New Orleans
Could all bloggers currently demonstrating their superior wisdom asking why people where stupid enough to live in New Orleans in the first place, please do the rest of us a favor and shut the fuck up?
Really, despite what you might think the rest of planet is not filled with fellow callous, unsympathetic bastards. These people, best case, have just lost their homes. For most, it’s going to be a lot, lot worse. Some have watched a loved one die but had no one to take the body. Others were sick and died because of lack of medical supplies. People in the Superdome are living in a situation so depraved & frightening, that I’m ashamed it’s happening in my country. Show a mix of the two, I’m not sure I could identify a picture of New Orleans today from Mogadishu.
If, in looking all this chaos, pain, and destruction, your first question is “Why where these people stupid enough to live there?”, please stop reading this, pick up a wooden beam, take it to your nearest friend and ask him to beat you in the head in with it. Because, frankly, you deserve it. Not only are you callous, but you’re an idiot too. And hitting you in the head will give you both the beating you deserve and at the same time hopefully whack a few of the clearly loose screws back into place.
The fact is a lot of the people trapped in this situation didn’t have a heck of a lot of a choice in the matter. These aren’t the wealthy of New Orleans – they where part of that 80% that cleared the fuck out when the government said to. These aren’t the people who recently moved to New Orleans. If you recently moved to New Orleans, guess what — when the government tells you to clear the fuck out, you can recently move to yet another city.
The people who remain there are the poor. These are people who didn’t have a someplace else to go or the means to get there. By and large, they most likely live in New Orleans because that’s where they where born. They didn’t choose for their parents to live there and moving isn’t a particularly viable option. Relocating is hard, and when you’re poor, it’s even more difficult. Hell, Nickel and Dimed may be liberal porn, but at the very least it gives a sense of trying to move some place with no family, no connections, and pulling a shit job.
Second, almost every place in American (if not the world) has the possibility of disaster. That is a simple testament to the radical power advantage nature has over anything man can produce.
And as much as we like to anthropomorphize the environment, it won’t change the fact that the planet isn’t a loving mother, but rather a lifeless physical phenomenon, which can strike anywhere anytime.
In 1990, several tornados passed with a quarter mile or so of the high school I was at. In 1993, I watched CNN report live on the Great Flood from my old school bus stop. In 1995, the Chicago heat wave killed almost 600 people. I now live in California, where, between wild fires, we wait for the Big One. And of course, now every big city is a major terrorist target.
So, okay, maybe living in a flood plain isn’t the smartest thing, but neither is any of the above. Nowhere is truly “safe” or “wise.” If it’s not a hurricane, it’s an earthquake. If it’s not an earthquake it’s a blizzard. If it’s not a blizzard, it’s a heat wave. New Orleans held up for 300 years before now. Once in 300 years doesn’t make for bad odds. Driving your car to work is more dangerous than that.
I’m not sure where Brad Pitt picked up his sensitivity chip, but apparently the blogsphere shops at the same location.
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September 2nd, 2005 at 4:50 am
William,
I want to note that (at least in my blog) my issue was never “why did people choose to live there”, because that’s something you’ve got no control over, to a certain extent. If you’re poor and live there, you can’t move. The people who are “stuck” in that area right now aren’t the rich, it’s the poor who couldn’t afford to leave. That part, I “get”.
My issue is simply that *rebuilding* on the flood plain is stupid, and won’t get any of my charitable contribution money. They’re homeless now, and that’s a tragedy, but if I’m going to give them money, it’s going to be tied to the “and go move somewhere that’s not guaranteed to sink into the ocean so we don’t have to do this all again some other time” qualifier.
September 2nd, 2005 at 7:52 am
There are some people out there saying that the people of NO are idiots for living there. I think giving any rebuttal to that kind of sentiment is a waste of time. I also do not necessarily agree that we should not, as a nation, endeavor to rebuild NO.
But I do think that it’s important to have the discussion about rebuilding. And it may seem callous to have it now as people are struggling to survive and recover. But I think it would do a serious disservice to those very people so harshly affected by this disaster to NOT consider alternatives. In the end the discussion about rebuilding or relocating needs to consider at it’s heart the long term health and well-being of those very people who could not afford to escape nature’s destruction. To delay a discussion about improving the long-term outlook for those people does not do them any good.
September 2nd, 2005 at 7:13 pm
I disagree that addressing the argument that “people are stupid for living in new orleans (nola)” is a waste of time. I can certainly see your point that its not worth wasting time on such a puerile argument. However, it comes up in many forms including “people are stupid for not evacuating when they were told to.”
Perhaps, Bill is not arguing this, but his arguments apply here as well. 20% of nola’s residents live below the poverty line. Those who do not have a car had no means of leaving nola considering the cheap transportations out of there (greyhound) stopped service on Saturday, which is the day the hurricane ramped up from a weak category to the killer 5. For those who did have a car, they could not necessarily afford the cost of gas and certainly could not afford the cost of hotels. It is one thing to tell people to evacuate, but those who could not should have gotten some sort of assistance out of there. Certainly, the elderly and sick should have been bussed out.
In terms of rebuilding nola, we definitely should look at the failures of the past and how to approach the future. This is the 5th busiest port (I believe) in the world. Much of the goods imported and agriculture exported to and from the heartland go through here. We need a port near or at the mouth of the Mississippi. The reason nola’s port has been so successful for the last 200 years is location. There is also the pragmatic issue of how to relocate millions of people and handle land ownership issues. Finally, culteral and historical issues weigh in. This is the birthplace of jazz, and a city that essentially kept us from coming under British rule in 1812. Do we want to condemn this city to a watery grave?
September 2nd, 2005 at 9:33 pm
Laurel,
*we’re* not committing it to a watery grave, the laws of physics are doing that. The only variable is how much money, if any, do we spend fighting against that inevitable end.
The land-ownership issues are easy to handle. The government is either going to spend billions of dollars *rebuilding* or it can spend much less money *buying the land via eminent domain*. Turn the entire area into a protected/historic wetland, and that entire issue vanishes. You *can’t* build there any more, and you get compensated so you can go live somewhere else.
September 2nd, 2005 at 10:47 pm
I find it interesting that of all my arguments regarding the rebuilding of nola, you focus on the very last, that is “the water grave.” I noted that rebuilding the area required careful consideration. There are lots of reasons to rebuild nola, just as there were lots of reasons to rebuild again (and again) Miami (who is always endanger of being hit by yet another Andrew). In terms of the protected/historic wetlands, I’m all about building that again, but large portions of nola are not part of that. The wetlands, which have been mostly purchased by commercial interests, served as buffers to storm surges in the past. That is gone now.
The laws of physics are also sinking London and put parts of the Netherlands below sea level. It puts most Gulf States in the path of the next Katrina. Come now, we are thinking, reasoning people. We can come up with solutions. Had the scientist of the 19th century thought this way, we would have never discovered quantum physics. They thought they knew all there was to know, save a few unresolved issues, but today we have television, radar, and laser because of the probing minds of a few. We have not solved all the world’s problems, but that is no reason to give up and move an entire city.
On a more pragmatic level, you mention eminent domain, but you give no specifics as to how. Thus far eminent domain has been used on a small level. This is more than a million people. Where will they go, who will take them? The land must be purchased (as usually done) from people, but it does not end there. Do you not think that we’ll need to provide home loans, relocation expenses, and other aid? The media has been all over the fiasco that currently this the nola disaster, do you not think they’ll cover this? Further, the port (at the mouth of the Mississippi) must be rebuild or near there. The workers of the port cannot be stopped from leaving near where they work.
Perhaps, I am an optimist, but I believe we can build anywhere we want. Thus far we have a space station orbiting the earth, cities existing below sea level, cities existing in tsunami prone areas, and cities existing on the edge of tectonic plates. Why can nola (if properly funded) not exist? This city is important to us economically, historically and pragmatically.
September 3rd, 2005 at 5:15 am
Sure NO is a “watery grave” now. But, just for a reality check….we’re all headed to graves, but that doesn’t mean we quit exercising and eating right. i.e., we take care of that which is doomed anyway. Of course New Orleans will be rebuilt; only this time smarter, better. Stronger, taller levees, as in the Netherlands; houses built higher or made flood proof or whatever. We’re smart people; we can figure this out. And as Bill said, every part of the country is bad to live in for some reason……out here in MI it’s tornados.
The big disgrace I ‘m seeing is that we didn’t have the smarts or compassion to get food and water to people immediately. Until the immediate crisis is dealt with, what’s the point in thinking about the future of the city? It just wastes energy that could be going into rescue and relief.