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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Sorry Tad, but for many decades you haven't had many hurricanes to be protected against. For many future decades, you will. Since many of them could be Cat 4 or 5 it will be extemely expensive and difficult to protect the low-lying areas. Get out while the gettin's good. The country will quickly tire of rebuilding every few years.
As a native New Orleanian, thank you for continuing to report on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It's not over, not by a long shot.
I am encountering a lot of compassion fatigue where people's attitudes seem to have gone from “you poor thing” to "you got what they deserved - living there." I don’t hear anybody bitching about how the Netherlands are below sea level. California has earthquakes, mudslides, wild fires, and the possibility of Tsunamis, yet, no one has called for everyone to vacate that area. I’m sure if some disaster struck, people would claim they knew it was coming all along. Hindsight is 20/20. Have some compassion, people.
I completely agree with the idea that the city needs to get smaller, and tough decisions need to be made. But the TIME it is taking to make these decisions is completely unacceptable. My house was flooded with 7’ of water. My husband’s job moved, so it is unlikely we could or would return. But SIX months after the storm and we still don’t know what to do with our former house. Should we pay to gut it? Should we tear it down? Can we feasibly sell it? That poor thing still has all our things that we wouldn’t salvage (which is almost everything) sitting in there molding away, the fridge laying on its side, never yet (hopefully never ever) opened to the rotting former food within. We can’t make well-informed decisions until they decide which neighborhoods get the axe and until the FEMA flood maps are done. For someone who is decisive and likes to move forward - this waiting is unbearable.
And frankly, yes, the city is sentimental. That’s what made the city special, not the French Quarter bars that tourists puked in. People are fiercely loyal to their neighborhoods. We knew our neighbors and probably their parents, too. The people seemed as permanent and as rooted as the homes. We could walk to locally owned businesses in our pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods. And losing that is why I am so sad I had to move to America.
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.
It's unfortunate that of all the banners and spray-painted messages one sees while driving through New Orleans, most of which are welcoming neighbors back and rallying support for one another, this is the one that was chosen by Salon.com to introduce this article. Yes, the proof is in the photo. There is no doubt that this phenomena occured in the immediate aftermath of the storm. Still, I'd was saddened that Salon.com failed to curbed the impulse to grab at a sensationalistic photograph and instead choosing one more appropriate to the story: How are we, as neighbors, coming together to make painful decisions about our city while trying to savor what is left? This article was not about looters.
For those who have read this article, please consider that you are reading about people organizing at the grass-roots level to put their neighborhoods back together. Is that not a positive trend? How else would one have New Orleanians cope? We are pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps.
Michelle Goldberg is getting close to the heart of what is occuring in New Orleans. Its residents are digging deep within themselves to find solutions and they are reaching out to their neighbors to decode a complex series of maps riddled with mysterious green spots. As time passes, these spots are becoming fewer in number and less ominous. As a member of a neighborhood association facing issues similar to Broadmoore,and a leaking levee break, I can assure all readers that New Orleanians ARE aware that tough decisions that must be made about what areas of their beloved neighborhoods are viable and safe to return to. Many of our neighborhoods will never be the same. We're grieving that loss. Parts of neighborhoods will be rebuilt more creatively. We're excited about that prospect.
I find myself asking many friends, who are not locals, this questions: What would have happened if Hurricane Andrew, which decimated Homestead, Florida, hit Miami as it was forecasted to? That wonderful city dodged a bullet and a small town was wiped out. Look no further than Biloxi, Waveland and Bay St. Louis, MS for your answer. Indeed, much of Miami would have been destroyed by an enormous tidal surge and the slabs of houses wiped clean, debris sucked back out into the Atlantic. Should residents all along any open body of water pick up and move 100 miles inland? Where water meets land there is danger. Period.
We make our homes where we are born. New Orleans, like NYC and SF and LA and Miami (and so many more) is a city for which one develops physical affection. My family has been here for over 100 years. My grandfather was the founding chancelor of the University of New Orleans, which was, by the way, the first public university in the South to integrate its student body. While my grandparents evacuated their home in Bay St. Louis as they were told to do they still spent several days asleep in the back of their jeep in 90 degree heat and defecating behind trees until we could locate them. Katrina was a disaster. Few were spared. Even those, like myself, who evacuated, have suffered immeasurable losses. The sadness is numbing.
New Orleans has opened its arms to the rest of the world during Mardi Gras, Jazz Fest and all months in between. It offers a taste of Europe in the USA. Its climate is sub-tropical; the neighborhoods are lush and wild parrots live in our palm trees. We smell Sweet Olive trees and Magnolias almost year round. Our port is enormously important. The Mississippi Delta is one of only a few left in the world. A significant portion of oil and natural gas comes from this region. We were a city before America was a nation.
Why the vitriolic mail from individuals who happen to have been born or have chosen to live elsewhere in America? Is the money needed to shore up our levees outrageous in comparison to what our federal government spends elsewhere, such as rebuilding wetlands in Iraq? I think not. And wetlands, by the way, are the Gulf Coasts FIRST natural line of defense against a strong hurricane.
Caroline
NOLA native and former NYC resident
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
219 Democrats and one Republican join in favor of the legislation, which passed by a narrow margin
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Salon headlines in your mailbox
