69% of poor evacuees are here to stay (Houston)

Houston Comical ^ | 9/8/06 | ALLAN TURNER

[CobaltBlue]

I'll be interested to see more detailed breakdowns on the makeup of the evacuees to each area.

I had friends air-lifted to Houston -- disclosure, I lived in NO for 18 years. They were reunited with their families and friends because those of us outside the vicinity kept a phone tree and email tree going, passing on contact information, and I also posted information on a blog.

But these people were all white, college-educated, money in the bank, computer literate.

At one point, my uncle had 15 or 16 evacuees in his house, but he's a retired dentist, he could afford it (bless his heart).

I don't blame Houstonians for having "compassion fatigue" -- but the way to solve a problem is to be proactive. Just complaining about them is no more helpful to these people than their own complaints.

[PAR35]

My suggestion: concentration camps.

Please, please. No inflamatory language.

Those are going to be 'resettlement centers', and they should be located where the weather is much cooler.

[CobaltBlue]

I should clarify that I don't expect government to be the solution, either.

I was just reading that Catholic Charities hasn't had any volunteers to help rehab New Orleans houses in weeks.

[CobaltBlue]

Why "where the weather is much cooler"?

[PAR35]

Why "where the weather is much cooler"?

1. There are more liberals up there.

2. I get tired of yankees on FR telling folks in Texas, Baton Rouge and Jackson that they need to be more compassionate towards the New Orleans refugees.

3)There are a lot of former military bases which can be converted.

4. Wasn't there someone in the story complaining about the Houston heat.

[nmh]

"Well, New Orleans does appear to have gridded streets, less traffic, and fewer highways than Houston does. It's a natural consequence of being laid out much earlier and stopping economic growth in the 1960s."

Downtown Philadelphia had the same issues till they built I95 and other roads to give people access to it.

My question is WHY didn't they do this there? Fewer highways is an excuse. It's the PEOPLE. It's the people running the city and the people IN IT.

It's typical demoncrat ideology, pity them, keep them down and those in this category going along with it.

[half-cajun]

"The Houston Chronic is more liberal than even the Austin paper"

Last week the Houston paper actually used editorial space to blast Republicans for calling the opposing party the democrat party rather than the democratic party!

[nmh]

"I understand what you are saying, but my comment was simply that there is no way they can return to that life, and no way that those same conditions they were living in can be rebuilt for them to return to NO."

The problem is they are trying to return to that life. They need to move on in more ways than one. What puzzles me is they keep VOTING for the same people that keep them DOWN.

"Relief agencies in the past might have been able to rent older, run-down yet still adequate housing for the poorest, but those structures no longer exist and will not be rebuilt."

Yes, for those exceptions ... they shouldn't be rebuilt. As far as I am concerned rebuilding anything there is pouring money down a rat hole. It's going to happen again.

"New Orleans would be foolish to use it's resources at this time to entice a non-productive portion of it's society to return."

Problem is, if they don't encourage them to return, those keeping them down won't be voted back in office or remain in power. No one, absolutely NO ONE, worth their salt, would vote for such corrupt incompetent people to run their state. They routinely victimize the poor - perhaps it's like domestic violence where one divorces a partner and signs up again for another abusive situation - because that is what they are used to ... .

"The people of Houston are to be commended for their compassion, but if their decision-makers did not forsee this situation, they are very foolish indeed."

Agree! The Houston people have BIG HEARTS and should not be taken advantage of. Hopefully some success stories will emerge to encourage others struggling.

[nmh]

BTW, I'm not trying to be "mean" or "insensitive" but if everyone used these excuses America never would have happened or have been so blessed. Of course there will always be "exceptions" but it seems to me those "exceptions" are a way of life by choice - and that mentality is destroying our country.

[Liberal Classic]

NOI?

[Liberal Classic]

Same here. I know a few folks from NO that plan on staying. They're good folks, they don't have much to go back to so they're going to make their home here. We got some rotten eggs, that's for sure. But we had plenty of our own before the storm.

[Liberal Classic]

That's a good one.

[RS]

We seem to be in agreement. Our money is better spent giving those who are able to take advantage of it a hand up.

NO has a lot of rebuilding to do, if they can somehow abandon the "prevailing wage" laws they might be able to take these unskilled and inexperienced workers and make a force out of them -

Rebuild the City AND it's Citizens.

Perhaps even instill in them a sense of pride in rebuilding their hometown.


If the government comes in and puts up rows of low-income housing and just packs them back in, we have lost them for generations.

[river rat]

You're asking too many logical questions..
I also suspect you already know the answers, too.

One group has been accustomed to being paid for doing nothing.
The other group knows they only get paid for doing something.

Semper fi

[Dick Vomer]

"the problem" is that Houston makes you work for a living and if you break the law we'll lock your a## up.

The main problem is lazy, nipple people that can't find the government tit fast enough to slide into the lazy shiftless "Big Easy" lifestyle.... gawd why can't we ship them to Baton Rouge or every town in Louisiana taking 5-6 "victims".

Nation of Islam..... bwahahahahahaha... wait till this country gets a couple of more "Islamic" terror attacks... you make up less than 10% of the population and are a "cute" little bow tied novelty.

[blam]

"Every city that took in a sizeable number of refugees has encountered the same problems, just on a smaller scale since none took in anywhere near the numbers that Houston did."

Alabama did a background check on evacuees to this state. We eventually took 23,000 and have had few problems. Now, keep in mind that the population of metro Houston is larger than the whole state of Alabama.