Posted on 09/05/2005 5:31:19 AM PDT by kellynla
"There is on the globe one single spot, the possessor of which is our natural and habitual enemy. It is New Orleans, through which the produce of three-eights of our territory must pass to market."
So wrote Thomas Jefferson in 1803 to his negotiators in France, in words intended to persuade Napoleon to sell the already thriving port city to the young United States. The French ruler was impressed enough to throw in the vast hinterland of the Louisiana Purchase, all for the bargain price of $15 million.
As I write, four days after the levees broke, the possessors of New Orleans are the waters and the looters and thugs who have been plundering luxury merchandise and shooting at policemen and rescue teams. The criminals seem likely to be dispersed by the soldiers now pouring into the city, and the floodwaters will in time -- it will seem an agonizingly long time -- be displaced. But the question will remain: What kind of New Orleans will be rebuilt?
It could just be an industrial terminal. George Friedman, of stratfor.com, argues that "the ports of South Louisiana and New Orleans, which run north and south of the city, are as important today as at any point during the history of the republic." As in Jefferson's time, this "is where the bulk commodities of agriculture go out to the world and" -- we get beyond 1803 here -- "the bulk commodities of industrialism come in." Those bulk commodities include oil and natural gas, about one-quarter of the national production of which come through New Orleans and South Louisiana.
Friedman's argument seems hard to counter
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
Agreed. Either move it to higher ground or move it to deeper water and rename it New Atlantis.
However, the rest of the are needs to be bulldozed and either raised or abandoned.
It is insanity to speak of rebuilding with the same exact threat of disaster.
In addition, NOLA is a failed social experiment that catered to the worst of man's nature. True, it was only a small percentage to fully embrace the "Lord Of The Flies" mentality, but the social structure that encouraged that type of mindset needs to be disassembled and destroyed. If that means abondoning "New Orlantis" then so be it.
Uh, if you somehow think that the "Lord of the Flies" mentality is unique to New Orleans, I suggest you meditate for a few minutes on Detroit, which is worse.
That "social structure" is the "welfare state", and it is exactly the mentality that the current Demmocrat party wants to establish EVERYWHERE.
If they would just use the beads thrown during Marti Gra they could raise the level of New Orleans by 50 feet a year...
Once again, Barone makes a good argument. I think that New Orleans will probably have the French Quarter and Bourbon Street with some other tourist areas, but not anywhere close to the city it was. Comparisons are made to the Galveston Hurricaine in approx 1902 that destroyed the city---it never really recovered and most moved to Houston which has been the dominant city. Looks like Baton Rouge is going to absorb a lot of the New Orleans' residents and businesses.
Improve the levee system, do some rezoning, revise the building code, and rebuild the city. Moving a major city is a non-stater and nonsense. It also won't fly politically. Ask Dennis Hastert.
Higher ground? Maybe in Mississippi or Texas, then.
I probably won't really be a political decision...businesses based on New Orleans will simply make one of their satellite offices the new head office and 'maybe' open up a satellite office in New Orleans. People have already moved/evacuated the city. Homes are gone and businesses are gone...many jobs will not return.
From NPR yesterday
Katrina
New Orleans Residents Turn to Baton Rouge Real Estate
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4832611
When you look at the level of devastation, it is pretty clear that no insurer will allow rebuilding where they are.
It is going to cost a trillion dollars just to bulldoze it, which they must because of the pestilence that will be there.
They can't rebuild -- there is no dry place to lay foundation.
I suspect what they will call "New Orleans" in the future will consist of the higher level suburbs. The city is lost forever.
Scary, isn't it?!?
Best quote I've heard today..."Imagine if the local government controlled your health care" - Ben Stein.
Give it back to the French and let them figure out what to do with it.
The Port of New Orleans (the nation's largest in terms of throughput) and the oil and gas industry will continue to be major employers. Katrina may, in fact, have revitalized NO, which was declining in population and investment.
This is really the direction the rebuilding should take. One way or another, either through insurance settlements or government spending, all of us are going to be paying the 100 billion odd dollars cleaning up and rebuilding NO will take. In return for all this money, we should insist that it be reconstructed so it will not again become the malignant pustule so much of it was before the hurricane.
I visited Venice in 1998 and it is, as Barone says in this article, essentially a Renaissance theme park. You get to it by crossing a causeway and, when there, can only get around slowly by either foot or boat. That's what to do with NO. Rebuild enough of it in place so that the tourist attractions remain. Bulldoze the rest that's below sea level and will have to be bulldozed anyway. Then make the bulldozed area almost exclusively industrial and commercial.
The residential areas can be rebuilt on higher ground nearby with adequate transportation for their residents to get to their jobs in the industrial and commercial area. Homeowners who are displaced and have no reason to return can simply be bought out.
We should salvage whatever can be salvaged then rebuild a perfect replica of New Orleans on higher ground.
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