Thursday, November 17, 2005

Cat 5 Levees

Any discussion of providing Category 5 levee protection is pure theatre. This level of protection is owed to the people of this city by the federal government. This is the same federal government that took control of the levees in 1928. This is the same federal government who took all the tax revenue from the oil that was pumped onto our shores. This is the same federal government that cut budgets and cost us decent levee protection in the first place, and damnit! this is the federal government that is going to step up pronto! and guarantee Category 5 storm surge protection so this community and the international business community can get down to rebuilding.

Every delay costing this city more jobs and more of her future.

Call your congressman and demand New Orleans gets adequate protection now.

Points of LIght

As I drive around New Orleans, I can only see the thousand points of light of the city's rebirth. I guess you'd say I'm in denial about the destruction. I just went through Lakeview where the waterlines are up near my chin if I stand on the front step of the house. Instead of seeing the sadness of a persons entire filthy life being dumped on the sidewalk for a FEMA contractor to haul away for $16/yd, I see that joy in the fact that they returned to clean up the mess. I'm thrilled to see that they do have the committment to rebuild here.

Oh, I drove along the Lakefront, in the past 10 years hundreds of palms have been planted along the Lakefront. All those palms survived, and it looks like that from the lighthouse to UNO should look really good in a year or two. And while we are at UNO, they look really good. Those dormatories overlooking the lake did fine, and the whole campus looks ready for school.