|
The (Gulf) South Shall Rise Again?!?
The question has been asked, "Should New Orleans be rebuilt? He##, The speaker of the House asked the ? before the last of the wind & rain subsided.
The fact that the City is 67% will always aid to the discussion of Race....however, poor is poor... you don't hear a whole lot about Appalachia where a majority of the majority is on some kind of public assistance. When those folks got flooded out a few years ago...you barley heard a peep... although folks lost their lives. I like to call it the Majority's "Dirty Little PWT Secret..." That by no stretch is of the magnitude to what you see here.
Bottom line....somebody is going to build....in the floodplain...in New Orleans...AGAINST EVERY THEORETICAL PRINCIPLE OF PLANNING AND ENGINEERING! In fact... A Colonel from the Army Corps of Engineers was asked last week that if they received their appropriations that they have been trying to get from the Feds for the past 15 years, would that have saved the City.....My Man responded..."In my most honest opinion, I do not think it would have made a difference" ...15 YEARS!!!!! Now that is some frightening stuff!
No, this was Day After Tomorrow hsit...in our own backyard. If it were a terror attack, W would have left Crawford and gone DIRECTLY to N. O., not take a day or 2, fly to D. C....just to be greeted by Karen Hughes telling him to "Get your monkey a$$ down to the Gulf and act like your are in charge!"
It's a dam# shame...everyone at every level takes the blame on this one... from W and his incompetent band of Scary men, the Gov's crying a$$, Ray Ray who forgot to get the busses to the "Poor Wards" to give folks the option to get out of harms way to the poor bastar@s who decided to ride it out....not the ones who couldn't get out (i.e. transpo issues, health concerns, etc.) ...the ones who thought it would not be as bad or the ones who thought there would be easy pickin's once the weather blew over.
My professional career dictates, morally and ethically, construction should not be allowed in a designated floodplain. Few residents and businesses would be allowed access to flood insurance. If property owners rebuild, they would do so at their own risk...however, this could be called environmental red-lining if access to insurance was not provided. If insurance was provided, the premiums would be so high that a select few property owners could withstand the costs.
One hell of a way to start all over and try to get your life together OR "remake" a poor a$$, illiterate, undereducated, underemployed, over-sexed (so the TV say's)..."Major American City"
If you don't rebuild N.O....cool, don't expect me to give a crap when you talk about rebuilding an over developed Cali who are waiting for the big one, mudslides, wildfires, locusts, frogs...etc.? Should we grieve when people build mobile home parks in Tornado Alley? Do we stop development of Coastal SE USA and places in the Gulf because of what if? 2 much $$$$$ to be made not to rebuild...
Mississippi recently stated proudly that it believes that 3 major Casino's either under construction or devastated by the storm could be up and running by the Holidays... an industry that brings in 3/4 million A DAY, I can understand the rush...But hurricane season peaks this week with storms brewing in the Atlantic. Well, rebuilding got to start somewhere.
NOTE: The A.P.B. has nothing but love for the Gulf and N. O. in particular. My Pink and Green Queen is from there...in-laws and all... there aren't enough tissues to dry her tears of seeing here old neighborhood turned into an urban swamp...her beloved X. U. turned into Venice...
Pray for SOMEONE to devise the right solutions...
NEXT WEEKS EPISODE: Let's not forget about the possibility of "The 'NEW' New Orleans" BKA:
The ULTRA-GENTRIFICATION Of America...
The APB is out...
|
Linear Mode
