Four Years Later, New Orleans Still In Shambles

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Four Years Later, New Orleans Still In Shambles

Written By : Duane Lester

I was browsing through my thousands of articles in my Google Reader when I read a post from Rob Port over at Say Anything. He was writing about President Obama’s first visit to New Orleans. Rob asks a good question, “Why isn’t New Orleans rebuilt yet?”

The answer, which liberals don’t want to hear, is because the people in New Orleans have been waiting around for the government to rebuild things for them. They’re depending on the government to make things right, and as usual the government is letting them down.

That New Orleans is still in shambles four years after the hurricane is an argument in favor of limiting government and decreasing government dependence and increase independence and self-reliance.

Of course, the politicians hate that and label with all sorts of terms like “racist” and “selfish” and “hateful” but I wonder what is so benevolent about people being dependent on government?

When you look at the situation, it’s important to remember how it got that way in the first place. The government was responsible for the levies. They had been warned they were inadequate. They were given money to improve them. They didn’t.

Now, four years later, the government is failing to do what they promised, and people are still waiting…

The Federal Emergency Management Agency shuttered its long-term recovery office about six months later, after a squabble with the city over who would pay for the planning process. Since then, depending on whom you talk to, government at all levels has been passive and slow-moving at best, or belligerent and actively harmful at worst. Mayor Ray Nagin occasionally surfaces to advertise a big new scheme (a jazz park, a theater district), about which no one ever hears again. A new 20-year master plan and comprehensive zoning ordinance was being ironed out early this summer, but it remains subject to city-council approval. A post-Katrina master plan has been under discussion since before the floodwaters were pumped out.

Who will rebuild the city? The people will.

In the absence of strong central leadership, the rebuilding has atomized into a series of independent neighborhood projects. And this has turned New Orleans—moist, hot, with a fecund substrate that seems to allow almost anything to propagate—into something of a petri dish for ideas about housing and urban life. An assortment of foundations, church groups, academics, corporate titans, Hollywood celebrities, young people with big ideas, and architects on a mission have been working independently to rebuild the city’s neighborhoods, all wholly unconcerned about the missing master plan. It’s at once exhilarating and frightening to behold.

“If you look at the way ants behave when they’re gathering food, it looks like the stupidest, most irrational thing you’ve ever seen—they’re zigzagging all over the place, they’re bumping into other ants. You think, ‘What a mess! This is never going to amount to anything,’” says Michael Mehaffy, the head of the Sustasis Foundation, which studies urban life and sustainability and has worked with neighborhood organizations here. “So it’s easy to look at New Orleans at the grassroots level and wonder, What’s going on here?’ But if you step back and look at the big picture, in fact it’s the most efficient pattern possible, because all those random activities actually create a very efficient sort of discovery process.”

Rebuilding a city is more complicated than a central planner from a central government could handle. How can anyone think they could handle organizing all the systems, people and organizations in the health care system into a more efficient manner?

http://networdblog.blogspot.com/ Christopher_Taylor

It takes a long time to rebuild a city but yeah, its been long enough the bulk of the big projects and most of the work should have been done by now.
TheBaud

Four Years Later, New Orleans Still In Shambles

Yet the Mississippi and Alabama Gulf Coast that were hit by Katrina, sustaining sever damage as well, are rebuilt and recovering.

Curious.
http://networdblog.blogspot.com/ Christopher_Taylor

Actually, for much of that area, it isn't easy to tell what was different before and after hurricanes hit.
RWNReader2

FYI, New Orleans is NOT "still in shambles." 99% of the areas any visitor would ever see prior to Katrina was never flooded, and is LONG since back up and running for years now, much of it better than before. As far as the rest of the city, most of what was worthwile to begin with is mostly back, though recovery has been painfully slow, including those big government projects (e.g. hospital) that are the glaring eyesores now. We can rehash all the mistakes that were made in the beginning – and there's plenty of blame to go around – but I do want you to know that New Orleans is LONG since open for business.

p.s. Coastal Mississippi is no more "back" than most of New Orleans. Much has been lost that will never return. That is just the reality with big storms like this. People ask me "is everything back as it was before." I answer that the day before Katrina I could have taken you for a drive down the Mississippi gulf coast and pointed out the scars left by Hurricaine Camille in 1969. The saying around here is "aint dere no more" cuz it aint coming back. New Orleans is bigger, thus there is more that aint dere no more.
http://networdblog.blogspot.com/ Christopher_Taylor

Portions of New Orleans never were all that damaged int he first place. The parts most seriously damaged are still very messed up and I believe the reasons he gave in this article are significant in explaining why that is true.
http://www.superdickery.com mightysamurai

Once again I must point out, we Floridians face hurricanes every year. In 2004 we had five hurricanes in a row. Yet never in my lifetime has anyone, in or outside the state of Florida, made such a fuss about any of our hurricanes as has been made about hurricane Katrina.

Certainly Katrina cost a lot of lives and I don't mean to minimize those deaths. What I'm talking about is the aftermath. Specifically, the begging for handouts and the constant blame-game. I don't remember Floridians begging for handouts from the federal government. I don't remember Floridians blaming President Bush and FEMA for being "slow" in rendering aid (even though what federal aid we received was no slower than what NO got).

Again, we face Death By Titanic Windstorm every year. We get so many hurricanes that most Florida school districts tack a few extra days on the school year just in case they have to close down during hurricane season. In some cities along the Atlantic coast, hurricane preparedness kits are as much an essential component of any household as fire extinguishers. And we have never been caught so unaware by a single hurricane.

So I'm just wondering, will there ever come a time when New Orleans residents as a whole begin to acknowledge that it was their own lack of preparedness that led to so much hardship, and not the actions of the federal government or the Bush administration?
TheBaud

Posted by RWNReader2 2009-10-15 17:48:58

Parts of Mississippi and Alabama are gone and will not come back, that is true and the same for New Orleans. But while many in New Orleans are still waiting on the government to step in and fix things for them, the parts of Mississippi and Alabama that could be fixed have been.

A few weeks ago, I heard a news story about Katrina victims that were suing the government because FEMA was going to stop paying their hotel bills where they have been living since the hurricane. This is the attitude of some of the people of New Orleans. They are unable to function without the government doing it for them.

That is in no way to say that they represent all of New Orleans. The vast majority rolled up their sleeves and got to work, not waiting on the government to step in. The problem is, just like during the hurricane and the days after, it is the whiners, the looters, the race-baiter, and the government leeches and whores that got the press. And New Orleans is full of all of those.
RWNReader2

Posted by mightysamurai

2009-10-15 18:27:28

There are very important lessons to be learned from Katrina about self reliance and the perils of putting trust in Government, and unfortunately our liberal friends learned all the wrong lessons. However, I have to set you strait on Florida.

Actually, plenty fuss is made about hurricaines in Florida, and of course more hit Florida, because it's a much bigger state with much more coastline and many more people and a SHITLOAD more money. And there were thousands in Florida living off the FEMA dime at the time Katrina hit.

But of course none of this really matters, because there IS NO fuss about hurricaine damage from Katrina in New Orleans either. If it was just the hurricaine, it would have all been forgotten long ago (except in MS). It was the levee breaches that led to the flooding that led to almost 1,000 lives lost and the massive loss of property and wealth. Nothing of the sort has EVER occurred in Florida.

p.s. generally, hurricaines that hit the central gulf (including Pensacola, etc.) are much stronger than the ones that hit most of Florida because the warm waters of the Gulf strengthen them. That is why 4 of the top 5 strongest storms in history hit Louisiana and Mississippi (the lone exception being Andrew, which ALSO hit Louisiana after rolling accross Florida)
RWNReader2

Posted by Christopher_Taylor

2009-10-15 18:15:59

This is the gross generalization I have a problem with. Progress is being made. If you were here, you'd realize that it grows, ever so slowly, all around you. Putting aside the malcontents who find their way to the TV cameras (and the idiot do-nothing mayor), what would you have people do? We're not a rich city, and we're doing the best we can. People are rebuilding with whatever means they have. What would help would be an end to the negative stereotypes (such as yours) that has tourists dollars staying away because they literally believe the city is a wasteland still under water.
http://www.superdickery.com mightysamurai

Actually, plenty fuss is made about hurricaines in Florida

But not nearly as much fuss as about Katrina and New Orleans, which was my entire point.

We get hit with hurricanes constantly. To the point where we're more surprised when we don't get hit with one than when we do. Yet never do we see any sort of so-called "national scandal" relating to federal disaster aid.

In reality your argument only serves to prove my point. New Orleans should have been better prepared. They should have anticipated that the levees might be breached and evacuated the city. They should have set up fully-stocked storm shelters for people who couldn't be evacuated. They should have known that hurricanes passing through the Gulf tend to be stronger and pushed harder for more funding to strengthen and upgrade the levees so they could withstand bigger storms.

It isn't like this hurricane snuck up on New Orleans when no one was looking. Everyone knew it was coming. But apparently NOBODY in New Orleans was prepared for it. And then when that lack of preparedness came back to bite them, they complained about it. As someone for whom hurricanes are pretty much a fact of life, this strikes me as nothing more than childish whining. Yes, lots of people died in New Orleans. I'm sorry it happened, but I find myself extremely unsympathetic to people who refused to prepare for a disaster they knew was coming, then went around complaining about it afterward.
http://networdblog.blogspot.com/ Christopher_Taylor

Oh sure, there's progress being made but its pretty slow. Granted, parts of New Orleans always looked like a hurricane just hit it but many other cities would have had much more work done much faster – especially with the mountain of cash that's been dumptrucked into the area.
Bill_Dalasio

especially with the mountain of cash that's been dumptrucked into the area.

Sorry, but I can't agree with you here Mr. Taylor. The "mountain of cash" is one of, if not the, major reason not much is done. People, operating on their own, have an incentive to get back on their feet and get to work on making things right. Generally, they do a pretty good job of it too. And that seems to be what you see in areas like the French Quarter. Sure, it wasn't hit as badly. However, they recovered and opened back up for business within weeks. They couldn't afford to wait around for the political process to fix things for them. It seems like the areas where the government money is flowing is where we see the political class engaged in a colossal circle-jerk arguing about "strategic visions for urban environments in the 21st century" and the environmental impact of septic tanks on the native kudzu while the recipients wait around.
RWNReader2

They should have anticipated that the levees might be breached and evacuated the city

We did. Most people left. No other city anywhere is as prepared as New Orleans to be evacuated, and no other city could possibly be evacuated as fast. The ABSOLUTE DISASTER of the attempted evacuation of Houston the following year is proof of this. And you're wrong about having "fully stocked storm shelters." The fact that N.O. had a "shelter of last resort" at the Superdome is the reason that many who did not want to evacuate stayed. It's a moral hazard that encourages the wrong behavior. People should get out or be prepared where they live.
http://networdblog.blogspot.com/ Christopher_Taylor

Given that the mayor refused to scramble busses to help people get out and that so many people were caught and died gives me reason to doubt your homer assessment of the situation, RWNReader.
RWNReader2

Posted by Christopher_Taylor

2009-10-16 14:31:15

Scramble busses? Are you talking about after the flood? Once the waters rushed in, it was too late for the people who drowned! And no, he didn't 'scramble busses' after the storm to get the people out of the Superdome and Convention Center because he's an idiot. But ultimately it is those peoples' fault for not being prepared. They should have left.

Before the storm however, busses were avaialable to take anyone anywhere. There always is. It's the first part of an evacuation plan. People simply didn't want to leave. (I wouldn't have left if I didn't have small children to take care of) That's there perogative, and it's understandable that someone doesn't want to sit on a bus in traffic for 12 hours so they can sit in a shelter in Baton Rouge so they can get back on a bus and sit for 12 hours to get home. But they should be prepared to survive for 3 days without assistance. Everyone knows that, it's been the warning cry for as long as we've had evacuations. That and keep an axe in the attic.
http://www.superdickery.com mightysamurai

No other city anywhere is as prepared as New Orleans to be evacuated, and no other city could possibly be evacuated as fast.

Sorry, but just because you have a plan on file does not mean you're prepared. If you're not prepared to use your evacuation plan, well, you're obviously not prepared for a major hurricane.

People simply didn't want to leave.

And then, when their refusal to leave came back to bite them in the ass, they complained about it. Which, again, is my entire point.