The New Orleans Recovery Continues, Feds Welcome to Jump Aboard
This week, I got a tour of the Lower Ninth Ward. It was by no means my first visit to the area; virtually every time I return to New Orleans, I drive myself (and/or my visitors from out of town) around some of the vast flood-devastated real estate of the city, to see for myself how the grass-roots recovery is faring. Ever since last fall, when I drove through the Lower 9 with the producer of my Crescent City Stories series for MyDamnChannel.com, I've been amazed and inspired by the area's signs of life. But it took this week's tour, courtesy of the Preservation Resource Center, for me to realize just how false is the national media's depiction of the Lower 9 as dead, derelict and devastated. There are streets -- like the two blocks of Egania Street I happened onto last fall -- and neighborhoods -- like Holy Cross, where PRC is concentrating much of its restoration and rebuilding effort -- that astonish with rebuilt, re-landscaped and re-occupied little (and not so little) homes, mostly restored in the vernacular styles of the area. The Lower 9 shares with districts as undevastated as the French Quarter the curse of streets badly in need of repair (a major road-repair program in the city was announced just this week, nearly three years after the floodwaters were pumped out). And of course, there's the ever-present threat that the Army Corps of Engineers is still...the Army Corps. See this story on seepage at the 17th St. Canal for a real deja-uh-oh experience.
Yet the recovery by homeowners, assisted by dedicated organizations like the PRC, continues, blessed, as I tell my friends there, by the absence of the illusion of leadership. Speaking of which, Sen. Mary Landrieu has inserted in the new War Money Act (my name for it) some provisions for the Gulf Coast's recovery, including:
$6 billion for 100-year flood protection for the New Orleans area, with Louisiana's share reduced from $1.5 billion to $1.3 billion and the state given 30 years, instead of the usual three years, to make the payments.
-- $75 million to move public facilities from the Port of New Orleans to accelerate the closing of the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet and language directing the Corps of Engineers to look at more expensive options for permanent pumping of storm water in the New Orleans metropolitan area.
-- $75 million for criminal justice needs along the Gulf Coast.
-- $157 million to help six New Orleans area hospitals deal with post-hurricane health care costs.
-- $70 million for 3,000 supportive housing vouchers to help low-income workers find housing in the New Orleans area.
On that latter point, $70 million won't go very far when the rents in the city have doubled and tripled, due to so many rental units being taken off the market due to flood damage. Yet, there's still no federal effort to help jumpstart the renovation and rebuilding of rental units, the only sure way to "help low-income workers find housing." Rep. Barney Frank is head of the relevant committee in the House. How does he stand on helping the working class of New Orleans come home?
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Harry, I've come to realize, here nearly 3 yrs post-K, that five great misconceptions regarding New Orleans pre-K demographics have hurt the recovery efforts. Compared to other American cities with similar population numbers, New Orleans had/has:
1) a high number of longtime, generational renters
2) a high number of working poor and lower-middle class citizens
3) a high number of people getting around primarily via public transportation vs personal vehicles
4) a compact, walkable, traditional urban grid "footprint" favoring a pedestrian lifestyle opposed to a car-oriented lifestyle
5) the insular geographical nature of the city dictates #'s 3 and 4
Those parameters are part of what makes New Orleans' recovery such a challenge, but also part of what makes it unique and great among American cities. Let's hope the next presidential administration and 08 Congress will not only be able to locate the city on a map, but will see fit to step up and perform one of the most basic duties of a federal government, providing for the safety of its people.
Kudos to you sir, for keeping NOLA's plight on the front burner, at least here on HuffPo. As a frustrated voice actor myself, I'm inclined to be very simpatico with your presence. But there are plenty of other reasons for that. Your clarity, brevity, command of the language and persistent unapologetic intelligence all stand out. As Mr. Burns would put it, "I like the cut of your jibe", although I'd love to see you take Dennis Miller to task for his appropriation of that phrase.
Alas, I have dreamed of a leisurely auto tour through South Louisiana for a while now ever since I got hooked on listening to the old "Road Gang" all-night truckers' show on WWL 870 radio (I would listen often, but especially just before I got up to trudge in to my own low-paying small market radio gig in NW PA which began @ 5 A.M.). Looks like I won't be getting down there for a while, but I remain hopeful. I guess it's the same variety of hope tempered with realism which you express for the City's recovery.
Think I'll go put on the Credibility Gap's "Woodschtick" LP now...Ta!
Harry, I've been taking pictures in the Ninth Ward every time I go home. I'm gonna put together a bunch of angry short films and maybe a coffee table book or something. Coincidentally the area where I've concentrated my efforts is the area Brad Pitt's Make it Right project canvassed with the K&B-purple tents last winter. I've heard the tents have all been taken down (finally), but have any houses been built yet? I hope to come home soon and take another round of pictures..
Those canvas structures were far from K&B purple, they were hot pink. Slow going for that area north of St. Claude, but nearer the river, much more going on there.
after reading the article about the 17th st. canal flood wall, i think if i were building a single family dwelling in NOLA, i would either build it on pilings, or on a flooting foundation.
possibly the best bet for multiple family dwellings would be have the apts start on the third floor above two floors of parking garages.
it seems unlikely that "100 year flood" protection would be sufficient.
Thanks for pointing out the similarities to the 17th Street canal seepage, fogbreath. I'm sure Harry and others who have been in the Lower 9th recently notice it too along Jourdan Rd.- especially at the intersection of Florida Ave. (It's essentially impassible in a regular automobile, due to standing water and barricades
Whatever you do, just don't take the Claiborne Ave. Bridge... it seems that we are slowly and painfully perfecting the art of denial. (see May 27 Times-Picayune Article "Check of Bridge Safety Gates Omitted, State Finds" on nola-dot-c
100 year protection is totally inadequate. It is a vile joke.
Consider the following from ASCE (who themselves are a vile joke):
§ Major dams in the United States are designed so that the probability of a failure causing more than a thousand fatalities is less than once every 100,000 to 1,000,000 years.
§ Dams and coastal protection systems for densely populated regions in The Netherlands are designed for storm surge occurrences with a return period of 10,000 years.
§ The recently completed flood protection system on the Red River in Grand Forks, North Dakota, and East Grand Forks, Minnesota, was designed ... with the levees built to prevent overtopping from a 500year storm. ... Note that there were no lives lost in the severe 1997 flood that motivated this work and that involved the evacuation of 50,000 people. The probability of having even a single fatality in this
system is much less frequent than once every 500 years.
§ Major buildings and bridges in California are designed to withstand earthquakes that occur less than once every 2,500 years.
How about that, huh? Dams get a million-year design standard. Holland uses a 10-000-years standard. An evacuation of only 50, 000 people and they get 500-year protection. Individual bridges, where no one lives, get 2500 years in California.
New Orleans gets a big F.U. with 100-year protection.
More here: http://www
Which of course EVERYBODY with a brain knows isn't 100 yr anymore, in light of climate change and new , more accurate elevation measurements. It's more like 50 yr.
Thank you Mr Shearer for your article.
tompoe is correct. We New Orleans Caucasians have recently learned all about tokenism. I don't think I could have understood it without experiencing it first hand. Believe it or not, our whole city has been a victim of tokenism by our state and federal government for decades - especially the state. But, nothing like now. I suspect most of our city's African Americans have been totally familiar with tokenism for many generations. But, yea, this is new to me.
This is one of the local grassroot efforts.
On May 31, levees.org is holding rallies around the metro-New Orleans area, to "Help New Orleans tell the nation and Congress that we deserve federal flood protection we can trust!"
More info here
http://sal
The article about the road construction deserves two comments. First, this project is not evidence of a new initiative from the competent Jindal (R) administration (as I have heard from informal commenters). This is one of about 500 miles of similar projects that were planned at least two years ago (that would be by the Blanco (D) administration). Second, the first I heard of these projects was from the advertisement for what is called a general engineering consultant (or, a GEC). The State of Louisiana will use a GEC to oversee the many details of the designs being put forward for those projects by the individual consultants it hires. This is precisely the sort of engineering oversight being demanded for the Corps' work in New Orleans.
The other article is an almost complete disaster. The writer poorly understands the principles being dicussed by the experts that were quoted. Space does not allow me to offer a point-by-point explanation, but suffice it to say that despite the critical nature of the information conveyed, the article will leave most more confused than informed. Surely, there are engineers that would work with such writers, if the editors and publishers would only look. One thing, at least, that came through clearly is that Congress has not yet learned that the Corps must have experts outside its own echo chamber review its work.
The roadway improvement project is from LA DOTD. It was advertised a little more than one year ago.
The scope of services (there are addendums) is here: http://web
The first list of roads to be improved is here: http://web
Crowder Road is Number 52.
They have promised that more roads will be added to the list.
Mr Shearer asks "Rep. Barney Frank is head of the relevant committee in the House. How does he stand on helping the working class of New Orleans come home?"
Here's at least part of an answer:
http://www
"Before the legislation reaches the president, the Senate will have to reconcile differences with the House-passed bill championed by Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass.
"Frank said Tuesday that he is concerned about diverting the low-income housing money, which his bill would dedicate in the first year to New Orleans and other areas ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. Frank and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., also plan to press for higher limits on conforming loans so that more borrowers in states like theirs with higher housing costs could qualify for lower interest rates.
"Still, Frank hailed the committee vote as a 'big breakthrough' and said his staff will begin conferring with Senate aides. 'We can find ways to pay for this without taking the money away from New Orleans,' Frank said. 'We are in agreement on a whole lot of things.'"
Make of that what you will.
Steve
"diverting the low income housing money" to where?
I suspect it will be difficult to find native Americans that find the Katrina response shocking. Tokenism from our government is quite familiar to them. There can be no doubt at this point, that history will include the hundreds of thousands of displaced residents whenever the topic of governmental tokenism is discussed. How does it feel to be treated as a native American? Just ask a native American or Katrina victim.
People from New Orleans are, as a rule, self-reliant, hard working, people who enjoy the good things that life has to offer. Negotiating government or corporate bureaucracy is just not a skill many people have. You have heard “We have our own way of doing things.” That is because it is a necessity. Self reliance is sometimes confused with local corruption. The national view is that the New Orleans people are just waiting for government to take care of them and solve their problems but are too corrupt for any federal money to do any good. The reality is that the locals have been suspicious of federal help long before the government hung them out to dry during and after Katrina. Reading that the locals are rebuilding themselves, does not surprise me at all.
It does my heart good to read your articles. I don’t know why it takes a Los Angelino like you to explain New Orleans to the rest of the country, but keep it up. I have listened to Le Show since the 1980s and have followed your familiarity with the city beginning with uptown funk. Now, you are the best ambassador the city has ever had. Thank You!
Speaking of LeShow----just got a new shortwave and am playing with the antenna in hopes of picking up WBCQ well enough to get Le Show over the ionosphere!
Harry, is there a place we can get your show streaming over the net in case the last vestiges of "real radio" (term some are using for shortwave) doesn't work well?
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