New Orleans: Not a City of Whiners

NEW YORK -- When I say, as I did in a recent response to a commenter critical of New Orleans, that that city's people are the most resilient and self-reliant folks I've ever encountered, I didn't yet have this example at hand. The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports on a former boxer from New Orleans who, frustrated with the torpid response to the lack of medical facilities in New Orleans East after the federal levees breached and flooded out the area, took matters into his own hands. The result: a new medical clinic, started from scratch.

Comments

[professor]

Bienville apparently cannot read. De nouveau. Any time one cites an example of people pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps, true believers cite it as proof that people ought to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.

[Bienville]

Au contraire, monsieur, je lis assez bien.

[professor]

You can't win. Mr. Shearer's interpretation is the correct one. But such examples bite back. Or backbite, as the case may be. The same event "proves" the supremacy of the "free market" over "government intervention."

[Bienville]

This event "proves" nothing relevant to what appears to be Mr. Shearer's main complaint:
* Individuals, even local governments, cannot repair the levees. That is the Corps' job.
* Individuals and local governments cannot, nor should they be asked, to repair the personal property damage caused by the Corps' faulty levees. That is the Corps' job.

[LMPE]

As always, true change comes from the people, not politicians.

[yellowdoggie]

I will always have a special place in my heart for the city of New Orleans. My daughter was stationed there while in active service for the Navy, and we visited so often it began to feel like home. I'm glad to see that they are recovering, however slowly. Go bless y'all.

[antispin]

Great story in the Picayune. I guess NPR was too busy reporting that 60 votes are needed to approve a SCOTUS nominee (take note, Alito and Thomas) to pick it up. "Nagin and outgoing recovery czar Ed Blakely have said a deal between the city and the [shuttered Methodist] hospital's handlers is close," but added, "no cigar, daddy-0."

[luziannagirl]

"City of whiners" "Victim mentality" "Looking for a handout" "Free Lunch Society" "Freeloaders"

All broad-brush insults frequently directed at any and all vocal in their support of "the commons". Whether it be the design and management of federal levees which make life possible for most of city, to preserving and restoring the last slice of wild woods in City Park which help make city life worth living, people who insist on responsible stewardship of their public assets are often targets of such venom.

But the winds of public sentiment are changing. It's now not considered " whining " to demand that our shared public assets stop being viewed as road kill to be gobbled up by corporate vultures and their cronies with all the right connections. Whether it's federal, state, or local---whether it's levees, parks, or woods----more and more of us---even in Louisiana--- are insisting on public accountability, transparency, competency, and inclusiveness.

We are spreading the word that a culture of public back-room dealing not only kills quality of life, it kills life itself.

[doctorj2u]

I think the "whining" label comes more from people that just don't want to hear about a devastated America. They can continue in their fantasty that something so terrible could never happen to them They like to compare what happened in New Orleans to other tragedies or other areas. They feel that because they don't hear about the areas everything is fine, which is far from the truth. Wrong! The reports are there if you look. The same complaints. Slow response, FEMA incompetence,etc. What these other areas luckily lack is the anger from the fact that the tragedy was preventable. If government had cared one iota, the levees would have been done right. Still today they are rebuilding them for a 100 year storm, when Katrina and Rita were 300 year storms. It makes NO sense. (Here is the part where those good Americans say it makes no sense to live below sea level. To save Harry a post, 50% of the city is at or above sea level. Also, to save Harry time, these were FEDERAL levees.) I know it is a waste of breath because they won't listen. They have not listened in 4 years. But we will NEVER be silent again. Speaking out of injustice may be considered whining. I call it speaking out. America may want us to go away. We won't. We have seen the consequences of having a detached citizenry NEVER AGAIN!!! Well done citizens of NOLA. You are all heroes to me!

[Bienville]

Adding to your comment about the 100-year levees:
* The factor of safety used by the Corps for the levees is more appropriate for farmland than for a large city.
* Holland's system is buit for the 10,000-year event, and it is common for dams in this country to be built for the 100,000-year or even the 1,000,000-year event.
* The Corps claimed that the "system" (ahem) that was breached on August 29, 2005 was built for the 300-year storm, but the ILIT review forensically determined that a far lower return frequency (less than 100 years) was actually achieved by the design.