Let's see...Mayor Nagin's embroiled in twin scandals, involving his Sanitation Commissioner turning over private emails from city councilpeople and his former technology czar's ties with companies doing business with the city....the Sugar Bowl...a great Carnival Season...Bobby Jindal turned down some federal stimulus money, but accepted some, while spending most of his time fund-raising for 2012...And, oh yes, there was a new President.
What has Barack Obama meant to the city almost destroyed by federal malfeasance in 2005? The best, and the worst, one can say is that he's lived up to his campaign promises. He promised health-care reform, energy reform, a doubling-down in Afghanistan -- we're getting all that (or at least a fight for all that). He made a vague assertion that he'd make real the promises President Bush uttered that eerie, floodlit night in an otherwise-darkened Jackson Square, and all the administration has offered to New Orleans so far has been a fact-finding trip by Janet Napolitano, who observed that "no levee can be built high enough to withstand a hurricane like Katrina." So, more facts need to be found, at least for the DHS Secretary.
Here's one: there was not one dollar in the stimulus package, not one out of 700-billion-plus, to help the rebuilding of the tattered levee-floodwall system (despite the Corps of Engineers' statement, a few weeks ago, that, supposedly because of money shortfall, they would choose the "technically not superior" solution to the repair of one poorly-built floodwall; not one dollar out of 700-billion-plus to accelerate the restoration of the coastal wetlands that buffer New Orleans from stronger hurricanes, despite the fact that human activity, including Corps of Engineers-built canals and oil company pipelines, have caused most of the destruction of the wetlands. Not shovel ready? The only thing readier for a shovel is the hope that the new administration might really bring the nation's attention to the federal government's responsibility for the disaster, not just for the lackluster response, and might step up to its responsibility to do the job right this time.
All during the campaign, and then during the first 50 days, Obama partisans would say to me, "his heart's in the right place, just give him some time, he's got a full plate." Yet, the Corps is making decisions right now that chill the blood of New Orleanians concerned about their city's future, and Simon Cowell will be on welfare before this Congress will pass another stimulus bill. The money window is shut, and the administration has been content to focus the nation's attention on Latin American relations, on high-speed rail, on Bo -- on anything but the near-destruction of a great American city.
Nice 100 days' work. Happy Jazzfest.
It was great to see the folks protesting his firing, and I signed the petition. I'll be sending letters to all concerned as well. It may be a little too late on this particular blog to post this, but folks should go to www.levees.org, and help Dr. van Heerden out.
You know, as far as Obama is concerned, it seems like the last president had a lot of influence in a negative way concerning Dr. van Heerden's position at LSU. Perhaps Obama could use his influence to right this wrong. That is assuming he still belives NO was wronged, and thus, Dr. van Heerden wronged as well.
I'm sick and tired of all the bitchin' and moaning about why YOU haven't gotten your piece of the pie yet, and how it's all Obama's fault for not saying "how high?" whey YOU say "jump!"
If the almighty nitpicky mainstream media hadn't started this "Obama's first 100 days" thing, SOME people would still be patiently waiting for their turn, and wouldn't think a single bad thought if they had to wait until, say, May 1st or June 1st.
It's been only 99 days! That's 11 days in January, 28 days in February, 31 days in March, and so far, 29 days in April.
Katrina happened in August 2005, right? You all have already admitted Pres. Bush screwed up, badly. But he had 2006, 2007, and 2008 to make things right. THAT'S THREE-PLUS YEARS!
And you're complaining because Pres. Obama hasn't fixed New Orleans for you yet, in less than 100 days?
However, I cannot pretend he's doing the best he can in NO, and comparing his inaction to Bush's three years of inaction, only makes Obama's neglect harder to comprehend.
As hundreds of billions of dollars went sailing towards Wall Street, the banks and insurance companies, one would think the stimulus bill could have come up with the three billion ( the Army Corps of Engineers recently stated it would take) to do the flood protection repair job properly. A truly shovel ready project for an economically beleaguered city.
The Katrina catastrophy pulled the cover off of the Republican facade, of claiming to be the grownups in the room when it came to protecting US citizens. I believe that event lead, in part, directly to Obama's election.
If Obama allows those levees to be rebuilt on the cheap, he'll be failing NO in a far worse way than Bush ever did, because the debacle under Bush should have guaranteed this would never happen again. I cannot caution patience when bad decisions are being made now, and I cannot comprehend Obama's seeming abandonment of NO.
The Lakeview area, with its (as the name implies) views of Lake Ponchartrain and its open green spaces, has many of the City's newest and costliest homes - and it lies 5 - 10 feet below sea level. The areas near the River - 10 feet and more above sea level - tend to have the nuisances of old, run-down industrial blocks and noisy train and ship/barge traffic that drive residential real estate value down.
One small correction; "The best, and the worst, one can say is that he's lived up to his campaign promises." ....
The White House scrubbed some stern words he had for Resident bush;
"Citing the Bush Administration's "unconscionable ineptitude" in responding to Hurricane Katrina, then-Senator Obama introduced legislation requiring disaster planners to take into account the specific needs of low-income hurricane victims. Obama visited thousands of Hurricane survivors in the Houston Convention Center and later took three more trips to the region. He worked with members of the Congressional Black Caucus to introduce legislation to address the immediate income, employment, business, and housing needs of Gulf Coast communities.
President Barack Obama will partner with the people of the Gulf Coast to rebuild now, stronger than ever."
http://versionista.com/pub/15881/1/35/2:1/
This and other Katrina related words were deleted. But he still said them. The "unconscionable ineptitude" of the bush admin! WOW, good jab. Should have left that in there because if the Obama admin follows up with the unconscionable ineptitude of not repairing the levees, to a standard worthy of International acclaim, he may as well step down now. I dont care about campaign promises, I want actions.
From an article in Oct 2005 - Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) "accused the federal government of neglecting the city's man-made and natural protections -- by underfunding levees that were designed only for a Category 3 storm and stalling a massive plan to restore Louisiana's tattered web of coastal marshes."
"But as Vitter was forecasting destruction, he was also holding up legislation that would have approved levee upgrades and launched the coastal restoration plan. And the holdup involved an industry-backed provision that Vitter had inserted to help Louisiana's loggers deforest cypress swamps, which would reduce the natural hurricane defenses the restoration was supposed to rebuild."
"The drowning of New Orleans was caused by complex factors of weather, geography, history, politics and engineering, but it was at heart a tragedy of priorities -- not just Vitter's, but America's."
The conclusion to that last sentence might have read, not just NO's, not just the local Parrish, not just LA's, not just Vitters...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/08/AR2005100801458_pf.html
No Republican could make attacking Obama's inexperience stick, with the Katrina debacle fresh in everyone's minds. With billions flying out the door to bankers and insurance companies, there must surely have been enough available to fix NO's flood protection systems.
I still support Obama, and I knew he'd disappoint on some issues as all politicians do. However, I must say that I am shocked that he's not doing everything he can to get things moving in the city that helped hand him the presidency. It really is quite inexcusable.
I was somewhat heartened by Jeffrey Buchanon's post, and I signed his petition, but it doesn't seem right to have to be begging Congress to do the sensible, practical, and above all else, humane thing on this issue.
Maybe NO should declare war on the US ala "The Mouse That roared," to get some of the post-war rebuilding funds now going to the ACTUAL ones who attacked, and possibly defeated, our financial system. It's depressing to me, and I don't live there, so I can only imagine how disheartened you've become.
NO will rise up again, Obama or no Obama. It's just very disappointing that he's added his own version of post-Katrina negligence to the history books. It didn't have to be.
And, I, too, will be at Jazz Fest Saturday (and Thursday and Friday selling memberships as a Foundation volunteer). Last weekend was great! My kid played both Saturday and Sunday. She played at Tip's last night for Instruments A Comin'. I looked for you, Harry!
We are taxed enough, Besides, global warming is way down on the list..
The Dems are getting hip to the peoples needs JOBS..
The stim pack really stop the mo for reckless bills.
where do you plan to live when you cannot breathe ??? ---
our aspirations of manufacturing like China will leave us all short of breath !! --
----
if you dig deeply enough into the details of obama's "changes" you will find that every issue that
he supposedly supports is given lip service only !!! -
finance, military, jobs, healthcare, energy ---
i am perpetually shocked - i mean , "clean" coal, --
BOUGHT and SOLD !!!!
Other than that, though I am concerned that hes' done nothing about NOLA. Thanks Harry.
I struggle to understand those who can't see how terribly the country has treated one of our great, culturally rich cities under catastrophic circumstances. Just ask yourself, if a prosperous and white city like, say, Boston were similarly devastated, what would the reaction be? Devastated infrastructure aside, If there is one place that needs economic stimulus – check out NOLA and their schools, lack of jobs, and rising violence
There are many poorly reasoned justifications for letting NOLA take such a low priority in the nation’s attention. To address some: the Dutch have successful engineered a challenging water environment, the world’s largest city – Tokyo is built in a precarious earthquake setting (as are LA and SF) – attention/support is lavished on these cities to monitor and protect them.
While most of the US is being strip-malled and big-box retailed into one giant bland-land -- can you feel good about suggesting that one our last bastions of authenticity, character, and artistry flounder and struggle to survive? Do you appreciate good music and food (humans answer ‘yes’ here)? Then please spread the word, visit often, and keep this magic city alive!
Glad to find some birds of a feather here that ‘get it’!
place like it in America. Would the naysayers suggest that we ditch Paris, scratch London, X out
Barcelona or Athens? Well, perhaps. Look what we have done to Baghdad, one of the oldest, most
cultured cities in the world. So, Harry, yes, it seems a bit incongruous that the cool and sophisticated
new President -- whom I admire for many of his actions -- seems to have little feeling for or sense
of the unique American treasure of New Orleans. Whether billed as the Northernmost City in
the Caribbean, The Birthplace of Jazz, or The City That Care Forgot, it is like no other in these
United States. Too bad Obama could not come to Jazz Fest and be transformed by the magic.
Perhaps then there would be more compassion and less contempt for the state of affairs
in the city and region.
Many major American cities are subject to floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, fire and even volcanoes (Seattle, Portland, Hawaii). You can't just tell people to move somewhere else. We're all in this together. Let's start acting like it again.
Katrina was a local failure from corrupt local politicians. Bush should have stepped in when people were stranded and that was a horrible shame and Bush should have stepped forward to help rebuild the city but the fact remains that there are limits on what tax payers should spend on one corrupt city. You can blame the army corp of engineers but again fooled by randomness people cannot predict every eventuality or scenario. There are limits on the amount of money to spend on something that cannot be salvaged.
Perhaps the state should just put in place detailed plans on evacuating and getting everyone out (instead of staying).
Home owners, residents and businesses should contribute extra tax money to pay for a reconstruction. If people love living in New Orleans so much they can pay for the cleanup and rebuild their own city. Americans should not have to spend $500 billion to flood proof the city.
The Corps of Engineers controls every aspect of design and construction of all levee systems around New Orleans. The Corps' design didn't even meet their own predictions, much less "randomness" and "every eventuality and scenario."
Over 1 million people were evacuated in only about 40 hours. That's about 85-90% of the population between about sunset Friday to about sunrise Sunday. The only more successful evacuation anywhere, ever, was the Gustave evacuation in 2008. It's pretty hard to force people to leave their homes in a supposedly free country. How many policemen and soldiers would it take to round up everyone and put them on trucks and trains? More than we have, I suspect.
New Orleanians spend about 1 dollar on their protection for every penny you spend. That comes from their Federal taxes and local taxes. They do pay "extra." All estimates for repair and improvement of the levees are in the range of 1 or 2% of your estimate.
Isn't getting NOL restoration into the stimulus package the job of representatives of the people of NOL? Where is that story? Who really dropped the ball here?
The levees that Protect the City from the Mississippi River have not failed since 1849.
A visit to the Mississippi River levees around New Orleans would show you a magnificent system of concrete-armored earth levees with locks, gates and spillways.
The River level is always above the City and is annually above the roofs of most one-story structures. Every single year, the spring crest raises the River higher than the Katrina storm surge and you never hear about the River flooding the City. Iowa flooded, Missouri flooded. New Orleans didn't flood.
The Corps has an excellent 160-year record of protecting the City from the River. Why did they fail so abysmally in protecting her from Katrina?
Of course it would also help if they hadn't denuded the marshes.
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/us_politics/view/2009_03_11_Louisiana_lawmakers_among_earmark_leaders/