[mikajuise]

You can replace the entire levee system with $182 million?


And, the breached areas have been replaced already. And they still had $182 mil for the dome.

so only the breached areas were replaced, i'd assume that left the rest of the inadequate areas in place. makes sense. could never happen again i guess. excellent way of looking at things.

[NowFloabDow]

So you agree rather then trying to bring back the people that have lived their for generations you should build high rise condos? Thats seriously what they are doing down there. Mayor Nagan even got accused of trying to make it a 'white city'. Bringing in the rich and leaving out the poor.

You need to do what you need to do. If those areas are now valuable, under the rights of Eminent Domain, the government can confiscate them and do what is best for the city.

My guess is that enough areas are going to be converted to condos to bring up the tax base, in the assumption that the tax funds will help jumpstart the city.

As for the poor, if they owned the property, they'll get a settlement. Not that that will ever be sufficient for the loss of their... ancestral homes... but there are enough folks that moved out permanently that land should be fairly cheap.

If the poor were renters, it's their landlords that get hosed... and they now have some amount of cash to allow them to start over.

I'd guess that some areas will be converted to higher-value residencies, and some will be set up as more affordable housing.

[Vmysobfi]

Possibly.

If you're talking about objects with sentimental value, the poor aren't the only ones affected by sentiment.

i guess it really doesn't matter after all. they are poor so they should be used to no one giving a rat's ass about them.

[Knqzjbmf]

But the superdome can withstand cat 5 hurriances now! Woohoo


Seriously though. I agree they should do that but reopening the superdome is something that should of been done and i'm glad they did. My problem lies in the fact that they make a whole huge event out of it so me and you and everyone else that didn't get a drop of rain can now feel good about ourselves and sleep at night.

I may be rash in this statement. But this game was not about you. It wasn't about Ashey. It wasn't about Dom, or anyone here. It wasn't even about me, and I was affected by both Katrina and Rita. This was a celebration for those that were affected heavily by the storms. So that they can have something to be excited about, to cheer for, to have hope in.

Now, I may be wrong. However, from the people that I know from New Orleans, this is a good thing. This is good for the people and for the city. What do the people that you know from New Orleans think?

[alecoplesosse]

Wow, that's news to me. Last I heard, he was calling for it to be a "chocolate city" again.

A black mayor beating hell to bring in whitey? Again, news to me.

Saying and doing is one thing

"Hurricane Katrina flooded 80 percent of New Orleans, destroying the city's infrastructure and displacing most of its residents. A year later, only about half of New Orleans' population of 450,000 has returned. Many of those unable to come back are poor and African-American. In the ravaged, mostly black neighborhood of the Lower Ninth Ward - only 1,000 of the 20,000 people who lived there before Katrina have returned. This has drastically altered the demographics of a city that used to be two-thirds black.

Activists and residents have condemned the government's refusal to re-open the city's public housing projects and point out that while tourist areas are being developed, affordable housing is not being built. Many are asking, "who is New Orleans being re-built for?"

• Greg Palast, investigative reporter and author of "Armed Madhouse" reports from New Orleans. Produced by Jacquie Soohen of Big Noise Films and Matt Pascarella.

Why are their plans to build high rise condos in previous lower class areas? Why aren't they building affordable houses? And opening up the houseing projects like the artricle states. Again saying and doing are two different things

[GinaIsWild]

I may be rash in this statement. But this game was not about you. It wasn't about Ashey. It wasn't about Dom, or anyone here. It wasn't even about me, and I was affected by both Katrina and Rita. This was a celebration for those that were affected heavily by the storms. So that they can have something to be excited about, to cheer for, to have hope in.

Now, I may be wrong. However, from the people that I know from New Orleans, this is a good thing. This is good for the people and for the city. What do the people that you know from New Orleans think?

The people that I know from that area thought it was a good thing for football to come back to the city, but thought that perhaps there were more important things than sports on the public agenda.

[foI3fKWv]

so only the breached areas were replaced, i'd assume that left the rest of the inadequate areas in place. makes sense. could never happen again i guess. excellent way of looking at things.

Oh no, I'm sure there are areas that are inadequate. The whole thing needs an upgrade. Now, if you can get a whole new upgrade for $182 million, I'm sure Nagin and Blanco would be glad to hear from you. Alternatively, if you can find and pinpoint the exact areas of the entire levee system that need fixing, then you should patent that idea, too.

Point is, no one (that I know of) can specifically say where any weak areas are. So to take away the chance of a weak area, you replace the whole thing. $182 isn't going to do that, and I don't even think it's a drop in the bucket of money needed to do that.

[AbeldeldepBug]

I may be rash in this statement. But this game was not about you. It wasn't about Ashey. It wasn't about Dom, or anyone here. It wasn't even about me, and I was affected by both Katrina and Rita. This was a celebration for those that were affected heavily by the storms. So that they can have something to be excited about, to cheer for, to have hope in.

Now, I may be wrong. However, from the people that I know from New Orleans, this is a good thing. This is good for the people and for the city. What do the people that you know from New Orleans think?

'


You are a 100% correct that you know people affected. Your the only one in on this conversation that actually lives down there.

But if this was a celebration for the people affected. Why not do something for those people. Seriously? Give a fifth of the tickets to this ONE game away to people affected by the storm that had to leave. Do something to help those people feel better about their lives.

It was the right idea 100%. But they went about it entirely wrong.

[juyrett]

Saying and doing is one thing

"Hurricane Katrina flooded 80 percent of New Orleans, destroying the city's infrastructure and displacing most of its residents. A year later, only about half of New Orleans' population of 450,000 has returned. Many of those unable to come back are poor and African-American. In the ravaged, mostly black neighborhood of the Lower Ninth Ward - only 1,000 of the 20,000 people who lived there before Katrina have returned. This has drastically altered the demographics of a city that used to be two-thirds black.

Activists and residents have condemned the government's refusal to re-open the city's public housing projects and point out that while tourist areas are being developed, affordable housing is not being built. Many are asking, "who is New Orleans being re-built for?"

• Greg Palast, investigative reporter and author of "Armed Madhouse" reports from New Orleans. Produced by Jacquie Soohen of Big Noise Films and Matt Pascarella.

Why are their plans to build high rise condos in previous lower class areas? Why aren't they building affordable houses? And opening up the houseing projects like the artricle states. Again saying and doing are two different things

Are you saying black people can't live in condos? Because I thought that's what we were talking about here with the race issue and Nagin wanting more white people there.

As for some of the 9th ward and stuff, there's a lot of talk about not developing the areas hardest hit for an ecological buffer. Now, that means swampy land. Hey, that's touristy, too. Ever been to the Everglades? Atchafalaya basin?

There's a push in Baton Rouge to build upscale apts near campus where there's nothing but rundown apt buildings and empty warehouses. Is that a movement for segregation or to improve areas of the city and increase income for taxes to fund other stuff? I don't know, I'm just asking?

[JMLot]

The people that I know from that area thought it was a good thing for football to come back to the city, but thought that perhaps there were more important things than sports on the public agenda.

Well, if you just look at it in a black and white manner, I would say fixing poverty and giving people a place to live ranks much higher on the list than football, so I would agree. Unfortunately, it's not black and white.

[Biassasecumma]

'


You are a 100% correct that you know people affected. Your the only one in on this conversation that actually lives down there.

But if this was a celebration for the people affected. Why not do something for those people. Seriously? Give a fifth of the tickets to this ONE game away to people affected by the storm that had to leave. Do something to help those people feel better about their lives.

It was the right idea 100%. But they went about it entirely wrong.

I think they did something like that last season, but the games were in Baton Rouge or San Antonio. Obviously, not everyone got a ticket, but I remember groups of people going to a game. Come to think of it, I think it was a Carolina game...the Panthers gave tickets to some people...not the Saints. But right there is an issue of ownership. The Saints aren't a publicly owned team, and there's no way I'll defend Benson on anything. That would've been a good idea for him to do, assuming he didn't.

[enentique]

I think they did something like that last season, but the games were in Baton Rouge or San Antonio. Obviously, not everyone got a ticket, but I remember groups of people going to a game. Come to think of it, I think it was a Carolina game...the Panthers gave tickets to some people...not the Saints. But right there is an issue of ownership. The Saints aren't a publicly owned team, and there's no way I'll defend Benson on anything. That would've been a good idea for him to do, assuming he didn't.

Thats all I'm getting at. Superdome reopening is a good idea. But they blew it out of proportion likes it the best thing in the world for the residents and oh New Orleans can be happy and marry again.

When the people directly affected were probably not even at the game


Good idea. Bad way to do it and a horrible job to try to turn in into the feel good story of the century

[joe-salton]

But back to rebuilding affordable housing...what new complexes and housing is going to be affordable for poor people? There's been a lot of work with habitat for humanity building houses and whatnot. But what kind of brand new housing will be affordable? Are they going to be poorly made cheap houses? I don't get that.

It's been 1 frickin' year. A neighborhood completely demolished...wait, not a neighborhood, a district completely demolished and no one has moved back yet? And it's already been ONE year?

Shit, they just recently got that cleaned up.

Of course it should've gone faster. Should've, but could it have? Don't know.

[MormefWrarebe]

Hey dom, ashey and LSU I gottta get back to work and my casual posting. Enjoyed the debate. Always nice to chat with people that have differing views without petty namecalling.

And LSU I do agree that they can't really rebuild any faster than they are. Just seems odd that the upper class neighborhoods are getting built up faster. I guess it comes down to the lower neighborhoods were destroyed more. And the value of a dollar. The contractors of course are gonna go to where they can make more money.

[EnvellFen]

Hey dom, ashey and LSU I gottta get back to work and my casual posting. Enjoyed the debate. Always nice to chat with people that have differing views without petty namecalling.

And LSU I do agree that they can't really rebuild any faster than they are. Just seems odd that the upper class neighborhoods are getting built up faster. I guess it comes down to the lower neighborhoods were destroyed more. And the value of a dollar. The contractors of course are gonna go to where they can make more money.

Well, realize that there aren't enough contractors to go around. And NOBODY builds small houses anymore (unless you get the cheap prefab stuff) - there's more profit in larger houses.

There's also the question of government subsidy. Who's filling out all the paperwork? Certainly not the contractors...

[budumol]

Thats all I'm getting at. Superdome reopening is a good idea. But they blew it out of proportion likes it the best thing in the world for the residents and oh New Orleans can be happy and marry again.

When the people directly affected were probably not even at the game


Good idea. Bad way to do it and a horrible job to try to turn in into the feel good story of the century

Part of the hoopla was to get ratings for MNF.

But to say people that were directly affected didn't get anything from it is a bit of a stretch. I could've had a houseful of refugees from NOLA at my house watching the game enjoying every minute of it.

[pumpineemob]

Hey dom, ashey and LSU I gottta get back to work and my casual posting. Enjoyed the debate. Always nice to chat with people that have differing views without petty namecalling.

And LSU I do agree that they can't really rebuild any faster than they are. Just seems odd that the upper class neighborhoods are getting built up faster. I guess it comes down to the lower neighborhoods were destroyed more. And the value of a dollar. The contractors of course are gonna go to where they can make more money.

The lower class neighborhoods got hit hardest. Mainly because they're primarily the ones on the lowest elevation, and there's probably a lot more resistance to rebuilding in the same place because of said elevation.

[Pheddytrourry]

The lower class neighborhoods got hit hardest. Mainly because they're primarily the ones on the lowest elevation, and there's probably a lot more resistance to rebuilding in the same place because of said elevation.

Concrete abutments and 12-story buildings >>>>>> wooden frame houses.


At least vs. a hurricane.

[blogforloversxx]

Concrete abutments and 12-story buildings >>>>>> wooden frame houses.


At least vs. a hurricane.

heh...tell that to the apt complex that got wiped off the face of the Earth in Biloxi.

but in concept, I agree.

[KimLinbert]

Due to my promotion, New Orleans has found itself on the list of possible future assignments.

I have no idea how to feel about that.