Posted on 08/29/2007 4:21:44 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
Bush's inaction leaves New Orleans mired
Dear President Bush, don't be afraid to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty when you address New Orleans today. You might be shocked by what you don't see. Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Big Easy two years ago today, wiped out whole neighborhoods, killed 1,800 in the region and threatened the spirit of a city that made its mark by its improvised music -- and its laid-back way of life.
But much of that has changed.
Federal spending on Gulf Coast repairs has exceeded $114 billion, and we hear you're seeking an additional $7.6 billion to restore New Orleans' mangled levee system. That's pocket change compared to the more than $500 billion we've spent so far on Iraq. If you can rebuild a nation, surely you can rebuild a single city.
Perhaps you should take a cue from Sen. Barack Obama, who suggested creating a national catastrophic insurance reserve to assist affected homeowners.
We aren't blaming you for local corruption that has slowed progress, but two years ago, you said you'd take control.
"When the federal government fails to meet such an obligation, I, as President, am responsible for the problem, and for the solution," you said.
If that's true, let's take a look at your solutions:
YOU SAID: "We're going to restore order in the city of New Orleans."
WHAT HAPPENED: Military police still patrol the streets. The murder rate has doubled with more than 125 homicide victims so far this year. Burglary rates jumped 73 percent since Katrina. Police ranks have fallen, and as of July, no repairs had been made to damaged police stations.
YOU SAID: "I appreciate that FEMA will be providing a lot of temporary housing, and that's one of the responsibilities that Federal Emergency Management Agency assumes, to find shelter for people."
WHAT HAPPENED: FEMA spent $7.6 billion to repair and replace about 1.4 million homes. The agency also paid $2.3 billion on rent. Today 61,817 families live in FEMA trailers and shelters.
Another federal program designed to rehab damaged homes will fall short by $5 billion. That's partly because FEMA underestimated the need for house repairs. Only 45,000 of the 184,000 who asked for help have received it.
YOU SAID: "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."
WHAT HAPPENED: Disgraced former FEMA director Michael Brown has since taken a job selling disaster response and data-mining technology.
YOU SAID: "Out of New Orleans is going to come that great city again."
WHAT HAPPENED: Before Katrina, New Orleans had 128 public schools, only 83 have reopened. Before Katrina, the city had 13 public libraries, today it has nine. Fewer than two-thirds of pre-storm hospital beds are available. Just 98 out of the 276 child-care facilities have reopened. Only 60 percent of its pre-Katrina population of 455,000 reside in New Orleans today.
Local musicians -- the city's heart and soul -- are barely making it. Once numbering 3,000, musicians have dropped to 1,800 -- with many begging to be paid minimum wage. So desperate, a few dozen took to the streets Sunday protesting the cut-throat wages.
What remains in parts of New Orleans is a ghost of what was. Many homes are still in disrepair and unoccupied, their front stoops leading to piles of splintered two-by-fours and dangling wires.
What we're asking, Mr. President: How can New Orleans achieve greatness, when so many residents can't go home?
mailto:letters@suntimes.com
There will be one more rememberance of Katrina in 2008. In 2009, especially if a Dem wins the Presidency, there will be no coverage of Katrina.
The other 40% are smart enough to not go back to living below sea level. Maybe that is why there are fewer schools, libraries, and hospital beds.
New Orleans is Dead.
The people who still live there are to hard-headed or stupid to notice.
Someone needs to tell these people that living in the path of some of the most powerful hurricanes in history in houses that are below sea level is idiocy, and no amount of government spending is going to remedy that.
I do not want my tax dollars being spent to bring this poster-child of a liberal hell hole city back to life. The entire area should be razed to the ground and turned into wetlands. Then the envirowhacko liberal laws will make re-developing it impossible.
Add up all the taxpayer money that has been poured into NO. Divide that by the number of people supposedly affected... You still get a big number.
But a lot of folks decided to not use the payouts they have gotten for rebuilding, instead choosing to continue to find ways to leech off of society (many of which were doing that BEFORE the hurricane - this just gave them new excuses).
Drove through NO back in early July and was completely disgusted with the general lack of progress. But I did notice some nifty decorative concrete walls along the interstate to block the view of certain neighborhoods... I guess the idea was to hide the problem...
But a continued drive up the coast found Biloxi and Gulfport actually making progress. And they have not received the same media attention or government attention. Figure that out...
And Chicago citizens re-built the entire city, bigger and better, after the 1871 fire without a single penny from the federal government.
One would think that a newspaper writer in Chicago might mention that fact, but no! Chicago newspaper writers get more stupid as each day passes.
Okay, look I’m getting tired of “bushbots” trying to cover for him all of the time. We all KNOW Bush personally blew up one of the retaining walls, I think it was the wall protecting the Black ward in town. Now let’s tell the truth here. He was seen cleaning mud off his cowboy boots as he ran back to AF 1 laughing his ash off and slapping palms with Rove.
Who rebuilt New Orleans after the wipe-outs in ‘27 and ‘65?? (I think those were the years)
It is no accident by the MSM, that they have totally ignored the incompetence of state and local leaders. It is often said that the fish rots from the head down, in this case, it is the opposite.
Perhaps the people of New Orleans should follow the example of the Russian people who lived near Chernobyl, they were smart enough not to go back.
Maybe the answer is that, aside from the French quarter, it wasn't.
What remains in parts of New Orleans is a ghost of what was. Many homes are still in disrepair and unoccupied, their front stoops leading to piles of splintered two-by-fours and dangling wires.
OMG! Not the musicians!
Unlike the author, I fail to see how this is the President's fault....
Bingo.
Don’t forget that the Democrats will pledge to solve all of New Orleans problems. But if a Democrat wins the Presidency, nothing will happen.
After all, the Democrats cured AIDS and solved homelessness.
Halliburton made a fortune off that. I hear there’s oil in the 9th ward, that’s why they wanted it vacant.
While we’re at it, don’t forget the rebuilding of Galveston and San Francisco - without Federal money.
The fact is, a lot of former New Orleans residents don’t want to go back. For a lot of people, life in the city wasn’t great to begin with. The flood relocation was the first opportunity a lot of people had to get out of New Orleans. Now that they’re out of it, many people want to stay out.
Ah, but you see, when you are asking other people to pay to restore your property, you have to give them a reason to care.
Improvised music and a publicly-subsidized laid-back way of life... I suppose I could get behind this if they'd do it right, like turn the 9th ward into a sort of theme park, portraying the "laid-back" 9th ward residents with the same sort of indignity usually reserved for portrayals of rural southerners.
But they don't need all those people for that, all they need is a cast of colorful characters. So pick your most colorful characters and then get back to the rest of us.
My best friend’s sister lost everything in the flood. At age 56 she moved to a city 500 miles away, got a job and a new apartment and started her life over. Obviously it was a major trauma but she is doing well considering her circumstances.
Why do these articles never point out that it was the siphoning of money, the use of lower quality building materials when the levees were built, that led to the devastation? The Dems were in charge in Louisiana then and the Dems are still in charge of Louisiana. The constant blame placed on Bush is BDS all they way.
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