June 24, 2007
CAN SOMEONE IN CONGRESS...:
Galveston poised to defy geologists: The Texas city lost 8,000 people in a 1900 storm but is about to OK a development that could boost its vulnerability. (Miguel Bustillo, June 24, 2007, LA Times)
Leaders of this fast-eroding barrier island — the scene of the deadliest hurricane in American history — are about to approve nearly 4,000 new homes and two midrise hotels despite geologists' warnings that the massive development would sever a ridge that serves as the island's natural storm shield.Galveston officials and the developer maintain that the plans are sound for the largest development in city history, and that geologists are placing too much significance on the ridge in question — if it exists at all.
Critics of the plans say that Galveston's officials are ignoring the lessons of science and history in their pursuit of new tax money — and that in considering the building plan, the officials have ignored the very geological map the city commissioned to guide development on the island.
...have enough sense to pass a law barring them from receiving FEMA money when disaster strikes? Posted by Orrin Judd at June 24, 2007 11:08 AM
OJ,
They would be thinking about banning receiving FEMA money, but they are too busy thinking about the KELO money.
Live by the trough-feeding greed, die by it, I guess. But hey! It's all good. Everything is fine.
Posted by: Bruno at June 24, 2007 10:20 PMWhat Kelo money?
Posted by: oj at June 24, 2007 11:19 PMThough KELO isn't directly involved in this case, the source of the decisions is the same.
"Galveston Officials and the Developers...."
The source of the stupidity is the same. Greed and avarice. It isn't as if the a plurality of officials across the nation aren't elected for the sole purpose of either condemning citizens' homes or "severing a ridge" in the pursuit of more booty for a lower moral class of citizens (teachers, administrators, and municipal apparatchiks in pursuit of fat pensions that have no actuarial basis in reality).
"Pursuit of new tax money" says it all. These scum have privatized the gains while the risk is on the public, as your question points out.
Though not direct, it has KELO all over it.
Posted by: Bruno at June 25, 2007 7:57 AMAh, so not Kelo, just hysteria.
Posted by: oj at June 25, 2007 10:28 AM