rebuild new orleans.

(i'm more than half serious about that, actually.)

Agriculture Street - Orleans Parish

The Agriculture Street Landfill, operated by the city of New Orleans from 1909 to the late 1960s, was a 190 acre solid waste dump. This landfill received municipal waste, construction debris, ash from incineration of municipal waste, and debris from the 1965 devastation of Hurricane Betsy that ruptured the city of New Orleans. In 1969, a program to give low income families an opportunity to become first- time homeowners was implemented by the federal government. Forty seven acres of the landfill were developed in the 1970s and 1980s to build Moton Elementary School, and two subdivisions, Press Park and Gordon Plaza. The remaining acres of the landfill were never developed.

Agriculture Street Landfill is a middle income community of 267 residents. The community is one hundred percent African American and has an average annual family income of $25,000. This community is contaminated with air, soil, and water pollution. In 1995, the Environmental Protection Agency declared this community a Superfund site because of the potential risk posed to the human health and the environment by hazardous contaminants.

Alsen Community - East Baton Rouge Parish

Alsen, Louisiana, an unincorporated community, lies at the beginning of Cancer Alley, and is several miles from Baton Rouge. This community of 1,000 residents is ninety-nine percent (99%) African American with an average annual family income of less than $15,000.

Alsen is burdened with toxic releases from 11 near-by petrochemical plants, a lead smelter, coke ovens, two Superfund sites, a commercial hazardous waste incinerator, numerous hazardous waste landfills, and city garbage dumps. Alsen residents suffer from upper respiratory problems.

Central City - Orleans Parish

Central City, an inner-city New Orleans community that emerged in the early 1800s, was first occupied by German, Irish, and Jewish settlers. Today, approximately ninety-five percent of Central City’s community population consists of African Americans. Central City is plagued by high rates of crime, drug addiction, school dropouts, unemployment, underemployment, and poor health conditions.

Environmental hazards are of special concern in low-income and inner-city urban areas such as Central City, where the incidence of toxic exposure, lead poisoning, asthma, and risks from living in older homes are greater than in other communities.

· The US Public Health Service has stated that lead poisoning is “the most devastating environmental disease of young children.�
· Statistics in New Orleans shows 37,000 children screened for lead over a 3 year period
· A 1990 lead effects study linked low levels to higher school drop-out rates, reading problems, lower class standing, poorer hand-eye coordination & higher school absenteeism.
· A 1996 lead effects study linked low levels to antisocial behavior, delinquency, and aggression.

Convent - St. James Parish

In the small community of Romeville, the population is approximately 2,100 with African American comprising 82% of the population. The Romeville’s unemployment rate is 12% and 45% of its citizens live below the poverty level. The main economic base of Romeville is agriculture, tourism, and the petrochemical industry.

Within a three mile radius, there are approximately five operating plants: Occidental Chemical, Zen Noh Grain Elevator, IMC-Agrico (Eastbank and Westbank) and Star Enterprise Refinery. The plants and other parish industries emitted more than 16 million pounds of toxic emissions into the environment thus making St. James the fourth ranking parish in total toxic emissions for 1994. This accounts for 360 pounds of toxic chemicals per person. Construction is underway for three new iron mills.

Geismar Community - Ascension Parish

Geismar is a predominately African American community (70%) with a median income of $26,000. Located in this community is Borden Chemicals and Plastics which is one of the state’s leading air polluters. Additionally, other polluters such as BASF and the Arcadian Corporation are housed in this community.

The Geismar/St. Gabriel area consists of a 10 square mile region that houses 18 petrochemical plants that discharge approximately 200 million pounds of toxic emissions in the air, soil, and water each year. The area is also surrounded by known Superfund sites that contribute to the health concerns of nearby residents.

Mossville Community - Calcasieu Parish

Mossville is an unincorparated community in southwest Louisiana that was founded in the 1870's by African Americans with a vision of creating a place where their children could live and prosper in a safe haven from racial hostility. The natural environment allowed even the poorest families in Mossville to live well by fishing, hunting, and farming for private use and small business.

Today, Mossville is a victim of environmental racism. The community is surrounded by no less that 15 industrial facilities that include oil refineries, petrochemical manufacturers, and a coal fired power plant within one-half mile of African American residents. Nine of these facilities report spewing over 1, 000,000 pounds of toxic chemicals into the air each year. Local industries have also contaminated the fish, and polluted lakes and bayous. The chemicals released by nearby industries are known to damage human health by causing cancer, attacking the reproductive system, creating learning and behavioral disorders, weakening the immune system, and harming internal organs, such as the liver and kidneys.

Norco Community - St. Charles Parish

Old Diamond Plantation in Norco, Louisiana is one hundred percent (100%) African American. This community has a total population of 1,020 with an average annual family income of $14,000. Residents at Old Diamond Plantation are inundated with pollution from the nearby Shell Refinery and Shell Chemical Company. Shell Chemical Plant is located on one side of town and Shell Oil Refinery is located on the opposite side. The Old Diamond Plantation community in Norco, Louisiana is within 10 feet of the fence line of Shell Norco Refinery that emits toxins routinely thus endangering the health of residents.
In September of 1997, residents went to court against Shell but the final ruling was not favorable to them. Residents learned to sample their own air when releases occurred using the “bucket� shown in the photo below. Sample analyses proved unfavorable to Shell. After many samples, demonstrations, meetings and national exposure due to an Internet camera focused on them, Shell has said that a buy-out of the community is possible, allowing residents to relocate, paying them fairly for their current residences. However, the final chapter has not been written and much remains on the table for discussion.

Treme Community - Orleans Parish

Treme is one of New Orleans’ most historic communities. It was the home of Louis Armstrong and many other legendary jazz musicians and artisans. This community, however, has fallen victim to voluminous highway traffic that can be mostly attributed to the construction of Interstate 10 (I-10), which spews toxins in the community. The area also has a very old housing stock that contributes to lead paint problems. The accumulation of lead from deteriorating paint and emissions from cars that produce ozone, greatly contribute to lead poisoning among children and increased incidences of asthma and death due to asthma in both children and adults. The people of Treme live directly in the shadow of I-10. Its creation marked the demise of the most viable, economically sustainable community for African Americans in the city of New Orleans. The construction of interstate-10 not only destroyed the economic viability of this community, but also put the community in harm’s way for toxic emissions from motor vehicles.

· Death from asthma is two to six times more likely to occur among African Americans and Hispanics than among Whites.
· Hospitalization rates for African Americans with asthma almost triple those for Whites.
· Motor vehicles account for approximately one-fourth of emissions that produce ozone and one-third of nitrogen oxide emissions.
· Some 76.6 percent of Carbon Monoxide emissions are produced each year by transportation sources.

he's a prof in geology emphasizing civil engineering applications - so he knows a thing or two about what he's talking about, though certainly not a "leading expert" or anything - and according to him, the pumps that new orleans has in place are designed to deal w/ floodwaters measured in inches, not feet.

he went on to say that he figures the best they can do is wait for it to dry out somewhat and then fill areas in w/ a few feet of extra dirt ... i guess that's the "reinforce what's too creaky" part. the topsoil is apparently pretty fuct from the erosion of the delta and the activities of the local oil industry (sort of sketchy on the details) so they'll need to fix it up a bit before they build on it again.

so yeah, the porewater in NO is extremely nasty and it's not pleasant to think of it mixing up out of the ground after the flooding.

But does it really make sense to *rebuild* it? We just lost an expensive 200 year war with the Gulf; would we be doing anyone a social or economic service by picking up the same fight against erosion? How many resources would we continue to burn as the years march on? Shouldn't we at least be thinking about building a city on firm soil? Is that such an odd place to begin again?

-- Eisbär (llamasfu...), August 31st, 2005.

Fuck off.

You can't not have a port there. But so much development on below-sea-level land adjacent to major bodies of water was a recipe for disaster.

The maintenance would be unbelievable, but I would love to see "Old New Orleans" turned into an underwater Williamsburg (Va.)--take submarine or glass-bottom boat tours of the French Quarter, etc.

http://www2.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/oldriver.htm

thank you Geo 6 aka Rocks for Jocks. In sum we should not aid in the rebuilding of NO, only in the relocation of its citizens. If we help them rebuild it's almost as bad as the federal govt providing cheap insurance to idiot/genius millionaires who build mansions on the beaches of the East coast only ot have them swept away every few years (and rebuilt with American tax money). However, whatever is in big oil/big chemical's interest is what the government will do.

This is a great opportunity for the city to be completely rebuild and create jobs...should businesses actually stay, and not permanently relocated to Baton Rouge or whereever their owners presently are. And some of that must be expected. Besides, you can't just leave it as is and make it into a giant toxic waste dump.

(btw, I don't hate Master P at all, just the smug "I'm only half-joking" bit)

People have been saying that about New Orleans way before it flooded.

Well, you certainly can't now. There's not much of a choice, unless you want to make the Gulf Of Mexico ridiculously polluted. There may be parts of New Orleans that perhaps shouldn't be inhabitated again. I mean, there's just a lot of nonsense going around right now. Take the whole "people will always want to live where they can't" argument regarding living in that low lying area. Well, people living in that low lying area are typically very, very poor. We're talking median incomes that are at most $25,000 a year, and more typically around the $15K mark. Its not Virginia Beach or Seaside Heights; its more like Flint.

It may sound really horrible, but this flood may be the best thing to ever happen to New Orleans, because it will get rid of a lot of the hovels that people had to live in (and if you've driven on I-10, you've seen the blocks and blocks of them) and give the survivors new starts in new homes that they themselves may get to build (and therefore, derive income from). It will also certainly pack the city full of federal funds, to pay police officers (rather than practically force them into doing dirty work), to build new schools and pay for new teachers and new materials, to build new housing complexes and homes, so on, so forth.

edit: New New Orleans is going to be Baton Rouge. I have a feeling that after several months of living there for many of the victims, many will not come back, and will set up business there/take up homes with their insurance payments.

Holy crap, my old house literally did the same thing. ILxors possibly sharing houses = weirdness.

At the moment I am looking into transferring to Maryland and possibly relocating. I don't know if I have it in me to be one of the suffering rebuilder types, I'm almost ready to just cut my losses.

The racism in New Orleans is a way of life and accepted as such

this was my experience when i lived there. basically the city was dying a slow death already, physically and psychologically. all the drinking culture just added to the destructive force.

It may sound really horrible, but this flood may be the best thing to ever happen to New Orleans, because it will get rid of a lot of the hovels that people had to live in (and if you've driven on I-10, you've seen the blocks and blocks of them) and give the survivors new starts in new homes that they themselves may get to build (and therefore, derive income from). It will also certainly pack the city full of federal funds, to pay police officers (rather than practically force them into doing dirty work), to build new schools and pay for new teachers and new materials, to build new housing complexes and homes, so on, so forth.

i agree that rebuilding will be a positive move. i wouldn't say "best thing to ever happen to new orleans," but if poor people get to have clean, safe new homes and the cleanup efforts actually do rid the city of toxic chemicals (as described above), it'll be a vast improvement over what was there before. saving rich people's mansions is less of a concern at this point, but it'd be a shame to see all that beautiful architecture lost to history.

And in this way NO will become like Venice, a sinking dying town in the middle of a lagoon. With the only industry tourism and wealthier people commuting to Mestre (Baton Rouge) to work.

Agreed. I don't think anyone would like that aspect of New Orleans destroyed. However, for the betterment of its residents, this all may ultimately prove to be positive for them and the impact it will ultimately have both on their lives and that of their families. I think that legacy, much more than the buildings in the French Quarter, is what is important.

edit: I don't see Baton Rouge being a city that people will commute to either. I see them just living there, and New Orleans effectively becoming secondary in the state to it.

Post Orleans

The last thing I'd want is for New Orleans to export all of it's culture to Las Vegas or to have a rebuilt-NO become a new Las Vegas.

It'd be cool to see what kind of dubbed out boats the Cash Money Millionaires would come up with!

is tuscon above sea level?

xpost

what part of "i'm more than half serious about that, actually" can be interpreted as "i'm only half-joking"? next time, i'll run it past you again to get yer OK that it's not "smug."

fucking asshole.

Federal, state and city government will need to make big investments in infrastructure -- especially flood protection -- to entice businesses back to the city and reassure insurers that nothing like this is going to happen again any time soon. They will also have to convince people that the city is a safe place to live.

The owners of single-family homes are usually the first to rebuild after a hurricane, said Walter Peacock, director of the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center at Texas A&M University. But because fewer than 50% of New Orleans homeowners have flood insurance, many of them probably won't have financial resources to rebuild at all.

Condominiums and rental housing take longer to come back simply because they have more complicated insurance and financing issues to work out. That can make finding a place to live in the aftermath of a disaster extremely difficult for renters, especially poor ones. The flooding has wiped out many of the neighborhoods where low-income minorities live, making their situation especially tenuous as the city recovers.

"If you get reinvestment it probably isn't going to be targeted at those people," Peacock said. "That could be a major problem in New Orleans if that housing doesn't come back."

Because low-income housing in the Florida Keys has not been replaced after hurricanes, he said, the resort area's hotels and restaurants now have trouble finding enough employees. Many of them have to commute from Homestead, south of Miami.

Ironically, the destruction caused by Katrina gives New Orleans residents the opportunity to gird themselves against the next hurricane that pounds into their city. Even before Katrina hit, Louisiana was considering a stronger building code that would require more wind-resistant designs for roofs and walls. With the proper building materials and techniques, a house can usually survive a Category 5 storm intact, said Marc Levitan, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Louisiana State University.

The new rules should be instituted as soon as possible, Levitan recommended, before people start to rebuild.

"It would be nice if we could make some recommendations and get them in place so we're not building the same thing that fell down last time," he said.

I don't know that it will even occur. My honest expectation is that they'll be asked to go back, but not forced to. They may not want to. They may start new lives in Houston, Austin, Baton Rouge, St. Charles, etc. They will be living there for months, perhaps over a year. They will build new communities and ties and may never return.

There's also a possibility that you may institutionalize a portion of the population by basically putting them in shelters and paying them through aid for long periods of time.

>another thing to throw on the table: how to entice big companies to open offices in the new new orleans, and how to entice their human resources departments to take a chance on less-skilled people (without screwing those people over). improving the economy is as important as improving anything else.<

Tax breaks. That's the only thing I can think of.

actually there is. tucson is surrounded by mountains on all sides, and because of all the rezoning the mountains have become very much part of the city's layout (the streets are ALL on slopes of various grades and the topography changes from neighborhood to neighborhood).

What do you all think -- good idea or wildly inappropriate?

My band is planning a benefit show to raise money and also donate extra instruments to those who had to leave theirs behind, I'll probably post about it when it's confirmed.

-- Jordan (jordan...), September 1st, 2005.

That's a cool idea. Maybe I will try to duplicate it here.

the scale is so different that I hesitate to even bring it up, but fwiw...

That summer was also the first time that I ever heard the "serves-them-right-for-living-there" arguments.

President Bush has warned against price gouging. If federal funding
is available in any form, investors from outside will quickly move
in - indeed are "buying up entire industries" - to make profits that
will pour out of the city and region. The reconstruction effort will
quickly be taken over.

Meanwhile, small contractors, artisans and craftsmen - some of whom
have irreplacable traditional skills -, and a large pool of unskilled
and semi-skilled labor who have fled the city will be seeking to put
their skills to work in functioning economies in other cities - and
perhaps never return home.

It is true that any rebuilding sould follow strict storm-resistant
guidelines. But in order to help rebuild New Orleans's economy along
with its buildings, those guidelines should also require that the
rebuilding be done to the extent possible by local contractors and
craftsmen who would be given preference and encouragement to return,
and with local labor.

Apprenticeship programs should be part of these guidelines so that
young people from the city, instead of being scattered in refugee
camps around the South and the US, could be housed near their own
city and help rebuild it while learning a trade.

Measures need to be taken now by federal, state, and local
authorities to ensure that the rebuilding of New Orleans benefits her
own people and not outside investors.

- 0 -

The French Quarter will continue to be a booze theme park, a strip mall of strip clubs playing golden R&B oldies and mild Dixieland jazz.

Only a handful of the people who were evacuated will be allowed to return as the service class, probably to somewhere on the Westbank.

Why does everything in our country have to be plowed over, destroyed, remodeled, rebuilt, and turned into strip malls and sensible housing? It makes me sick.

wait, this is bad?

xpost: i wasn't talking about the shotgun houses, which were never built to last.

i am worried that the flooding severely damaged the cemetaries.

not strictly african-american, but the first two that came to mind, I've heard them mentioned in relief efforts but then again I'm paying quite a bit of attention. NAACP has opened a command center in the area too. Nobody has PR quite like the Red Cross and the other big guns.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/harry-shearer/obama-to-new-orleans-reco_b_439759.html

the administration is letting the Office of Gulf Coast Recovery quietly die.