September 8, 2005
DON'T LOOK A GIFT DE-URBANIZATION IN THE MOUTH (via Gene Brown):
Don't Refloat: The case against rebuilding the sunken city of New Orleans. (Jack Shafer, Sept. 7, 2005, Slate)
It's a poor place, with about 27 percent of the population of 484,000 living under the poverty line, and it's a black place, where 67 percent are African-American. In 65 percent of families living in poverty, no husband is present. When you overlap this New York Times map, which illustrates how the hurricane's floodwaters inundated 80 percent of the city, with this demographic map from the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center, which shows where the black population lives, and this one that shows where the poverty cases live, it's transparent whom Katrina hit the hardest.New Orleans' public schools, which are 93 percent black, have failed their citizens. The state of Louisiana rates 47 percent of New Orleans schools as "Academically Unacceptable" and another 26 percent are under "Academic Warning." About 25 percent of adults have no high-school diploma.
The police inspire so little trust that witnesses often refuse to testify in court. University researchers enlisted the police in an experiment last year, having them fire 700 blank gun rounds in a New Orleans neighborhood one afternoon. Nobody picked up the phone to report the shootings. Little wonder the city's homicide rate stands at 10 times the national average.
This city counts 188,000 occupied dwellings, with about half occupied by renters and half by owners. The housing stock is much older than the national average, with 43 percent built in 1949 or earlier (compared with 22 percent for the United States) and only 11 percent of them built since 1980 (compared with 35 for the United States). As we've observed, many of the flooded homes are modest to Spartan to ramshackle and will have to be demolished if toxic mold or fire don't take them first.
New Orleans puts the "D" into dysfunctional. Only a sadist would insist on resurrecting this concentration of poverty, crime, and deplorable schools.
In Introduction to Geography we were taught the name of the feature where a large bowl is below sea-level: Lake. Posted by Orrin Judd at September 8, 2005 10:58 AM
It's a dead sea.
Posted by: Luciferous at September 8, 2005 11:18 AMThe 'D' stands for something else as well, specifically, the indicator of the political party that has been running the show in the city and the state since the end of reconstruction. Even cities with huge Democratic majorities like New York or Los Angeles will toss their party out of office when they screw up too much (and when there's no Republican in power at the national level to shift the blame over to), but Louisana has just rolled on, settling for decade after decade of awful government without holding those responsible to any accountability until (hopefully) now.
Posted by: John at September 8, 2005 11:36 AM
The housing stock is much older than the national average, with 43 percent built in 1949 or earlier (compared with 22 percent for the United States) and only 11 percent of them built since 1980 (compared with 35 for the United States).
Not any more.
For what it is worth, if the city is rebuilt then they can put new homes in and at the very least the housing will be better. Unfortunately, giving people a house isn't going to solve the cornucopia of problems most of the poor in N.O. face.
'Swamp' is probably more accurate. It's only a few feet below sea level, and with a few decades of Mississippi silt, it wouldn't be that.
Posted by: pj at September 8, 2005 12:22 PMThe silver lining is that the storm disrupted a great many un-productive lives. Some of them will be forced to figure out how to make it work in a new enviroment and will no-longer be members of the under-class.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://brothersjuddblog.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at September 8, 2005 12:48 PM
New Orleans is a poster child for Democratic policies and politics.
Posted by: sam at September 8, 2005 1:08 PMRobert, I think you're grossly underestimating the ability of the poverty pimps to keep people in bondage.
Posted by: H.D. Miller at September 8, 2005 1:09 PMPerhaps there will be about 150,000 more African-American GOP voters in 2006.
Russell Honore should run against Kathleen Blanco. Bet it goes 90-10, eh?
Posted by: ratbert at September 8, 2005 2:26 PM“In 65 percent of families living in poverty, no husband is present.” Solve this problem and the others become manageable. Fail to do so and things will continue to deteriorate, at an accelerating rate.
Posted by: tgn at September 8, 2005 2:46 PMActually, John, the previous governor of Louisiana was Republican, and the state went for Bush in the last two elections. I think politicians from both parties share blame for this.
Posted by: mardigras at September 8, 2005 3:16 PMWhen are we force-evacuating the Netherlands?
Posted by: Rick Perlstein at September 8, 2005 3:26 PMAny state that ends up with Edwin Edwards vs. David Duke for governor certainly has problems on both sides, mardigras. But it's the southern Louisiana mindset that dates back at the very least to the rise of Huey Long after the 1927 flood that is at the center of the problems today. "Every Man A King" was a catchy slogan for winning votes during the Depression era, but maintaining that mindset for three-quarters of a century caused the state to be left out of most of the boom all the other southern states have enjoyed over the past 25 years.
At the same time money was squandered by politicians who many voters seemed to re-elect based not on their effectiveness, but on how flamboyantly rogueish/corrupt they could be without getting tossed in the pokey. The state GOP has it's flaws, but it's still got a ways to go to match the Democrats in this category.
Posted by: John at September 8, 2005 3:36 PMRick, when global warming really kicks in. Duh.
Posted by: RC at September 8, 2005 4:33 PMThat's just some propaganda nonsense George Soros dreamed up on his secret island lair. Helps him...TAKE OVER THE WORLD!!!!! heh heh heh heh heh...
Posted by: Rick Perlstein at September 8, 2005 4:48 PMLet Disney oversee the rebuilding of the historic districts, KBR the port facilities and the Green Party the marshes. Take the rest by eminent domain and create Lake Toole, named for the author of A Confederacy of Dunces.
Posted by: petulant chicken necked Hawk at September 8, 2005 5:19 PMRick: We knew you were struggling with your inner conservative. Welcome to the dark side.
Posted by: David Cohen at September 8, 2005 5:21 PMRick--
I assume we'll start the evacuation about the same time it relocates to Hurricane Alley.
Posted by: Timothy at September 8, 2005 5:50 PMOr when UBL gets his act together again. Whoever is in charge of the Dutch counterterrorism effort can't be sleeping too well with 1500 miles of dike to secure.
Posted by: joe shropshire at September 8, 2005 5:59 PMCan't we just rename it New Atlantis and forget about all the other debate?
Posted by: afhebert at September 8, 2005 6:18 PMau contraire, he's alive and kicking. Saw him the other day working the takeout wondow at Popeye's.
Posted by: joe shropshire at September 9, 2005 12:33 AMWindow. Takeout window.
Posted by: joe shropshire at September 9, 2005 12:34 AM