of America, one that seeks to turn away from the suburbs of the past half-century and instead embrace an idealized life of small towns and compact cities. It aims to resurrect the best of the past - evening promenades, neighborhood groceries, even trolleys - with the promise of the future's technology, jobs and transportation.
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
NO is going to spend the next 10 years whining and feeling sorry for itself.
What happened to NO shouldn't happen anyplace but it's time to tighten the old belt and move on.
no Nagin, Blanko, or Landrieu to keep these folks stymird and whining........life goes on.
That's affirmative. The leaders and citizens of the Mississippi Gulf Coast are working hard to restore the cities and communities to pre-Katrina status. No whinin' there (or at least very little!)
Not building "projects" to house the useless would be a good start in the rebirth of NO. I'll bet the other towns won't have them!
Note to self: it is unfair to assume that because one can only afford to live with government assistance, that one is useless. But from now on, a hand up, not a handout!
Hey, if you wanna rebuild the coast where Katrina's surge took it out, knock yourself out.
Just don't ask for my tax dollars to help out.
Now, if you want to move inland past where the surge hit, we can talk. But I have no desire to pay to set up the bowling pins all over again. If anyone wants to enjoy the pleasures or business benefits of living or having a business on the coast, they need to incurr the risks, not taxpayers.
That's funny thanks for posting it!
Drive by MS ping!
Omigosh!
Those pics are a HOOT!
Thanks, D59!
New Orleans officials aren't interested because it sounds like work, and they couldn't keep on blaming Bush for their inability to get their acts together
Those T shirts are fantastic--where do I get one?
This isn't even about New Orleans. Sheesh.
Fur Shur, hurricane gonna' blow.
Build wherever and whatever you want, but not on the taxpayers dime. We have to draw a line somewhere, sometime.
ROFLOL! Great pics!
"Build wherever and whatever you want, but not on the taxpayers dime."
They are enacting new codes that require the beachfront properties to be built on stilts to obtain flood insurance, and by extension financing. So it's not just setting up the pins to be knocked down again.
Fine...then the next time a major West Coast city is taken out by an earthquake...or when NYC is taken out by a hurricane...or when downtown St. Louis or Chicago is flattened by a tornado....we will just let the rubble lay where it is and ignore the economic damage to this country and its citizens.
Geesh...I thought we Americans were all in this together.
Lemme see. The last time San Fran was taken out by an earthquake was 1904. Tornadoes do not take out a city.
Meanwhile, the Mississippi coast has faced Camille in 1969 and Katrina in 2005. The two highest surge events in recent history. And we are on a hurricane cycle uptick.
The government got out of rebuilding homes in a floodplain. They instead offered to move towns to higher ground one last time. We should make the same offer to those along the Gulf Coast - if you wish to move to safer ground, the US will help you. If you wish to rebuild in harm's way, you're on your own.
If you wish to live in a major hurricane surge zone, you should bear that risk yourself. Or maybe you are of a liberal mindset that risk should be mitigated by someone else.
*snort* What a goober! It's liberals, not conservatives, even the 'neo' kinds, who believe in the kind of central planning required for the New Urbanist ideas. Sounds like this guy just has a burr up his butt about conservatives.
That being said, I like the idea of the tighter, walkable town. Actually, areas of Pass Christian, Bay St. Louis and Waveland were like that before they began to grow larger in the last 50 years. Lots of people like living in that sort of place. It's just that the areas of towns that were built that way were in the centers of towns, and have long since either been demolished, or are pretty crime ridden. This is a way to get back that type of area without the built in crime factor. As long as people still have the choice to live there, or on larger lots with the houses they want, I don't see a problem with part os towns being built this way.
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