Death of an American City

[funkybutt]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/11/opinion/11sun1.html

"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."

--snip---

" If the rest of the nation has decided it is too expensive to give the people of New Orleans a chance at renewal, we have to tell them so. We must tell them we spent our rainy-day fund on a costly stalemate in Iraq, that we gave it away in tax cuts for wealthy families and shareholders. We must tell them America is too broke and too weak to rebuild one of its great cities.

Our nation would then look like a feeble giant indeed. But whether we admit it or not, this is our choice to make. We decide whether New Orleans lives or dies."

PLEASE CONTACT YOUR CONGRESSMEN AND TELL THEM NOT TO LET NEW ORLEANS DIE!

[Skidmore]

1. They aren't letting it die; they have been murdering NO.

[GreenPartyVoter]

18. Exactly

[noonwitch]

20. Right, they "let" Detroit die, NO is more of an active neglect thing

Detroit never faced a natural disaster, although man-made ones are always a threat with all the industry that still remains, and the abandoned sites of industry past. Most of the white people moved out and abandoned the city in the 70s, but it still took 20 years or so to totally deteriorate.

New Orleans is a more active kind of neglect. People knew the levees wouldn't hold with a major storm, but did nothing to improve them. Words are not enough to describe the neglect immediately after Katrina, with people starving to death on live tv with only the reporters covering the story there to help them.

[malaise]

2. Dems should be making more noise

on this. How many speeches re rebuilding Iraq v NOLA since October?

[Al-CIAda]

4. We have a ready-made slogan, 'Charity begins AT HOME'.

Looting the treasury of billions from taxpayers to fund no-bid corporate wars half a world away... while American cities crumble.

[Al-CIAda]

3. Fantastic article-

..."Total allocations for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the war on terror have topped $300 billion. All that money has been appropriated as the cost of protecting the nation from terrorist attacks. But what was the worst possible case we fought to prevent? Losing a major American city.

"We'll not just rebuild, we'll build higher and better," President Bush said that night in September. Our feeling, strongly, is that he was right and should keep to his word. We in New York remember well what it was like for the country to rally around our city in a desperate hour. New York survived and has flourished. New Orleans can too."...

[misanthrope]

5. I know someone...

...who worked at the Funky Butt back in the '90s.

[funkybutt]

6. I'm not sure that funkybutt will ever open again

From what I hear, City Council Member Jackie Clarkson will not give them permits to reopen since the storm.

:shrug:

[misanthrope]

8. How badly did...

...Rampart get flooded? What's the hold-up with the permits? That much damage to the building?

[funkybutt]

9. nope Rampart fared well...

not sure what the deal is other than that Councilwoman

[KamaAina]

10. Since when is "the Wicked Witch of the West Bank" in charge of permits?

Criminetly. Now do you see why I and many others did all that streetwork for her opponent way back when? All this could have been avoided if they'd only listened to me... :shrug:

Could they just find a place across Canal and thus out of the Big Hair Zone? Or maybe it's time for my man to dust off the old campaign signs and get back out there, using this as proof that "Clarkson is anti-business"?

edit: Might some enterprising soul who's on the ground in NOLA paper the place with fliers that read, "Closed due to Hurricane Jackie"? :evilgrin:

[funkybutt]

19. LOL

Great idea!!

and thank you for working for her opponent.

We're just so overwhelmed down here right now, I haven't seen a huge outcry about the closure. People say "it's been going downhill for a while".

I know there was a plan early on to make Rampart into a local music street, but i guess rich property owners in the area had her ear. They didn't want "another bourbon street"...and certainly Not In My Backyard.

:shrug:

update:spelling

[journalist3072]

7. I was listenting to Meet the Press Today

I heard the audio of it on Cspan Radio. I can't remember who was talking. But they said an "Administration official" told them that New Orleans has fallen so far off the map of the Bushies, that you can't even find it. In other words, New Orleans is not on Bush's radar screen.

[KamaAina]

11. I am not normally in the cheerleading section of the Paper of Record

but that piece kicks some serious funky butt! :bounce:

I've floated this idea all over the place: If our government (and I use the term loosely) doesn't give a tinker's damn about New Orleans, the city should go out and find one or more that do. We should seriously consider forming an NGO that would, in effect, give New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region observer status at the UN.

When I put that out on one of the rebuilding boards, I got chided that "that would complete Louisiana's transformation into a banana republic." Better bananas than MREs, I say!

[KamaAina]

12. Blogger-style link that should work without registration

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/11/opinion/11sun1.html?ex=1291957200&en=4b8c42aa8c1afdad&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

Everyone needs to read this piece without filling out the Times' extremely cumbersome and intrusive registration form.

Link comes from the New York Times Link Generator:

http://nytimes.blogspace.com/genlink

[Swamp Rat]

13. !

:mad:

[Leopolds Ghost]

14. Contra NYT, the WashPost prefers a different approach to New Orleans

In their editorial here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5529777

On edit: Where do your elected leaders stand? With the Times -- or with the Post?

Ask them.

[funkybutt]

17. The Gov and the Mayor support the Corporation

The proposal was written by a Republican but it currently has bipartisan support. It's a scary proposition, but I've seen no other viable plans. They took out the eminent domain language and changed quite a few other things. I was insured for the loss of my home so it doesn't affect the rebuilding of MY HOUSE but I imagine it could help some of my neighbors recover. Onen concern of mine is that it may give developers first chances to acquire properties over locals.

Here's an interesting opinion piece about the Baker Bill and the Louisiana Recovery Authority.

http://www.2theadvocate.com/stories/120805/opi_edi001.shtml

[shance]

15. Good work FB. This is important. NOLA affects every American

and the future protection and safety of all of our cities, including our own sacred New Orleans.

This is a trial run for this Administration, and those that stand to profit from such disasters.

We cannot let something like this ever happen again.

[Al-CIAda]

16. .

[shance]

21. kick*

n/t

[Al-CIAda]

22. .

[Synnical]

23. I just read this

So here's a kick for a truly American city that must be saved.

[Al-CIAda]

24. .