New Orleans Bay

kw: disasters, city planning, politics

Two days after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, I wrote an Email to Louisiana Governor Blanco, suggesting that the city be relocated to higher ground, such as that just to the north of Lake Pontchartrain. A couple days later, there was a newspaper article about the way she lambasted Speaker Hastert for making a similar suggestion on the House floor. Oh, well. I didn't really think she'd like the idea.

But I really think the existence of New Orleans as the world's largest below-sea-level city has been the result of the most egregious string of stupid city planning decisions in human history (yes, I do think it is even worse than Venice...by far. We knew more in the early 1900s than the Italians did in the 1400s, about sediment subsidence on deltas. It was just ignored).

In my opinion, that portion of the French Quarter, the Old City, that is above mean high tide, ought to be protected as a historic enclave. The rest ought to be allowed to return to lagoon status, which is what "nature" wants in any case, and sooner or later it shall be so. But the later it happens, the more it will cost the US Taxpayers.