One Year Ago, About Two Years Ago

[womzilla]

One year ago today, I posted this:

. . . indifference, incompetence, and an unassailable sense of entitlement nearly killed one of the United States' most important cities.

Go read the step-by-step account of the disaster.

Go watch this musical howl. (And to the song which inspired it, and of the disaster which remade America.)

Go read.

New Orleans isn't optional; as long as the Mississippi flows into the Gulf of Mexico, there will be a city near its mouth, and the narrow spit of land between Lake Pontchartrain and the river is the most sensible place for it. New Orleans is a national treasure in large part because it is a national resource. We can't act like it was a mistake to build there, and we can't turn away from the task of rebuilding.

And we can't let the people who tried to kill it get away clean.

I despair of the fact that I can post it unchanged and it's still as relevant as it was then.

New Orleans is being strangled in its sickbed. There is nothing that the current administration will ever do to change that; unless you are helping, you're hurting.

Updated to add: I should have realized docbrite would have more and better things to say. Here is the updated list of 13 Reasons Why New Orleans Is Not OK.

Comments

[shelleybear.livejournal.com]

It needs to be rebuilt in a sane manner.

[docbrite.livejournal.com]

We're trying, though it is not an easy task when almost everybody here is crazy in one way or another. And no offense, but we're very tired of people who don't live here telling us what we need to do (though I'd much rather hear "you need to rebuild in a sane manner" than "you're stupid for rebuilding at all").

[shelleybear.livejournal.com]

Unless what I've read isn't true about homes being built in areas that they should never have been built in (real estate boom) that is what I mean by sane.
The old quarter stood up. It was the newer parts of the city that seem to have been the ones that took it worse.
I'm basing this on what we've seen from the media, so don't yell at me. I can be educated.

[docbrite.livejournal.com]

I don't mean to yell at you -- I truly appreciate anybody who gives a damn about New Orleans. The myth persists that New Orleans is "below sea level," when in fact most of it is not. The real problem isn't the areas where people have chosen to build so much as the styles of building. Many newer houses (those dating from the '70s-'80s oil & real estate boom) are/were built on slabs, which simply isn't feasible for a flood-prone area. Slab houses were almost invariably wiped away in the floods following the failure of the federal levee system, while older-style raised houses fared much better.

There's also the fact that the entire city could easily (if expensively) be rendered almost flood-proof by a system of locks and dikes similar to what exists in Holland, but neither the city nor the state has a fraction of the money that would be needed to do this, and I don't think the feds will ever pony it up given that they've balked at even giving us enough to build basic, functional levees.

Sorry if my initial comment came off as abrasive. This is a shitty day for south Louisianians and a bad mood hangs over the whole region around this time of year. Again, thanks for caring.

[shelleybear.livejournal.com]

The last thing you needed was a visit from the idiot king.
*HUGS*

[docbrite.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :-)

[esmeraldus-neo.livejournal.com]

I'm fairly crazed that I have always wanted to visit New Orleans and didn't make it before the disaster. Only thing I can think of to do is get there when I can.

I have friends at one of the Naval bases in LA. New Orleans was a a preferred station for a lot of us.

[docbrite.livejournal.com]

Please, please still come! The tourist areas* were virtually untouched, the city is open for business, and it remains easy to have a wonderful vacation here. No, we are not 100% OK and may never be, but the national media seems to have created the impression that we're still twenty feet underwater, and that's just not the case.

*A phrase that would have a negative connotation in many cities, but the areas where most New Orleans tourists spend their time -- the French Quarter and Garden District -- are beautiful and fascinating, though I do urge you to see some of the rest of the city if possible.

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

My brother moved down there in April, and I visited in May.

I'm coming back for Halloween.

We're getting there, I promise. :)

[ckd]

Of course the media are giving that impression. There are only two possible spins, "everything's fixed" and "it's all still broken"; gray areas aren't exactly the media's strong point.

(It's been too long since I've been to New Orleans; the last time I was there, not only was it a different place, but so was Lower Manhattan.)