LONDON--The White House has released details of this Thursday's long-awaited (at least by New Orleanians) Presidential visit to the Crescent City. What he will be doing: holding a town hall meeting and visiting a charter school. Period.
What he won't be doing: a survey, by air or other means, of the daily erosion of the invaluable coastal wetlands under the inexorable pressure of pipeline and canal building, which has allowed the intrusion of salt water from the Gulf; a frank and detailed discussion with the local leaders of the Army Corps of Engineers about their decision to adopt a "technically not superior" solution to the permanent pumps in the outfall canals, and about their installation of non-functioning hydraulic pumps in those canals as a "temporary" solution. In other words, the President will not be addressing either of the crucial issues in assuring that the disaster of 2005 is not repeated.
But he will be taking questions and meeting schoolchildren. Events, in short, that look good on TV.
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Harry Shearer: New Orleans: What's Been Done, What's on the To-Do List
In New Orleans, there have been notable steps forward in arts, education and entrepreneurship since Katrina. The bad news is that the "temporary" pumps installed for future floods do not, and cannot work.
If after the President's visit tomorrow, things still don't get moving in the right direction regarding the Corps fixing the federal levees correctly, and the wetlands being restored as only the feds can do, then perhaps it's time to bite the bullet and take mass action.
I'm thinking...cancel Mardi Gras.
Or, at least seriously consider (and talk about) cancelling Mardi Gras, say, for 2011.
Yeah, it'll be tough, since much of New Orleans' economy is based on Mardi Gras, and it's a needed personal release for Louisianians. But folks will have over a year to save up enough money and hoard enough food to get them through it, and maybe the private balls and parties could continue. Just no parades and public events.
No "Nation's Biggest Free Party" until the levees are fixed and wetlands start being restored.
I mean, some of us have talked about withholding the flow of oil & gas, even shutting down the port, but those could be considered actions threatening the national security. Mardi Gras is just a party.
What do y'all think? Too drastic? Too masochistic?
Cancelling Mardi Gras would hurt the people of NOLA more than any American or any president. It is who we are and why we put up with the downsides of the city. The good (great in NOLA's case) out weighs the bad (no government, crime.) Bad idea.
You do not need to tell the people of New Orleans that most Americans not only don't care, but feel like we deserved the tragedy. We know more than anyone. You are lucky in NYC. At least you are not told everyday that you are lazy because the Towers are not rebuilt, and are whiny when you complain about it.
Send it anyone you think might be interested in attending, please.
Harry, if you don't want to approve this invitation announcement post, I'd understand.
Then I spent a couple of hours riffling through the 775 pictures and eventually settled on 11 images for the flier. I felt it was the best rally I've attended since the floods and I felt it was important to include those pictures in the flier because shools would need to envision this rally as being a wholsome fun event like it was for those McGee school girls on Jan. 11, 2006.
Thank you Sandy. I am hoping she emails her membership about this related but independent event.
Please, if anyone has any contacts at any local schools they would need to know about this potential event first thing Wednesday morning, but even then, it will be way too late of a notice for the vast majority of Schools.
So Doc, if we don't get town hall tickets, if you're available, I'll be ready for that sazerac at the Roosevelt, but I gotta keep it at just one so I can bring kids home from school at 3.
NO ONE takes care of the commenters like Harry, and no one here at Huff (or really any of the other Big Dogs) ever works their blog like this period.
Destroy all the levees up stream. Let's turn back the clock all the way as the Neo Feudalists want. We can have snags to put up with. Boats going aground. This is what they want if they don't want the river level raised and therefore no levees to maintain.
The price of modern river commerce has costs and one of them is levees that must be maintained and with higher river levels many cities are below the the river level.
Appreciate the sentiment (I think), but your comments ---like many----confuse the Mississippi River levee system with the storm surge/outfall drainage levee system. I know it's complicated---as is the geography, geology, climatology, meteorology and hydrology of this whole New Orleans-Hurricane-Marsh thing, but please just try.
A map with natural features would help.
Anyone have a link to a good map to which we can link folks unfamiliar with our area?
It sure would have helped the last White House to have had a better working knowledge. I don't even think they realized New Orleans was for most intents and purposes, an island.
King would ask why Countrywide Mortgage, which got bailed out at U.S. taxpayer expense, is now trying to cheat New Orleanians out of credit for their Katrina flood-damage re-imbursement money. King says he and others agreed to sign over their flood re-imbursement checks to their mortgage holders as part of a settlement to resolve their post-hurricane mortgage problems. Now their mortgage company, Countrywide, says it's gone, vanished in the economic downturn.
King said nobody can do anything with their homes until it's resolved in court. Four years is a long time for someone of modest means to hold onto a home he can't live in, rent, or sell, folks. A long time.
I think it's a good question, Harry, one that highlights the economic difficulties faced by everyday citizens, the Wall Street debacle, and Hurricane Katrina and the failed levee aftermath. Maybe someone reading this can help get Chris Thomas King into the town hall meeting.
King says his given name is "Durwood Thomas", if that helps in finding him. Chris Thomas King is his stage name, and the name he used playing the young Robert Johnson in "O Brother Where Art Thou". His dad is the renowned Baton Rouge-based bluesman, Tabby Thomas.
We lined the levees of the Mississippi to give honor to the USS York and send off her sailors who lined the deck. Even though she was 2 hours late because of extreme fog this morning, my fellow New Orleanians held their places with American flags in hand just to show that they do love this country. Although a lot of the rest of the country have forgotten us, we have not forgotten them.
I am very proud to be a native New Orleanian and wish fair winds with following seas to the USS New York. May she serve her country with the same love that was put into her here. -Irish
Thousands of New Orleanians line the levees in respect.
http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/10/photos_uss_new_yorks_sails_tow.html
BTW, it made our local evening newscasts. There was a video clip of the New York emerging from the fog, seaman standing at attention along her deck, like a ghost ship in some modern adaptation of Coleridge. I wonder if the New York papers are covering it, or if maybe they're waiting until the official commission ceremony?
We can all be very proud of New Orleans' shipbuilders and long maritime tradition.
I'm with you on all the rest... the rebuilding of the levees (correctly) and wetland restoration is the highest priority.
Keep up the pressure Harry.
To ask "Is that all there is" of a good man running at top speed does not further anyone's cause.
But public administration, especially in a gazillion dollar economy is not that cut a dried.
Yes, THIS president is NOW responsible.
But it goes beyond that. Many liberals are adopting the conservative tactic of BLAMING this president for the mess in a blend of "you're in charge now" and "why isn't it already fixed?" And this equation equals "you're a failure, a stuffed shirt, a good teleprompter reader."
When Bush "punched in" almost 9 years ago, he was handed a healthy nation, so he could dabble, and dabble he did.
When Obama "punched in" NINE MONTHS ago, the company was bankrupt with a lot of unhappy customers.
We gave other two-term presidents as long as FOUR YEARS to fix problems. (topic for another discussion.)
Bush had 3 years to fix the levees. Where was the carping then, especially from the right?
This is his first visit as prez to NO. Given the problems he was handed when he "punched in," NO should consider itself at the top of the priority list given he's only been in for nine months.
Hate to say it but the nation does face bigger problems than the levee system.
Back then it was "why can't those people just leave when the know a storm is coming."
The "blame the victim" mentality of the GOP.
"Women of the Storm members dropped off about 200 turquoise and yellow footballs, tangible reminders that Louisiana is losing a football field of its coastline every 50 minutes, and they promise more today so that each of the 736 students will have one."
Hope they include those in the photo-op.
This agreement paves the way for approximately $289 million of improvements to pump stations by the Corps at full federal expense.
The State of Louisiana is responsible for obtaining land, easements and rights-of-way, if necessary, to complete the storm proofing work. After storm proofing improvements are complete, the State is responsible for operation and maintenance of the pump stations.
Posted on Tuesday, September 29, 2009
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans District awarded a $9 million contract on Monday, Sept. 28 for enlargement of approximately one mile of levee and replacement of a floodwall in St. Charles Parish. The enlarged levee and floodwall will f ...
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Two West Bank & Vicinity 100-year Levee Construction Contracts Awarded
Posted on Tuesday, September 29, 2009
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans District awarded two contracts in September for approximately $16 million to enlarge 6 miles of levee along the Harvey Canal to Westwego levee alignment on the west bank of New Orleans. These contracts w ...
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Corps using innovative construction contracting in St. Bernard Parish
Posted on Thursday, September 24, 2009
NEW ORLEANS – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded a $904,675 contract today, reaching yet another pivotal milestone in reducing risk for residences and businesses in St. Bernard Parish. The Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) contract was awarde ...
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Scoping Meetings for LCA Ecosystem Restoration Projects Scheduled for September
Posted on Thursday, September 24, 2009
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), in partnership with the State of Louisiana’s Office of Coastal Protection and Restoration (OCPR), is hosting a series of scoping meetings to gather public input for the planning and execution of near-term cri ...
The levees were another matter.
Pay attention going forward, please.
I wonder if this, too, would be considered by the haters to be photo-op or not closing the deal?
I believe you have hit the nail on the head - the entire Obama presidency, regardless of NO, is made to look good on TV. A lot of style without the substance.
.
And, does anyone remember the names of the Louisiana elected officials who actually sold us down the river on those offshore oil royalties deals?
I think they deserve at least a little recognition for their accomplishments.