How would you save New Orleans?

Okay, everyone likes to play Monday morning quarterback and the blame game but what would you do if you were the mayor of New Orleans right now? Now there's no turning back the clock. Let's pretend Nagin resigned and YOU became mayor of a major city that lies below sea level. What would you do to bring the people and the money back? Think realistically. I would build levees (or dikes) like in the Netherlands to protect the city, but no one is going to pay for that. So, please, how would you save New Orleans?

Lily

I'd ask the Fed to spend all that money to rebuild the city...in a different location. seems the only way to ensure this disaster wont be repeated.

Bulldoze the whole city and let nature fully reclaim it.

If not that, then they have to spend a huge amount of money to restore the Mississippi delta wetlands as well as build a much stronger levee system. Not a single penny should be spent on rebuilding that city without a plan to do these steps.

[edit on 12/1/2005 by djohnsto77]

What about the levees? Rebuilding the areas that were flooded won't prevent another flood. Odds are this will happen again in the next few years.

I like your answer though.

What about the people who live there? What do you do with them? I do agree that some parts should not be rebuilt but I promise it would turn into a racial thing rather than a lets save our city thing.

BTW, ever been to NO?

No, I never had the pleasure.

My response a bit tongue-in-cheek, I've revised and extended my remarks.

The port is definitely important, and the historic French quarter district is worth saving -- but what really is the point of spending billions of dollars to rebuild below sea level slums? The city of NO had one of the highest unemployment and poverty rates before the storm. I don't really see the logic behind moving them back to an area of increased sorrow post-Katrina and even less chance of employment and success. At the risk of sounding like Barbara Bush, I'll venture to guess that Katrina actually provided a great opportunity to escape poverty to many of these poor former NO residents.

I agree with you. The poverty and crime where completely out of hand. These are some of the reasons I left NO 7 years ago. The schools were falling apart and all the school board did was argue. The city needed to be reduced. I just don't see the government helping us that much. And what about all these poor people? This is going to sound horrible, but do you want to inherit our problems?

There really isn't an answer to the question I have asked. I just want people to think about how we can make it better and not just complain. I don't know where you live but if the government decides to not rebuild NO, what is to make them decide to not rebuild your city if a natural disaster hits or rebuild San Francisco or LA when another earthquake hits? Why are we rebuilding other countries but not our own? It's so sad.

I have been trying to wrap my head around that problem since September and I find it completely overwhelming. I simply do not have an answer. The infrastructure has been so completely devastated that I think the city's future is very uncertain, at best, and that if it survives, at all, it will be a very slow organic growth that will yield a completely different culture. I think it is very possible that New Orleans might not survive. I hate to be so negative, but it's a chicken or egg problem. How do you get people without housing and jobs and how do you get housing and jobs without people?

My feelings about New Orleans are truly ambivalent. When I left, I didn't care if I ever saw it again. Now, that it's teetering on the brink of oblivion, I'm very concerned.

www.cbsnews.com...

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[edit on 2005/12/5 by GradyPhilpott]

You dont do anything with the city, just place a gravemarker.

i have alot of different thoughts about the subject. number one would be that i WOULDNT of had mexican workers come in to work on the rebuilding process, i think thats a huge insult for the people who live there and wanted to come back and do thier part with the clean up and rebuilding. i would have civil engineers draw up plans on a new levee system, one with locking channels and relief pipes, a new system like the sea walls in japan for tsunamis. have local contractors and labor force do the building of it. somewhere in that process also build some sort of evacuation staging area that sits above sea level where they can keep buses, etc.

Actually, you would be surprised at the number of people who will NOT return to New Orleans.
New Orleans May Lose 80% of it's Black Population
I know the study only includes the Black Americans but according to the 2000 census, this sector of the population of NO comprised a whopping 68%!
neworleans.areaconnect.com...

Well, if I were to become the m ayor right now, I'd set about a plan to build huge walls that can withstand category 5 hurricanes around the city, and eventually keep making the walls higher, and eventually make it closed to nature, since in 100-200 years the area will be underwater anyways.

Honestly Wake Up Folks!! I lived in New Orleans For Ten Years and each Year I noticed that the quality of life in general was decreasing about 5% a year High crime rates , awful roads,risky public transportation, high utilities, poor government services made life miserable for average tax payer. I must admit I jumped at the chance to move and am I ever glad I did . Seeing that the army core of engineers has no plans to build a catagory 5 levee system is a death kneel for the city if and when the next cat 5 hurricane hits the city and it eventualy will.