And here lies the problem. Take the real estate in the 9th Ward. The current levees could not even stand up to Category 2 conditions. What is the point of bundling up that real estate for redevelopment if it is just going to get flooded again?
And even if we were to build Cat-5 levees, the entire region is subsiding - so they might be back to Cat-3 in a few decades.
And that does not even address the corruption in levee construction that apparently contributed to failures. We could spend 30 billion to make supposed Cat 5 levees just to have them fail because of shoddy construction because the Levee Commission gave a contract to a hack.
So Blanco and company have a plan for buying up this real estate. But the political pathologies that magnified the scale of this disaster are still in place. And until the people of Louisiana get rid of their corrupt hack politicians, there will be resistance to sending a hundred billion more dollars there.
I hate to be so blunt, but that is the overwhelming feeling I get from those I talk to about this.
We will get rid of them at the very first opportunity I can assure you of that. Nagin and Blanco for starters are toast. Although I think their problem is more incompetence then corruption it's a start.
The locals weren't prepared and did a crappy job of anything imediately after the storm when the enormity of the devastation was just sinking in. We've had five months now for the Feds to get their act together on this and it still isn't taking place. Surely, you can't blame the locals for this. This attitude says every state for themselves. Is that what you want for this nation?
Good post. For an audio-visual aid in seeing how a big corrupt city handles "redevelopmant", people should research how Philadelphia "redeveloped" the two blocks which were incinerated in the "Move" fire.
you must be a carpenter...you sure hit that nail on the head.
You have a bunch of brain dead democrats running the show in Baton Rouge and all they are interested in is getting their hands on the money.