Should New Orleans be Rebuilt?

npg.org ^ | 2005 | Walter Youngquist

[Paulus Invictus]

Only if they fill in the 10 feet below sea level area in which the city was built. Other than doing that, they should forget re-building in that sinkhole. By the way, how many years will the taxpayer be paying the hotel bills (already more than $250 million) for the welfare-addicted people taken to Texas from NO? If the RATs get into a majority in Congress, you can be sure that hotel, food and medical care will be paid for an eternity.

[B4Ranch]

Bermuda is where China went to build when we refused Long Beach to them. That is part of what is keeping there shipping costs below average.

We should do the same. We need a similar facility centrally located.

I would be more in favor or building a brand spanking new port, one that could withstand a CAT5 hurricane and has all the high wind, slanted wall warehousing, a LARGE US Customs bond warehouse WHERE EVERYTHING IS SNIFFED AND POKED BEFORE RELASE, rail connections, underground pipelines, air cargo connectors, communications, US Customs bond warehouse,you name it than maintaining the lower Mississippi river canals in the sad shape they are in.

[B4Ranch]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1528533/posts?page=42#42

[RobbyS]

Limited reconstruction. Certainly nothing can be done to restore the city as it was. A tactical retreat to Baton Rouge seems in order. A museum city based on the French Quarter and the English Quarter can remain.

[B4Ranch]

tO ALL of you who agree that it shouldn't be rebuilt please read post #42. That is something I would agree to spend a few hundred billion on if the workers were all American or legal aliens and it covered everything possible with as much of the utilities as possible underground. I want it built somewhere that is above the ocean CAT 5 high wave surge level.

[kcar]

Wow - you must be really rich.

[puppypusher]

Not only No, Buy Hell No. The cost to rebuild New Orleans will be Hundreds of Billions of dollars. Is it worth spending that many dollars to see the City destroyed by the Gulf of Mexico. I don't think so.

[B4Ranch]

When I think of what it would do for our economy I think it would be more worth while than rebuilding a foreign nation with my tax dollars.

[kcar]

If you think that you can buy the stock of whatever private initiatives launch this effort. But not with my tax dollars.

[Fielding]

The United States needs a seaport near New Orleans. I believe that to rebuild is "as it was" is not practical. I doubt that the "spirit" of New Orleans will ever be recaptured. Part of that spirit was the known hardship and risk of living there. It would seem that if the Government is to foot the bill for repair of a high risk environment, then the government and the people should profit. .. The future risk must be abated, and the city become a long term asset.

[B4Ranch]

I have no personal reasons for wanting a new shipping location centrally located in the US. I do have two daughters that I hope would benefit from a strong America though in their older adult years.

[B4Ranch]

The "spirit" of New Orleans certainly was unique. It was one of my favorite cities to visit. The food was fantastic and watching the other tourists in the French Quarter was almost a show that should have required tickets.

My backcountry Cajun friends are always a joy to visit. They know more tricks about fishing in the bayou waters than anyone ever should. To watch them tease aligators up onto the shore with a dead catfish is something I'll never forget. Not a skill I'll ever develop, of that I am positive! LOL

[SkyPilot]

I would be more in favor or building a brand spanking new port, one that could withstand a CAT5 hurricane and has all the high wind, slanted wall warehousing, a LARGE US Customs bond warehouse WHERE EVERYTHING IS SNIFFED AND POKED BEFORE RELASE, rail connections, underground pipelines, air cargo connectors, communications, US Customs bond warehouse,you name it

If the Federal dollars are presented to build this incredible facility you speak of, I am sure Georgia, Texas, South Carolina, Mississippi, and Florida would also gladly accept those billions.

So would I.

It will interesting.

[caryatid]

The United States needs a seaport near New Orleans. I believe that to rebuild is "as it was" is not practical.

Does "The United States" really need a seaport ... or, do grain merchants like Cargill need a seaport? If the latter, let those grain merchants ... or, a public/private combination of funding ... rebuild the port of New Orleans ... to whatever acceptable standard is desired.

I doubt that the "spirit" of New Orleans will ever be recaptured. Part of that spirit was the known hardship and risk of living there.

Why do I get the feeling that you have never lived in New Orleans? I suspect that what you see as the "spirit" of New Orleans is an artificial, tourist enduced state of total debauchery ... a combination of exhibitionism and voyeurism.

The real "spirit" of New Orleans was:

1. in its real history [not the faux "history" related by most tour guides];

2. in its architecture and love of jazz [not in flashing tits and bums in return for cheap plastic trinkets thrown from a float or balcony];

3. in its cuisine [much altered in the past 30 years];

4. in Mardi Gras as a brief festival preceding the solemn period of atonement and self-deprivation of Lent [not in a 365 day 24/7 carnival of irresponsibility];

5. in its faith [not in faux voodoo and witchcraft];

6. in its neighborhoods and in its schools and in its churches of all faiths; in its universities and in its medical institutions [not in the French Quarter alone, or in its bars and restaurants, antiques shops, and casinos, alone];

7. in its melange of different cultures and influences [not as a Disney-fied "multicultural" pastiche]; and,

8. in its families ... and children involved with soccer, ballet, gymnastics, or piano lessons [not pimps and whores, or nudity and strip clubs, or Southern Decadence, or binge drinking].

Most of all, the "spirit" of New Orleans is in the people who lived there ... people who rarely, if ever, participate in the gross entertainments so relished by the tourists who feel that they, and they alone, define the spirit of New Orleans.

Surely you are not saying that "part of that spirit" of New Orleans was FEAR?!

Another part of that "spirit" was the fear of being murdered. The only reason New Orleans did not remain at the top of the list of citys with highest murder rates was that its population dropped below the qualification threshold of 500,000 people.

The "known hardship" of living in New Orleans was that the city was very poor and in a state of lawlessness, if not total anarchy. The "risk" was the risk of bodily harm or death at the hands of criminal gangs and murderers. The "risk" was the murder of a coach at a bus stop for his winter coat; or of a high school student by a criminal purse snatcher; or of an attorney who had just left the restaurant of a fine hotel.

Corrupt politicians and a corrupt, non-functioning police force were decidedly a "hardship" for law abiding citizens.

Other than fear of murderers, few of the people of New Orleans gave much, if any, thought to the "risk" of living there. Once a year, at the beginning of hurricane season, the local newspaper printed out a list of precautions to be followed. Few even read it; even fewer followed its recommendations.

People have a very short attention span. Hurricane Betsy, which did great damage and caused flooding, occurred 40 years ago in about 1965 ... to another generation. That is ancient history ... a history deemed by most to be unlikely to happen again ... or certainly not to happen to them. Shortsighted, perhaps, but a realistic assessment.

Perhaps the only people who really understood the potential for harm to the City of New Orleans were the corrupt politicians and contractors who now appear to be responsible for the deliberate failure to build levees/floodwalls according to spec. They have not stepped forward to admit culpability. Yet.

It appears now that the politicians, whose responsibility it was to keep the city safe, may have spent money on a "plan" ... but did not have a clue about the most rudimentary precautions to take ... much less the intellectual capacity to follow a prudent "plan". They do not, even now, appear to understand that they had some responsibility for the safety of the citizens who had elected them.

Over the past quarter of a century, many of the people who were an essential element of the real "spirit" of New Orleans were no longer willing to endure the "hardship", or take the "risk" of living there. Their departure caused an enormous brain and talent drain when they left a city they truly loved ... never to return.

The only hope for New Orleans is for prudent planners [not social tinkerers] to allow nature to take its course ... let development occur as a result of free enterprise. Let those who want to live in New Orleans follow their dreams and plans ... at their own expense.

[combat_boots]

Now that's funny. New Orleans is a public works project. All of it.

So it has gone from being the murder capital of the US and among the worst of the educational systems and most corrupt officials to a bunch of public housing. What a trite ending to a sad old city.

[Young Werther]

Re Chicago, I thought I read that the Bush Boys were tippin' cows and Mrs O'Leary chased them off but only after the lamp was kicked!!!

Once again Bush is at fault and Federal funds are in order.

BTW I have an antique scrimshaw, (whale tooth carving), which shows the Chicago fire and the whaler who made the carving etched this :

title: "The Burning of Chicago"

"Whalers watch as Lake Michigan burns.Grant government scandals and frauds burning down the rot. 8th October 1874."

I guess those Massachusettes liberals have a long history!!!!

[goresalooza]

Ah...but the Dutch don't have cat 5 hurricanes knocking their levees down. BIG difference.

[Wonder Warthog]

"Ah...but the Dutch don't have cat 5 hurricanes knocking their levees down. BIG difference."

Uh, the North Sea certainly does not have hurricanes, but there have been storms recorded with wind gusts up to 150 mph, which is equivalent.