The Flooding Didn't Destroy Enough Houses
EN ROUTE TO NEW ORLEANS--Along with other New Orleanians, I've been amazed at the lack of alacrity with which both Republicans and Democrats have approached the problem of a federally caused flood that destroyed or damaged hundreds of thousands of homes, wrecking whole neighborhoods and communities, and spinning half a city's population into involuntary, semi-permanent exile. Now the answer becomes clear: the post-Katrina flooding just didn't destroy enough houses.
Latest estimate, in today's Times-Picayune, 105,000 residential buildings severely damaged in the City of New Orleans alone, a $14 billion loss. Apparently, judging by the turtle-like response, just not enough.
This becomes clear when you consider the heart-pounding race to come up with a plan to cushion the "legions of" subprime borrowers from the consequences of their gullibility, as their low "teaser " interest rates expire (note: they're called teaser rates for a reason).
"Legions," in NYT-speak, may mean millions, but, more importantly, these folks probably live in more than one state. So nationally prominent Democrats, like Hillary Clinton and Barney Frank (Congressman, have you yet been to post-K New Orleans ?) are falling all over themselves to "rescue" people who just couldn't bother to read fine print, who just chose to believe TV commercials about their incredible luck in qualifying for home loans, despite, in many cases, lack of income, jobs or assets (those loans even have an industry codeword--NINJA). For them, home loans became less a subject of sober and prudent financial judgment than an adjunct to Powerball.
According to today's NYT, the "big wave of defaults" "would be crashing during the primary and general election campaigns next year". So, New Orleans, if you want real help, please schedule your next failure of the federal levees during an even-numbered year.
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I wonder how many people thought that receving a mortgage loan from the company John Edwards worked for would mean they would never lose their houses again. I guess they thought that since he started his Presidential run in New Orleans it showed he cared about the people. Now we know he cared about their money more.
My heart goes out to all the people in New Orleans. I agree with Mr. Shearer that not enough has been done to help the people of New Orleans. But I have a question to ask:
Where was Harry Shearer and all who agree with him when my small cabin home was severely damaged by the Loma Prieta earthquake, and then condemmed and bulldozed by the county in 1989? I still haven't received any federal money, nor did I receive any insurance money. I got a blanket and some food from the Red Cross, and a bill for the demolition. I lost everything I had worked my life for, and still have not recovered. But I take the responsibility for the consequences that came with my choices.
I owned a home in an "Earth Quake Zone" and I understood the dangers. The people of New Orleans owned homes in a "Flood Plain," and I have to believe they understood the meaning of the phrase.
It seems to me that sometime a persons' need to buy into the American Dream of ownership overrides their common sense. I know it happened to me.
I strongly believe that the government has several jobs to do, and one of them is to help the people in times of need, but how much money do we have to spend each year to subsidise people's poor choices in home location. How many millions did we give to the wealthy in Florida after Andrew? Or the millions given each year to people who live in high-fire danger areas?
If we are priviledged enough to own a home, then we also have the responsibilty that comes with ownership. If we want to buy into the American Dream, then we must swallow it whole, along with that oldest of American Traditions: DIY.
i live in houston. i am keenly aware of the failings of our system with regard to the devastation of katrina.
it is nice to see someone writing truthfully, and bluntly about the hypocricy inherent in the system...and Hillary Clinton's character.
Sentor Schumer we find, meets weekly with the hedge fund leaders...at least some of them...
My God, does no one see what is happening? Bad enough the Bushies have greenlighted every tax cut for wealthy and scheem for greed...but now the Senate is run for those 'new yorkers' who have and will continue to ruin the US. Call them oligarchs. Call them the military industrial complex. No one doesn't know who they are. then will ruin,
and then leave...to France perhaps with Sarkozy. History again.
Will our foreign policy by Wolfowitz or fiscal policy by Schumer ruin us first?
Right On, Harry! Not enough, or maybe invisible enough. As our valiant leader, Mr. Bush, addresses New Orleanians, "you people in this part of the world" - they are not in his part of the world, nor in the hearts and minds of those who could have seen to it that the levees were even adequate, much less impenetrable. Now, it's left to the volunteers, the charities, the citizens of New Orleans to pull themselves together - this is Democracy?
Please let's not lose sight of who are the real villains here --
not so much the Americans facing foreclosure--
although we are a bit too naive in that we believe everything were told. Not only that,not everyone who has "no job, no income and no assets" wanted to be in that situation.
Circumstances in the Bush economy may have landed many people in the same boat. Nay, nay, the real villains are the Reptile Realtors who want to gentrify entire neighborhoods, and the Predatory Lenders who
make the wolf in the Three Pigs story look like Mother Teresa.
"federally caused flood"?
Somewhere in Upstate New York during the process of evacuation: after parking the kids and dog and cat with my wife’s parents, I was at the Red Cross obtaining a voucher for food and clothing.
An eight-year-old girl entered the room and handed over fifty dollars that she had been saving towards a bicycle…. She absolutely insisted that I take the money.
I wish George and Laura had been present at that time … perhaps they would have learned something about this country and its people … that the America heart exists beyond photo ops and politically expedient speeches.
The Times Picayune ran a headline this week saying, simply, “THANK YOU”.
And we are thankful … we are thankful to people like that little girl and organizations like the Red Cross and Salvation Army who came and helped without a second thought.
We are also resentful of the lies and shameless profiteering of an administration that has deliberately placed roadblocks to the rebuilding of New Orleans.
Sorry if much of the country feels that we are “whining”
… But we DESERVE better than this, and in the end we will rebuild despite FEMA and the SBA, greedy out of state contractors, and incompetent officials. If the rest of the country is Katrina weary … so be it.
But we’d suggest that lessons be learned before the next disaster is at YOUR doorstep.
People on this board!
The federal government has spent $114 Billion on Katrina recovery. I read that works out to over $400,000 per NO resident. Where did the money go? Why is not anything getting done? Maybe government is not the answer. It was suggested that what the govenrment should do is make the whole area a tax free zone. That would attract entreprenures to come in and invest in rebuilding the city. That would revitalize the area.
I am reminded of former president Regan's comment about LBJ's war on poverty programs started int he 60's. LBJ waged a big government war spending untold billions on supposedly eradicating poverty.....and poverty won.
We spend more money per pupil in our public schools than ever before and still they are failing.
You see the pattern here? Government has proven tiime and again....it is rarely the answer to solving our problems.
You obviously have not been living IN New Orleans trying to rebuild with an SBA loan for the past two years.
Listen ... This administration, This SBA is actively trying to discourage rebuilding.
There are loads of "investors" picking up land for ten cents on the dollars.
Think of the Carpetbaggers after the Civil War and you might get an idea of what it's like.
This is not about handouts ... this is about HOME LOANS ... Get it?
Why is it that we treat the entire African American race as one big demographic?
Isn’t that the very definition of racism?
Is it just too much to expect the American people to begin to understand the complexity of our society?
I would venture to say that our black neighbors in Lakeview had far more in common with us than say, an unemployed section 8 resident addicted to crack … yet politicians and pundits (white and black) are ready to categorize by race above all other classifications … no wonder nothing can be accomplished when no one recognizes the realities on the ground.
New Orleans was and is a diverse culture spanning racial, generational, and socioeconomic lines.
These trite and simplistic notions expressed by those who know nothing of the culture rankles those of us who call New Orleans home, and are trying, against all odds, to bring the city back.
We are Americans, plain and simple. If you will allow this huge portion of our Country to be devastated, if you will allow this callous indifference on the part of our politicians, then the social fabric of the entire nation is at risk … and we are no longer united as a people.
Billions are spend in Iraq, bogus excuses are being made to convince Americans the need to stay there, and NOBODY EVER DOES ANYTHING FOR THE PEOPLE THAT HAVE LOST EVERTHING IN NEW ORLEANS. We need to get our priorities straight.
Gemma
gems. Get the facts straight? " NOBODY EVER DOES ANYTHING FOR THE PEOPLE THAT HAVE LOST EVERTHING IN NEW ORLEANS" ??
Nobody?
43,000 folks - so far - have received an average of $73,000 in federal grants (these are handouts - tax free grants, not loans) to cover the cost of uninsured losses - to help them rebuild. Another 100,000 plus folks are in line to get more of the same. The hold-up is indeed the usual red-tape, as all government programs are always burdened with layers of redtape - this federal money is being distributed by the State of Louisiana and Miss.
Otherwise, in the moment the feds have already spent another $90 someodd billion down there. We all argue that more should be done - but New Orleans is safer today, than it was prior to Hurricane Katrina. Period.
But please - don't spew such misresentation of the facts with absolute statements.
Whether or not one believes that the Federal Government should be responsible for citizens suffering from “natural” disasters, seeing George Bush at one of his staged events just reinforces New Orleanians rage against this supposedly populist fraud. Perhaps the clearest indication of staging can be found in the attire of the participants. Take for instance the down-home clothing of the “locals” grouped around Bush for his media moment. A proud black woman would no more wear overalls to meet the president of the United States than she would wear pajamas to church.
It's not the number of homes, it's the type of homes and home owners. The homes lost in the south don't count because they are poor and black people's homes. The homes of the affluent were already rebuilt or traded a long time ago. The government is slightly more concerned about a group of people that obviously had the wherewithal and the connections to get the loans in the first place so they probably aren't as poor and they probably aren't as black.
FYI ... My wife and I are neither poor nor black.
Most of our friends that are trying to rebuild are neither poor nor black.
Enough with the sterotypes already.
We have been put through the ringer by the SBA and after two years are still having to fight tooth and nail for every dime, and it has nothing to do with the color of our skin.
Pre-Katrina the city was approximately 60 percent non-white... for those of you challanged in math, that means that the City was 40 percent white... that percentage was much higher "down river" where entire communities were wiped out.
When you take into account the number of home owners and those who have returned and rebuilt, the percentage is higher for white middle class families.
Perhaps if we stop parroting what we're told to believe we might actually be able to accomplish something in the Gulf.
This isn't about race ... it's about the destruction of a middle class working society and an administration that doesn't give a shit.
Where is the culpability of jackass Mayor Ray Nagin in all of this? This clown got elected on the platform that he had a "super-secret plan" for the city and people of New Orleans. No kidding, he actually said the words, "super-secret plan"; in essence saying that he had a plan, but wouldn't reveal it unless he was elected. He is the same racially divisive moron who, because he had no real record on which to run, i.e his initial response to Katrina, running away to a luxury hotel, said he wanted to make sure New Orleans remained a "chocolate city", which of course was a not-so-hidden message of racism. His "super-secret plan" was to get himself elected, period. So he could keep the power and priviledge of office. The people fell for it and they too are partially to blame for the state their state is in. No one can deny that the federal government let the people of New Orleans down but it was government on all levels that has kept it in the perpetual state of ruin it is in today and Ray Nagin and his ilk, must be held accountable too.
What happened to the help from our neighbours
around the world..The US & Canada is always available for them, with aid when in need.
Can they not come thru with financial and
man help to finally clesn this up ?
People can not live like ths...
Many other countries around the world offered aid. Some offered money, some medical and the Dutch even offered to come and help the Army Corp analyze the levees and come up with a better system. The federal Government refused every offer.
I suspect the Dutch would have embarassed the COE, and of course they wanted to avoid that. The truth about poor design and poor construction was known to many civil engineering professors, some of them advocates in NO. The biggest shortfall is the system design of the whole levy system and the protective wetlands. COE never thought of the impact of denying the delta its sediment until it was waaay too late. All they considered was water.
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Posted August 28, 2007 | 07:38 PM (EST)