Posted on 10/26/2005 7:05:32 AM PDT by robowombat
A Shrinking New Orleans Mayor Says Infrastructure Can't Support Previous Population
By Ceci Connolly and Manuel Roig-Franzia Washington Post Staff Writers Wednesday, October 26, 2005; A02
NEW ORLEANS, Oct. 25 -- Mayor C. Ray Nagin, who has vowed to resurrect his crippled city, conceded Tuesday that New Orleans will shrink to nearly half its pre-hurricane population and will have to make do with one-third of its previous budget.
With as many as 250,000 homes uninhabitable and some neighborhoods still lacking basic services, Nagin estimated the city's shattered infrastructure could support 250,000 to 300,000 residents over the next year, compared with the half a million people who lived here before Hurricane Katrina struck Aug. 29.
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In a city that was 67 percent African American, Nagin won by dominating the vote in majority white districts. Many of those make up the "geographic footprint" he has identified for repopulating after the hurricane, including the Garden District, the French Quarter and Uptown.
Even the election has become entangled in disaster recovery. Federal authorities have denied requests for the addresses of Katrina evacuees. City and state officials are battling with federal authorities over the release of addresses of evacuees that could be used in absentee balloting.
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The mayor's staff has identified more than a half-dozen locations that he said could support 4,000 trailers. FEMA housing expert James McIntyre said the agency has approved construction of sites to handle more than 1,700 trailers. Trailers will be placed in the parking lot of Touro hospital, three city parks, public school property and a former Winn-Dixie parking lot. The first few thousand units will be set aside for people involved in the reconstruction, Nagin said.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Well maybe the insurance companies know something that the rest of them choose to ignore- namely you don't build below sea level in a hurricane prone area.
If insurance companies won't insure them the rest of us don't want to pay for their ignorance/stubborness.
If we are going to spend billions of dollars to rebuild we might as well do it right.
first of all the oil refineries and oil port are not dependant on the city of NO being there.
Secondly the entire flow of the Mississippi is being captured by a smaller river (there was a thread posted on it here somewhere) that runs through Morgan city. Build a set of locks where the current dam/flood gate is and let nature take it's course. Build the new port in morgan city or there abouts.
Blow the levees and let the lake expand to it's natural borders. NO is a cesspool and will remain one.
Here is my suggestion, don't rebuild New Orleans. Any city built on a marsh, under sea level, and surrounded on three by water, shouldn't be been built in the first place.
However, the cold, hard facts won't stop the ignorant from searching for someone to blame their hardship on.
Yep, when somerthing goes wrong, the first thing to fix is the blame. PLUS, it seems an aspect of helplessness is the embracing of the notion that others, (e.g.: Mommie, teacher, the police, the government) are virtually all powerful, and so, if they don't give you what you think you need it must be because they are vicious, not because it can't be done or it would be bad for you. We have a large segment of our population, including many who vote, who are fundamentally infantile.
"If insurance companies won't insure them the rest of us don't want to pay for their ignorance/stubborness."
As long as the Federal government underwrites Flood Policies, YOU will pay whether you like it or not. It has nothing to with ignorance or subborness. You are making a mistake when you think Flood Insurance is underwritten by private Insurance companies.
Fine, let's not re-build New Orleans. Don't bitch then, when gas at the pumps exceeds $6 a gallon.
In the News/Activism forum, on a thread titled A Shrinking New Orleans, Bob Eimiller wrote:
You want a suggestion??
FILL IT IN and MOVE ON!
Okay. Now let's also abandon all cities on active geological faults (San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle), all other low-lying coastal cities (Houston, Miami, Washington, Philadelphia, Boston), all cities in river floodplains (St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Cincinnatti, Kansas City, Memphis, Minneapolis, St. Paul), and all cities in deserts without adequate water supplies (Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tucson, Salt Lake City, Albuquerque). Everyone in the United States has to move to Chicago.
I was trying to educate you a bit, so you would understand why you must pay for the rebuilding in New Orleans. Wasn't that your initial question? (And then YOU mentioned Insurance companies in your last post.) Flood Insurance is relative to your question.
Sorry I confused you. I think some of this stuff is over you head.
LOL!
If it turns out that the refineries didn't need New Orleans after all, and gas goes down, can we bulldoze the remains then?
Is cheap gasoline all that New Orleans means to you?
Wasn't Chicago originally marshland?
My guess? The school kids are all gone, and mostly young single people remain. Schools are a big expense.
"Is cheap gasoline all that New Orleans means to you?"
Did you even bother to read the entire thread? If you had taken the time to read the thread you would understand that I am an advocate for rebuilding New Orleans. My expensive gasoline argument is for the people who have no vested interest in the viability of this City, the same ones who want this city destroyed, or filled in, or bulldozed. I tell them to get ready for expensive gasoline then.
I live here! I once worked at the Port of New Orleans but Kartina changed all that. I want everything to come back as it once was and I've grown tired of all the know-it-alls who say bulldoze it, fill it in, burn it, etc. There are people struggling down here, people who have lost homes, jobs, loved ones, and entire livelihoods. Good people are struggling mightily down here to keep it together, hold their families together in some trying times.
This is not so much addressed to you as it is to the one's who look down their nose at New Orleans, the community and it's people........some who say right here on this thread "FILL IT IN and MOVE ON." There are others who think that's funny. And that attitude has prevailed here on FreeRepublic for weeks now. From their high and dry homes they cast stones.
Major port? Great!! Lets build a state of the art "major port" in an area.... ABOVE SEA LEVEL
My sentiment...exactly
.....Maybe Juan Williams got her the job to make him look smarter......
great thought but CiCi is pure old mean. She always ends with a vicious remark. She needs a good dragging to wear off her mean.
LOL Fault lines.... and "coastal" cities?
hmmmm Are you a gambling man? I would suspect the "odds" of more Hurricanes inundating that "hole" in the ground called "The Big Easy" are enormously... no infinitesimally greater than an earthquake swallowing another major city... There is an annual hurricane season in the Gulf of Mexico... IS there such thing as an earthquake season??? un uh
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