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• Friday, February 24, 2006 05:39 PM

  Restoring NOLA, why the many delays?

  The delays and refusals to commit to the kind of levee-improvement and service restoration which would enable the

  exiles to return and rebuild makes me wonder: could there

  be an element of Political/Ethnic cleansing in all these

  non-plans? A lot of the Black Exiles from NOLA were Democratic

  voters, and keeping them away tips Louisiana from a Red-Blue

  voting balance to a Deep Red majority. Plus, the "legal theft"

  of their houses and lots for resale at a penny-on-the-Franklin

  or less to developers would give a big unearned windfall to

  someone. Maybe the plan is to turn the 9th Ward and etc. into

  one big Ship Canal.

  What if Black America comes to the same suspicion? What if

  they say " No 9th? No Orleans!" What if they decide to try

  organizing tourist boycotts against the "White Heights" of

  the French Quarter? Wouldn't it be better to plan for and

  execute Dutch Seawall quality dykes and levees around New

  Orleans itself to save the culture and avoid that bitterness?

  Of course, if return-prevention really IS the plan, what if

  the NOLA exiles were to thwart the electoral-balance aspects

  of it by all moving back to Lafayette, Baton Rouge, Morgan City

  and etc., and establish a bunch of New Orleans in Exile-type

  neighborhoods? Louisiana would retain its Red-Blue balance,

  and chunks of the culture would be preserved in nearby cities.

  —Mr. Midwest
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