Posted on 05/27/2007 6:58:31 PM PDT by kcvl
NEW ORLEANS (AP) Tucked inside a $14.4 billion blueprint for the rebuilding of New Orleans, along with plans to elevate neighborhoods and improve drainage, is a proposal to memorialize Hurricane Katrina with a monument on a "Homeric" scale.
"What will it memorialize? How many people came back?" said Angele Givens, president of the Gentilly Civic Improvement Association.
The proposed memorial is part of a rebuilding plan making its way through city approval processes. While the memorial has far less priority than upgrading drainage and rebuilding neighborhoods over the next decade, its still listed among the top projects to revitalize New Orleans.
Troy Henry, project manager for the Unified New Orleans Plan, said planners thought and the local arts community seems to agree that a memorial would create a place where people could reflect on the Katrina experience.
Planners describe the scope of the proposed memorial as "Homeric, on the order of the Arch of Triumph" in Paris. "The scale of the project will transform the selected section of town and will reinforce the notion of New Orleans as the most European of American cities and as the leading city of the Caribbean," the UNOP planning team says in its proposal.
Whether the memorial is built remains to be seen. Planners propose private funding, but none has been secured. Besides the $3.5 million building cost, annual upkeep costs of $70,000 are projected. No specific design or method of choosing one has been developed.
Planners also dont specify a location but urges completion by 2018.
Uhm, after Hurricane Camille they built a Memorial for the people who died in Mississippi, and if I remember correct it didn’t cost anything like this.
Also, the people of Mississippi didn’t ask the Federal Government for the money to do it, the people who lived there donated money to build it, and then took turns taking care of it.
But there I go, expecting responsibilty from the Leadership in New Orleans again.
Funny, since Hurricane Katrina hit MISSISSIPPI, not Louisiana!! If the democrats had spent the appropriated monies on the levees, New Orleans would have not been radically hurt by Katrina.
14 billion divided by 140 thousand remaining residents equals one hundred thousand per resident.
The best thing to have happened to New Orleans is Katrina. They’ve won a windfall!
In 1906, a massive earthquake virtually destroyed San Francisco. During the previous century, Mrs. O’Leary’s cow kicked over a lantern leading to the incineration of the majority of the city of Chicago.
Perhaps I exist in an alternative universe, but it seems to me that both of those now are big vibrant cities which rebuilt with zero aid from a bloated Federal government.
Why does New Orleans need all this monetary help? It developed because people wanted to go there; it will re-develop if people want to go there.
Trust me. Bronze Ray Nagin. Stick him on a pedestal. You’re done. Not only will you be memorializing the Katrina dead, you’ll be getting one of their proximate causes out of the picture.
“how about a statue of the guy with the tub of beer wading in waist deep water”
That gets my vote....but I never left Louisiana...I wonder if I need to move out of state to be eligible to vote in state elections?
Since nagin is sort of bronze, couldn't you just stick him on a flooded light pole and save money.
Nope, sorry...you’ve got to dip him in a couple of coats of metal and let it dry.
:-D )))
All the persons from the Carribean that I know of call these Katrina "victims" dumb or dupes for living in a city built below sea level.
The only monument to NOLA that would be truly fitting is a great big new prison to house all the criminals who stayed to loot, the cops who ran away (or looted themselves) and the stumbling, bumbling cowards who were in charge.
The memorial honoring people that did not evacuate in the face of a cat-5 hurricane will be right up there with NO’s memorials honoring “AIDS victims” and single pregnant women.
How about a perpetual chocolate fountain?
That was another point I meant to make, thank you. Mississippi was severely messed up from state line to state line, and yet that was downplayed by nearly every major news organization in the US. I was so mad I gave myself a headache for days. My point is tho, that Mississippi is as you said 'light years ahead' and there is one reason for that. The people of Mississippi. No one in that beautiful state along the coastwaited for FEMA to 'save them'. People got out as soon as the storm was over and began cleaning up, trying to salvage what they could and get rid of the rest. Self reliance, and personal responsibilty. Mayors and a Governor who cared about the people, not about how much money they could get for themselves, or how much airtime on CNN. Having lived on the coast my whole life, and having lived in New Orleans and the surrounding area for over twenty years, all I can say is, that I am glad I came back 'home' (Alabama). New Orleans should be abandoned, it's over twenty feet below sea level. The Gulf is now ten miles from the westbank, and getting closer every day. New Orleans is going to disappear into the Gulf one day. It should go now, with at least a little dignity and grace.
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