Posted on 08/30/2005 3:53:30 PM PDT by Dont Mention the War
On the southern fringe of New Orleans' City Park there is a live oak with a branch that dips low, goes briefly underground, and comes up the other side still thriving.
It's ancient and gnarled, this tree, and filtered sunglight slants through its crown at dusk. It's a sublime thing.
When we talk about these majestic items that dot New Orleans' landscape we say, "is," but we may mean, "was." The reports are still scattered, the news from the ground still incomplete, but Hurricane Katrina may have annihilated New Orleans.
It looks bad to everyone. "It's impossible for us to say how many structures can be salvaged," Gov. Kathleen Blanco said late Tuesday. But can the birthplace of jazz truly be wiped from the face of the earth?
New Orleans may yet surprise. Too often the city is written off as a whiskey nirvana, where one guzzles Pimms cups at Napoleon House in the French Quarter at night, and eggs and grits at the Camellia Grill in the Riverbend at sunrise.
In truth, however, New Orleans is as sublime as it is Rabelaisian. For example - and this is a thing few tourists know - the French Quarter, home of Bourbon Street and jazz and possessor of a global reputation for parties, is in fact a National Park. Now and then, through the spokes of a horse-drawn carriage taking honeymooners up Royal Street, one can spot the distinctive, "Smokey," hat of a park ranger telling a more earnest visitor some genuine history.
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
THE money is still dry in the banks to pay him so I bet he's good till his term is up...now,what about the other city servants?...do they draw a paycheck?....it will be interesting.
The city is cultural hothouse, music, culinary arts, cinema just to name a few. And that culture has seeped into and become a part of American culture as well.
New Orleans' uniqueness is part of what makes America unique.
To be sure the city has problems, but it's my hope that this tragedy will be the catalyst to bring the city together and work to a better future. As a former resident , I can tell you there are few New Orleans who would disagree the city is worth saving.
No.
And insurance co.'s should no longer insure square frame houses in hurricane prone areas, but only insure these in the future
http://www.monolithicdome.com
If we said nobody should live in places that are dangerous, then that eliminates pretty much everywhere in the US I'd like to live.
Florida? Hurricanes. Texas? Hurricanes. Louisiana? Hurricanes.
California? Earthquakes. Malibu? Fires. Pacific Palisades? Mudslides. Newport Beach? I'm sure there's a giant tidal wave with my name on it, if I moved there.
Hawaii? I'm sure there are hurricanes there too.
Okay, let's say we give the warm weather areas to the primordal ooze and move back East to the ancient industrial areas. My God I hate to live in those places. Then we have winter.
Guess what? Winter kills more people in a year than these disasters do in a decade.
I would rather pull together through my tax money and help out the people who suffer from a disaster than not be allowed to live in a disaster zone. Because, unfortunately, those are the only places I like to live :-(.
D
Oh yes, on the topic.
The French Quarter survived, right?
Then New Orleans will survive, in some fashion or another.
And you can take that to the bank.
D
In the world of the Democrats, the bigger the failure, the higher the praise. So expect him to run for President in a few years.
NO will rebuild on higher ground. Bourbon Street will be back with the bars, jazz and Mardi Gras. It will be cleaner and fresher but retain it's old NO charm. That's my prediction.
People can choose to live anywhere they wish. For centuries people have been building their homes and cities on rivers, oceans, volcanoes, geological faults, etc. Are you or the Federal government going to establish guidelines on where people can live? Should San Francisco be shut down since it is built on the San Andreas fault?
New Orleans is a great American city with a rich history that has contrbuted to the greatness of this country. The famous Higgins boat was invented and manufactured there that helped us to take the fight to the enemy on Normandy and the Pacific. Over 20,000 boats were built there. It is no accident that New Orleans was selected as the site of the D-Day museum.
New Orleans has given us jazz, great cuisine, and much more. From its beginnings, New Orleans has been a city wed to river and ocean; an almost natural dock for the transshipment of goods. Pierce Lewis, perhaps its most knowledgeable scholar, describes New Orleans as the "inevitable city on an impossible site." It is a tribute to the ingenuity and greatness of Americans that a great city could be built and then flourish.
Few census were taken during New Orleans' colonial period, but it is estimated that about 250 people lived in the town during the early 1700's. By 1760, the population numbered about 4,000, and by 1803, it was upwards of 8,000.
By 1800, New Orleans had become a center for the preparation, storage, shipping, and financing of local sugar and rice crops, cotton from further up the river, and wheat and other products from the American midwest. Clearly, no matter what Spain's wishes or policy, New Orleans' natural economic development was tied to its position near the outlet of the greatest river in the United States.
From 1803 until 1861, New Orleans' population increased from 8,000 to nearly 170,000. The 1810 census revealed a population of 10,000 making New Orleans the United States' fifth largest city, after New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Baltimore and the largest city west of the Appalachians. From 1810 until 1840, New Orleans grew at a faster rate than any other large American city. By 1830, New Orleans was America's third largest city, behind New York and Baltimore; and in 1860, it was still the nation's fifth largest city. New Orleans, despite the Post-Civil War boom that transformed the North into an urban-industrial area, would remain among the twelve largest U.S. cities until 1910.
New Orleans' growth between 1810 and 1860 was the result of its unique geographical situation, the increasing industrialization of the American Northeast and Great Britain, and the westward movement of the young United States.
New Orleans will survive and thrive. The people are taxpayers like you and me. They pay higher rates of insurance because of where they live. Instead of pontificating about where they should live and whether they should share the risk on society, have a little compassion for your fellow Americans. This is a major tragedy and no one should blame the victims for being struck by a once-in-a-lifteme natural disaster.
You seem so smug about living in Iowa, which I guess makes you less a burden on the society. Well, Iowa receives federal disaster relief funds for floods and droughts as well as generous farm subsidies. How many times have the Quad cities been flooded out over the last century?
Hell, yes. This is America, baby.
Not for a dime.
Those people know they are on a major fault. They know that a 'big one' has hit before. They know another 'big one' is inevitable. It's not a random happenstance. The disaster will be massive & they KNOW it is coming, yet choose to stay.
You pay if you stay. Not the rest of the world.
No reason why it can't be remade into a city of the future, keeping much of the attitude and charm (including permissible public drinking) but fixing up the entrenched social and physical problems. There is no reason a renovated New Orleans couldn't be the top city of the South for decades to come.
After the devastation of the 1900 hurricane, Galvestonians with turn of the century technology, built a 17-foot seawall and raised the entire city five feet in elevation. Another major hurricane hit in 1911 but a few hundred died rather than the thousands of 1900.
I think Louisiana would be well advised to rebuild the metropolis *north* of Lake Ponchartrain around where Hammond or Covington is now but those who see romance and culture as New Orleans' legacy will not allow that.
So perhaps the best solution is to bulldoze the entire city (yes, I'm serious), fill it with silt and debris then rebuild it ten feet higher - above sea level.
It would take 1-2 years at best to begin making it a liveable city again but it would prevent the levee-breaking disaster we are witnessing this week. New Orleans would have a much happier long-term prospect if such a plan was done.
Maybe a good soak will take care of this smell. Salt water does wonders removing the smell of vomit and stale beer. I really hope most of the old city survives. It is truly a piece of American history.
But leave the Democrats at the origional site to fill in the low spots.
I agree I think if they rebuild in that area it will not be as it once was. I actually think that New Orleans itself will be moved and rebuilt on higher ground.
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