New Orleans Cries For Leadership
The New York Times had a scathing editorial today bemoaning the imminent ‘loss’ of New Orleans:
We are about to lose New Orleans. Whether it is a conscious plan to let the city rot until no one is willing to move back or honest paralysis over difficult questions, the moment is upon us when a major American city will die, leaving nothing but a few shells for tourists to visit like a museum.
We said this wouldn’t happen. President Bush said it wouldn’t happen. He stood in Jackson Square and said, “There is no way to imagine America without New Orleans.” But it has been over three months since Hurricane Katrina struck and the city is in complete shambles.
There are many unanswered questions that will take years to work out, but one is make-or-break and needs to be dealt with immediately. It all boils down to the levee system. People will clear garbage, live in tents, work their fingers to the bone to reclaim homes and lives, but not if they don’t believe they will be protected by more than patches to the same old system that failed during the deadly storm. Homeowners, businesses and insurance companies all need a commitment before they will stake their futures on the city.
At this moment the reconstruction is a rudderless ship. There is no effective leadership that we can identify. How many people could even name the president’s liaison for the reconstruction effort, Donald Powell? Lawmakers need to understand that for New Orleans the words “pending in Congress” are a death warrant requiring no signature.
The Times makes its position clear: New Orleans must be rebuilt.
And of course, on some level, it will be; the port is too important to our commerce for any other outcome. Whether it will ever be the same city is another matter entirely, and I suspect it won’t.
New Orleans was a failed city before Katrina hit; now, many refugees from that storm don’t want to be found, and many that have been have no intention of returning. At best, the city’s population will be cut drastically. And yet, the Times has a point; I have no doubt that many, many dedicated, talented people are working diligently on returning the city to its pre-storm levels, but the bigger questions cry for a national dialogue of some sort, it would seem.
Questions like: should the areas of the city below sea-level be declared off-limits to reconstruction? If not, how much are we prepared to spend on improving the levees? What will the cost be? What are the alternatives to rebuilding as it was? What are the timelines, the relevant milestones?
It’s not that these questions aren’t being considered, it’s that they aren’t being considered loudly enough. There was pressure, in the immediate aftermath of Katrina, to appoint a high-profile ‘reconstruction czar’, someone with the name recognition and authority of a Rudy Giuliani. It’s still a pretty good idea.
At the very least, President Bush needs to devote a considerable chunk of time in his State of the Union address to updating the American people on the progress of efforts and giving a glimpse into what is being done. The Times is right about this much: no one wants to see an American city die from inertia. This is more than a local decision; it’s a matter of national importance.
Ditka.
or perhaps WJC? LA was struggling to hold onto the democratic party before Katrina, and they will be the final casualty of Katrina, until they get a political leader with clout…
Maybe Doug Brinkley?
The city that is being ignored by the NYT, is actually Philly…it is in horrible shape, but the trend is for the liberal press to ignore the plight of democratic run cities, until they can blame the morass on a Republican. Bankrupt, corrupt, and affecting a lot more lives than NO…you want to find the worst voting fraud ever? Look no further.
You think Matthews would point some of this out as he declares it his home town.
The same phenomenon is occuring now in New Orleans, albeit on a faster timeline, as that which followed Hurricane Betty in 1965: apathy and disinterest.
I flew back to Boston recently with a woman who had spent the previous 6 weeks in New Orleans. She worked for a private firm that had been hired by FEMA to survey and document the damange to private homes and residences. She reported that every one of the places they surveyed was damaged, by mold and sewage, beyond repair and would need to be torn down and replaced. She explained that in order to complete the survey and get the homeowner reimbursed they needed to locate them and get their signature on some paperwork. They couldn’t find most people and the vast majority of those they did locate had absolutely no intention of moving back and rebuilding.
The President, the Congress, and the State and Local officials seem to be showing the same level of disinterest in leading on this issue. CNN reported last week that $13m earmarked for Katrina relief was being used to build a museum. The Times Picayune wrote an editorial chastising the local government for allowing the same old corrupt, patronage system to negatively impact the effort to clean-up and rebuild.
Right now there is no hope, no expectation that the city will be rebuilt, or that it will be made safe. I’m not sure it should be rebuilt, but we certainly should be having a debate about it.
The problem with rebuilding of New Orleans is that no one it seems who lived there wants to go back. Houston has over 150,000 of these citizens that the overall majority have said they will not return.That is just one city out of many across the country. Sadly the joke for many years was if one wishes to see a third world country , visit New Orleans.These people have fled with the clothes on thier backs. Now they have to start all over,so why not do that in a new city or state that is not considered the most corrupt state and city goverment in the U.S. never mind the police.
Well Katrina may have been the most devestating natural disaster as of yet, but the government’s faults and manipulation is far greater. I am from Orleans Parish and left with little more than a week’s supply of clothes, I live in Lafayette now. Anyone who thinks they have the slightest idea about Katrina doesn’t know anything until they visit. Our poorer neighborhoods (mind you, in mixed segments dispursed throughout the city) always resembled Haiti or a Mexican border town. I recieved many derogatory comments from folks in Baton Rouge and Lafayette because I was one of “those people”, or a “refugee”.
For out of state individuals to suggest that New Orleans not be rebuilt is one of the most inflammatory remarks I have ever heard. If this were any major city outside of the Gulf Coast (.. or Houston, or Atlanta, or Dallas…) there would be more money coming in than for the Iraq War. When the federal government assigned rebuilding contracts (surprise! surprise!) all of the usual folks from Halliburton, Shaw, et al recieved the no-bid deals, this time using Latin American labor that is often here illegally. There’s nothing wrong with immigration, but to divert so much of the opportunity away from Louisianians who desperately deserve it is atrocious.
The Democrats may be losing ground in Orleans Parish (Ray Nagin is a closet Republican- see voting record and endorsements), but pretty soon no government will be trusted in New Orleans. Cities can’t be rebuilt overnight, but to see how slow it is going is truly a crime. I know South Louisiana needs help, it is the duty of the federal government to step in. The only reason why people in Houston and Baton Rouge haven’t come home is they have no where to go. Real estate agents are laughing all the way to the bank as they continue to raise prices, rent has doubled in some places. 80% of our city’s neighborhoods flooded to the point of destruction.
The federal government needs to appoint a rebuilding czar who will convene with our city governement and overhaul the effort. New Orleans was very corrupt, very incompetant. Its time for Washington to show the local guys how a city is run. People will return if the levee system is Category-5 ready (like it should have been 40 years ago) and the police deparment and school system is good. We don’t ask for much- our primary industries are showing you a good time and shipping your goods upriver. I had to laugh when a Mardi Gras float waving the French flag displayed a sign reading, “Hey Napoleon! Buy us back!” If the federal government doesn’t start buckling down, that float won’t be so funny anymore.