Bureaucratic inefficiency and public complacency at their worst. Put them together, and you get New Orleans.
I have read this before. No doubt the work is slow due to a lot of reasons. The big thing is to get category 5 levees built to replace the category 3 levees. That will take time and money. As far as the issue of people building below sea level - no kidding! All of New Orleans is below sea level. The Corps of Engineers came out with a new flood plan that raised the required height of homes to be built. That was one reason it took to long to start rebuilding homes; the homeowners had to wait for the new plans to come out. But even with the new plans, homes will still likely be below sea level. The only way to avoid that is not to build. As far as the floodgates are concerned, the Corp of Engineers got a bit of a bad rap in the article. The truth is that the Corps recommended to the levee district that floodgates be installed. The levee district disagreed because of the expense and said higher walls were all that were required. The district then used its clout with the state legislature to get a bill passed to force the Corps to forego the floodgates in favor of higher walls. The rest is history. After Katrina, the new plan calls for floodgates to be installed, and I think they have been installed. Right now the big slowdowns seem to be in the area of levee protection and rebuilding homes, particularly in the 9th ward. But there is also the issue of coastal protection which has not progressed as it should have. That is as an important issue as levee protection. From what I can see, we dropped the ball on coastal protection. We could have gotten the funding (about $14 billion) to restore the coastline.
right now i am not gonna read the article, because i will get too pissed off since i am just now in the process of rebuilding. however, i feel confident in saying that the blame goes all the way around. at all levels. in all areas. politics, design, construction, funding, you name it. all things factored together for the levee failure before, and if they fail again, its because of another cluster fk.
The city is ready for a rebirth. Not a rebirth or pre-Katrina, the 90's, 80's, or even 70's. This city has the potential to once again become a top destination for special events, tourists, and most importantly...business. We've failed miserably with crooks and idiots like Nagin, Morial (father & son), Jefferson, Eddie Jordan, and the list goes on and on. People got tired of the crap and fled to Jefferson and St. Tammany Parish. What's left continues to vote for the worst the city has to offer. There are some major projects underway that hopefully we'll eventually change the demographics in favor of people who actually care for the city. The Trump Tower on Poydras will not only be the tallest building in New Orleans but the tallest in Louisiana. You'll have to travel to Atlanta or Houston to find one taller in the south. The World War II museum will be massive when complete. It's already a treasure for New Orleans and will attract even more attention when complete. Several other high rise projects should be starting soon. Some local politicians are trying to block some projects for two reasons. 1) they want their typical kick-back, & 2) the people these projects will attract aren't going to support their political career. This is why some of them are in such a hurry to rebuild housing projects in the inner city. Most of these problems are a result of local politics much more than the state or federal government. The issue of the evaporating coastline is something the state and feds need to address. The Catch-22 is that nobody wants to give any money to New Orleans or Louisiana until we can prove it won't end up in somebody's pocket. As long as we continue to elect and re-elect crooks, good luck on getting any outside support.
