Rebuilding the City of New Orleans

from JoeUser Forums
It has been posed that rebuilding the City of New Orleans is not a good idea. The fact that New Orleans is flooded has nothing to do with a broken levee. New Orleans is flooded because of many years of coastal erosion. We do not have the natural land barriers that were in place even 50 years ago.

The Mississippi river has been rerouted and the natural sand and silt is not being deposited where it should be. The plant life on the floor of the barrier islands and marsh lands is also in very bad condition due to the rerouting of the Mississippi river. This entire area is in jeopardy because of the most over engineered river in the world.

If you don't know about the landscape, you are simply speaking from your ass. I was born in Louisiana and I currently reside here. I visit New Orleans at least once a year. It is a dirty city full of poor, stupid people. I love it. For me it's not the people, it is the culture and the history. This is my history. I am of Acadian decent. This city is part of who I am.

There is no doubt, WE SHOULD AND WILL REBUILD!
4,515 views 22 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top
Acadian Via Cajun.  My Grandfather grew up in the Bayous.  My Grandmother was from the New Orleans Aristocracy. (Faget)
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
Sonnier here ... we all came down from Canada. Well, my ansestors.

This whole state is crazy. All of the rumors are really pissing me off.
Siege of Centauri
Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top

This whole state is crazy. All of the rumors are really pissing me off.

New Orleans is suffering worse than florida last year, or Virginia the year before.  I hope order can be restored soon.  Only then can the process of cleaning up begin.

And all Cajuns came down from Canada.  That is why they are Cajuns (Transplanted Acadians).  My Grandmother's family arrived from France directly, hence why they were the haves.

Reply #4 from JoeUser Forums Top
I have donated to the local red cross charity assistance. I hope it helps. The mayor's comments were sharp today. Link
Reply #5 from JoeUser Forums Top
Thanks for your donations. There are things other than cash that they really need. I have been at the shelters and they are getting a steady stream of baby items, but they need plus size clothes and underware. Clothes and underware will really make a difference. A lot of these people have decided not to go back and are looking for work in the local area. If you are donating items that will be trucked into the state these are great items to send.
Reply #6 from JoeUser Forums Top

underware.

You serious?  I just switched from briefs to boxers (for that scoach more room), and besides money, I have some of them left (in good condition).  I was not going to donate them, but if you think the Red Cross wants them...........

Reply #8 from JoeUser Forums Top

New please.

Ok.  I was not going to donate them, but will send new.  Whew!

Reply #9 from JoeUser Forums Top
Show Bar on Bourbon Street during my titty dancing days


When was that .. just trying to figure out if I've ever seen you.
Reply #10 from JoeUser Forums Top
91 was the last year I ever performed anywhere


Well I would have just been old enough then (the drinking age was still 18 then) but I wasn't there.

I wouldn't ever try to go down for Mardi Gras ... too many idiots from out of town that think everything is legal down there.
Reply #11 from JoeUser Forums Top

Well I would have just been old enough then (the drinking age was still 18 then) but I wasn't there.

Damn!  I graduated before you were born!  Hi son!

Reply #12 from JoeUser Forums Top
I differ. I've been planning to write a blog about it, but I'm not interested in all the crabbiness around here lately, honestly.

There's no way they should rebuild problems they were working around before. It would be the height of silliness to rebuild a city on the coast below sea level that you have to constantly pump out.

New Orleans isn't the only people destroyed by this. If they could do a better job for less money, diverting the extra money to Alabama or Mississippi, then they should.

New Orleans was justified trying to patch a 200 year old problem. They wouldn't be justified to build a such a forseeable problem into a new city just because of some ideal. There are a lot of people effected along the gulf coast, and frankly any extra money spent on idealism in New Orleans is just money they won't have.
Reply #13 from JoeUser Forums Top
It's a shame New Orleans ain't over seas somewhere, then the Gov't. would pour billions into it and make sure it was rebuilt.
Reply #14 from JoeUser Forums Top
New Orleans was justified trying to patch a 200 year old problem. They wouldn't be justified to build a such a forseeable problem into a new city just because of some ideal. There are a lot of people effected along the gulf coast, and frankly any extra money spent on idealism in New Orleans is just money they won't have.


I understand that they aren't the only people in need, but that doesn't mean we should throw away the history in this city. There is somehting about that city that, because I am not a poet, I can't put into words. It is the food and the atmosphere and the culture that brings me back.

I think it would be a sad, sad day if we abandon this city.
Reply #15 from JoeUser Forums Top
There are high spots in New Orleans that aren't flooded now. I think the city could be restructured, and the low points built-around. I think most of places like bourbon street are on high ground, aren't they?

Ask yourself this. Why are the poorest neighborhoods the worst flooded? Because wealthy people don't want to invest in property that is in that kind of danger unless the tourism factor is so high that they can afford to lose.

We shouldn't send Jimmy Carter down there with Habitat for Humanity to rebuild poor people's houses so they can flood again in the future. That just reinforces the problem.

Also, wait and see what it is going to cost to insure places like that after the insurance companies take this hit. They don't even offer flood insurance in the vast majority of places. After this, it will be next to impossible to protect your investment.
Reply #16 from JoeUser Forums Top
There's no way they should rebuild problems they were working around before. It would be the height of silliness to rebuild a city on the coast below sea level that you have to constantly pump out.


FOr the last time, it is not on the coast! Brawley California is 37 feet below sea level! But it is not on the coast either. The Levee's, unlike he Dutch Dikes, were not holding back the sea.
Reply #17 from JoeUser Forums Top
Doc, no offense, but look at a map. Look at that link and zoom out a few notches. They can call lake Borgne a "lake" until they are blue in the face, but in reality it is a bay completely open to the ocean. Lake Pontchartrain is a SALT WATER "lake", meaning it is basically an inlet.

No, there is no beach on Bourbon street, but new Orleans is on the coast. You want to call it an "inlet" that takes up most of the states lower border with the ocean, fine, but most of us call a line that borders an ocean "coast".

The flooded suburbs are right there on Lake Borgne, and there's no barrier between.
Reply #18 from JoeUser Forums Top
I do not agree with it being rebiult just so that a thousand more can die the next time over because of the grand history of the city.

No talking out the ass here. Many of the reasons why it shouldn't be rebiult (at very least, small housing shouldn't be biult).

In fact, in your own post you state the very logic behind not biulding there. From erroding marsh lands to the city sinking itself.


Spend billions to rebiuld, the poor won't be able to afford the insurance (this place already scared insurers and even FEMA knew about the high risk), the city is still sinking, the marsh is still disapearing, the water table IS RISING...


Sign in on the New York Times website and look at the interactive map. Most of the high land are in well to do nieghborhoods:
Take A Look



I am sure specific areas will be rebult because there is money to be made, but those people who lived in the 5 feet below sea level areas will be waiting a long time for the infrastructure to come back, just for it to be torn down again during the next cat5 hurricane.

Google Map
3 bodies of water, one north, one south and one east. Did you see the section cut of this land? The Mississippi River at normal levels is about 2 or more meters above seal level. The lake to the north is about 1 meter avove sea level normally.

I am not being mean about this. From a construction point of view, economic, and insurance wise, how can you rebuild there? Finally, what about peoples lives?


I just don't see it.
Reply #19 from JoeUser Forums Top
Spend billions to rebiuld, the poor won't be able to afford the insurance


Do you really think they had insurance to start with? Don't be silly.

The city does need to be restructured, but not without addressing the marsh land issues. There are many studies that have been done to find a solution. The major problem all along has been an issue of eminent domain. These people couldn't be displaced because someone would have to figure out what to do with them.

As sad as it may be the city of New Orleans needed something like this to happen to make way for a change.

I stand by my conviction that this city has a history that most are not aware of and it need to be preserved not allowed to be claimed by the Gulf of Mexico. If we allow this to happen it will only move the problem further inland. And, as you stated we would only be trading one problem for another.
Reply #20 from JoeUser Forums Top
FOr the last time, it is not on the coast!


I kinda, sorta agree with you. Technically it is not on the coast. I have driven to the end of the land south of New Orleans. It's a long drive.
Reply #21 from JoeUser Forums Top
Like I say "Lake" Borgne isn't really a lake, so I'd argue that the ocean is just a couple of miles south east. Here's a better map. The 'lake' to the north is saltwater, and that 'lake' to the east is open all the way to the ocean. It's bordered on the south by salt water as well by yet another 'lake'.

If what was on the north, east, and south were really bone fide lakes I'd agree, but a real land-locked lake wouldn't carry stormsurge from hurricaine coming in from the ocean. A rise in ocean levels raises ALL the water around New Orleans, so I don't see how you can get around calling that coast.

As an aside, what about the skeery "global warming" thing, too. IF scientists are somewhat true, and IF the oceans are going to keep rising, should ANY coastal city be considered safe unless they are built on higher ground?
Reply #22 from JoeUser Forums Top

Lake Pontchartrain is a SALT WATER "lake", meaning it is basically an inlet.

No it is not.  And we have salt water lakes around richmond, but it is not coastal.