Rebuilding New Orleans

[mosgood]

I say  "Don't do it"  It had some great history but it's gone.


if it's rebuild .. let it be through time.. and natural progression.  Not by bumping a butt load of government cash into the area.

[Maverick]

The other night there was a story in the local Lafayette Louisiana TV station about the funding problem witht he "road home" and rebuilding. This is ironic as a couple weeks ago there was another snews story about finances in the state of Louisiana. It seems there was a bit of a surplus in the budget. The legislature had to meet to decide how to spend it. It was a tidy sum, I believe the news said it was 28 billion. I wonder with all the surplus, why New Olreans has to ask the feds for more money.

[Chairboy]

I say have the Disney imagineers come in and do downtown the way they did it in Disneyland.  There was a news hubbub a couple years ago from a politician who had herself photoshopped into Disneyland's french quarter for an ad.  It was uncovered when someone noticed the trashcan in the background was a disney one, not a New Orleans one.

[tedrbr]

Originally posted by Maverick
I wonder with all the surplus, why New Orleans has to ask the feds for more money.

Because New Orleans is infamous for gaff and corruption among it's three-tier society?  Why spend your own money when you can go after Uncle Sam and the insurance industry?

Example:
The Levy system's maintenance and repairs are done by contractors on a by-parish (county) basis.  Each Parish decides who gets the contract, which are lucrative, and often goes by the good ol' boy system of politicians kickbacks to financial supporters.
After Katrina, it was argued that the levy maintenance should be done under one central state authority.  There was a vote.  The repairs and maintenance of the levy system remains under the good ol' boy network on a by-parish basis, last I saw reported.  

By all means, let's spend federal dollars on rebuilding a city below sea level back to the way it was.  

My question:  Will Texas be able to round up all the ex-New Orleaners and deport them back to Louisiana.  I hear tell they've been causing problems in Texas.

[FrodeMk3]

Ted, thought the Army Corps of Engineers' had oversight of the whole levy project?

[Speed55]

Originally posted by tedrbr

By all means, let's spend federal dollars on rebuilding a city below sea level back to the way it was.  

 

[DiabloTX]

Originally posted by tedrbr
Because New Orleans is infamous for gaff and corruption among it's three-tier society?  Why spend your own money when you can go after Uncle Sam and the insurance industry?

Example:
The Levy system's maintenance and repairs are done by contractors on a by-parish (county) basis.  Each Parish decides who gets the contract, which are lucrative, and often goes by the good ol' boy system of politicians kickbacks to financial supporters.
After Katrina, it was argued that the levy maintenance should be done under one central state authority.  There was a vote.  The repairs and maintenance of the levy system remains under the good ol' boy network on a by-parish basis, last I saw reported.  

By all means, let's spend federal dollars on rebuilding a city below sea level back to the way it was.  

My question:  Will Texas be able to round up all the ex-New Orleaners and deport them back to Louisiana.  I hear tell they've been causing problems in Texas.

Spot on.

There's a big difference between maintaining and rebuilding the levee's.  Corps of Engineers are responsible for rebuilding.  Locally for maintenance.

As for the Katrina 'fugee's, don't even get me started.  Houston more or less got raped.  Did you see the news story on the FEMA temporary housing that was abused by these so-called people in need?  I understand that the same efforts were respected for the most part by the victims in Mississippi.  The Katrina "victims" however, were a different story.  Whatever you've heard about how they acted here in Houston, trust me, the reality is far worse.

[Bodhi]

I visited New Orleans over Easter.  

My girlfriend's family lives there and she did too, prior to Katrina.  Her father's home only had about a foot of water.  He just moved back in in November 06.  Her Mother's home was 400 yds from the break in the 19th ST Canal.  She has never moved back into her home as it flooded to the second story, and instead fixed up her mother and father's home.  Both of them have money, which they spent to fix their homes, as the hurricane insurance was denied, as the government backed the insurance companies and said it was a flood and the hurricane had nothing to do with the flood... (go figure)     Both of them are in process of law suits against their insurers.

The big problem that is happening in New Orleans at this time is lack of leadership.  Areas are being allowed to have reconstruction on a piece meal basis.  The bad thing about this is that the city now has to get utilities to these areas.  The leadership should have flat out closed up areas and just not let people in, instead, they vented, postured, and continued the same ole corruption.  

One misleading thing though is this.  The federal government is helping on a massive scale for levy projects (which is scary) and some public works items.  They are not (for the most part) building any permanent housing to replace what is lost.  That is up to you as a citizen, otherwise, you can just live in a FEMA trailer, or move.


The funny thing about all this though is... were this New England's coast, Florida, California, or any other affluent area, the problem would have been worked on far more diligently, and effectively.  Take what you want from that.

[Holden McGroin]

Originally posted by tedrbr
Because New Orleans is infamous for gaff and corruption among it's three-tier society?  Why spend your own money when you can go after Uncle Sam and the insurance industry?

How dare you criticize these poor people?!

[Larry]

Originally posted by tedrbr
My question:  Will Texas be able to round up all the ex-New Orleaners and deport them back to Louisiana.  I hear tell they've been causing problems in Texas.

Tell me about it. In the weeks after they came to houston crime skyrocketed.

[DiabloTX]

We used to supply the broadband services to Celine's home in Lake Las Vegas.  Diva doesn't even begin to describe that *****.

[Shuckins]

Little Rock has some of that "refugee" scum too.   Homicide rates over the last two years have been through the roof.

Why the federal goverment allowed the most corrupt city government in the country to dictate how federal tax dollars would be spent on the rebuilding is beyond me.

[tedrbr]

Originally posted by FrodeMk3
Ted, thought the Army Corps of Engineers' had oversight of the whole levy project?

Corps of Engineers was the overall authority and handled large issues such as dredging operations and major upgrades and the rebuilding, AFAIK, but local regular maintenance and repairs was done at the Parish level, from what I've read about the issue.  

Who set, inspected, or enforced whatever standards there might have been seems to be a bit murky though.  It does not seem to be well managed before Katrina, but it looks like they are going back to the way things were.

[lasersailor184]

The problem with New Orleans is it's self sustainment.  Because it existed, it needed to do away with river erosion.  But, the erosion also built up the the river delta, upon which NO was built.  So they had to build up huge levies to keep the water back.

It's a pseudo catch-22.  The moment they built New Orleans, it was just a gamble as to how much time they'd get out of it.

[Odee]

Originally posted by mosgood
I say  "Don't do it"  It had some great history but it's gone.


if it's rebuild .. let it be through time.. and natural progression.  Not by bumping a butt load of government cash into the area.

I concur.  Anything worth doing is worth doing right... and given NO's history of corruption, it just plain is not worth saving, let alone rebuilding.