The Gray Lady Loves the Big Easy
Yesterday’s op-ed piece in the New York Times may be a bit strident, but it works, beautifully and eloquently. No, it doesn’t take into consideration the fact that New Orleans is, indeed, rebounding, slowly but surely, fueled by the chutzpah and determination of its residents. Nor does it take into account that there are, indeed, a number of federal spending bills in place, ready to be approved as soon as we’ve finished local assessments and planning. And I strongly disagree with the author’s last sentence: it is we, the residents of New Orleans, to decide whether our city lives or dies…. Still, for the rest of America, for those not living here, for who can’t witness first-hand our resolve to get through this, it’s as persuasive an argument as we could’ve asked for. If only our elected officials could be this articulate.
[FYI, the whole article should be available in its original form via the New York Times' rss feed, but I'm posting it below, just in case.]
DEATH OF AN AMERICAN CITY
We are about to lose New Orleans. Whether it is a conscious plan to let the city rot until no one is willing to move back or honest paralysis over difficult questions, the moment is upon us when a major American city will die, leaving nothing but a few shells for tourists to visit like a museum.
We said this wouldn’t happen. President Bush said it wouldn’t happen. He stood in Jackson Square and said, “There is no way to imagine America without New Orleans.” But it has been over three months since Hurricane Katrina struck and the city is in complete shambles.
There are many unanswered questions that will take years to work out, but one is make-or-break and needs to be dealt with immediately. It all boils down to the levee system. People will clear garbage, live in tents, work their fingers to the bone to reclaim homes and lives, but not if they don’t believe they will be protected by more than patches to the same old system that failed during the deadly storm. Homeowners, businesses and insurance companies all need a commitment before they will stake their futures on the city.
At this moment the reconstruction is a rudderless ship. There is no effective leadership that we can identify. How many people could even name the president’s liaison for the reconstruction effort, Donald Powell? Lawmakers need to understand that for New Orleans the words “pending in Congress” are a death warrant requiring no signature.
The rumbling from Washington that the proposed cost of better levees is too much has grown louder. Pretending we are going to do the necessary work eventually, while stalling until the next hurricane season is upon us, is dishonest and cowardly. Unless some clear, quick commitments are made, the displaced will have no choice but to sink roots in the alien communities where they landed.
The price tag for protection against a Category 5 hurricane, which would involve not just stronger and higher levees but also new drainage canals and environmental restoration, would very likely run to well over $32 billion. That is a lot of money. But that starting point represents just 1.2 percent of this year’s estimated $2.6 trillion in federal spending, which actually overstates the case, since the cost would be spread over many years. And it is barely one-third the cost of the $95 billion in tax cuts passed just last week by the House of Representatives.
Total allocations for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the war on terror have topped $300 billion. All that money has been appropriated as the cost of protecting the nation from terrorist attacks. But what was the worst possible case we fought to prevent?
Losing a major American city.
“We’ll not just rebuild, we’ll build higher and better,” President Bush said that night in September. Our feeling, strongly, is that he was right and should keep to his word. We in New York remember well what it was like for the country to rally around our city in a desperate hour. New York survived and has flourished. New Orleans can too.
Of course, New Orleans’s local and state officials must do their part as well, and demonstrate the political and practical will to rebuild the city efficiently and responsibly. They must, as quickly as possible, produce a comprehensive plan for putting New Orleans back together. Which schools will be rebuilt and which will be absorbed? Which neighborhoods will be shored up? Where will the roads go? What about electricity and water lines? So far, local and state officials have been derelict at producing anything that comes close to a coherent plan. That is unacceptable.
The city must rise to the occasion. But it will not have that opportunity without the levees, and only the office of the president is strong enough to goad Congress to take swift action. Only his voice is loud enough to call people home and convince them that commitments will be met.
Maybe America does not want to rebuild New Orleans. Maybe we have decided that the deficits are too large and the money too scarce, and that it is better just to look the other way until the city withers and disappears. If that is truly the case, then it is incumbent on President Bush and Congress to admit it, and organize a real plan to help the dislocated residents resettle into new homes. The communities that opened their hearts to the Katrina refugees need to know that their short-term act of charity has turned into a permanent commitment.
If the rest of the nation has decided it is too expensive to give the people of New Orleans a chance at renewal, we have to tell them so. We must tell them we spent our rainy-day fund on a costly stalemate in Iraq, that we gave it away in tax cuts for wealthy families and shareholders. We must tell them America is too broke and too weak to rebuild one of its great cities.
Our nation would then look like a feeble giant indeed. But whether we admit it or not, this is our choice to make. We decide whether New Orleans lives or dies.
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Thanks for blogging about this extraordinary editorial. I agree–it is a beautifully written, painfully elegiac essay. I didn’t think it was strident so much as necessarily unwavering and pointed in its calling attention to the national government’s responsibilities to the city.
Good for the NYT wielding emotion and argument–rhetoric in its core mmission to persuade and move to action–in the service of the Herculian task of rebuilding the city.
Surely there is someone in Washington DC who feels deep shame when reading those words? If I only believed that this Administration had any capacity for shame.
Did you see this comment in this week’s issue of Time? From a Bush staffer:
“It’s time for the Bush comeback story!” one coached TIME for this article. “The perfect storm has receded. We have better news in Iraq, oil prices are down, and Katrina has kind of fallen off the radar screen in terms of public concern.”
So, the come back is in part because Katrina is not important to the public anymore. Bravo, White House. They make me sick.
Sadly part of Katrina falling off the national radar is our state leaders poor and sometimes embarassing response.
In La. we’ve had a total breakdown of leadership and it’s killing us now.
Although I’ve donated time and money to relief efforts I still feel helpless. How do we get our leaders to get off of their asses and do something?
As a native New Orleanian, I am appalled! I have relocated to Texas and have been treatly more fairly here then I was at home during Hurricane Katrina. Why is it that a City as beautiful and historic as New Orleans can not be rebuilt. I think this commentary sums it all up. Where oh where are all the money hungry politicans now?
The only way that New Orleans can be saved is for the people of New Orleans to start the rebuilding and repopulation process on their own outside of local and federal government. (Think large grassroots movement) The Fed will not spend the money necessary to rebuild a major city in the south, it just doesn’t make since from a political or economic standpoint.
Beautiful story. A lot of good points.
I’m glad you posted this editorial, because it should really be a wakeup call to all Americans.
What happened to the big promises Bush made just a short time ago, to rebuild, better, higher, bigger? How can they get away with this?
Know this: Bush and his cronies will try to get away with anything and everytihng they can until we, the American people, rise up to stop them.
The fact that the projected cost of rebuilding the levees- properly this time- amounts to one third of the tax cuts which were passed last week by the Republican Congress is simply appalling.
In fact, PSYBEX, I think that’s wrong. It does make sense, politically and economically. I do agree with you that Richard’s pointing out that this has already started at a grass-roots, local level is important.
I propose this: NOLA approach Ted Turner or Bill Gates–or any of the half a dozen billionaires who are known for philanthrophy in this country and abroad. This is what I would ask them: will you donate the seed monies and help raise the funds necessary to rebuild the levees? This can be done within 7 months or sooner. All else will flow from that.
-Tyler
I neglected to put Oprah’s name on that list. Considered it amended.
They sure don’t mind building schools and hospitals in Iraq! But I guess that would be ‘politically and economically viable’ (i.e. Isreal and Oil). What a bunch of phony patriots! They hide behind the flag, but would rather spend on some ‘democracy’ experiment in the Middle East instead of investing in America’s most unique city. Sad.
Lika Fox
Here’s what I think, not that anybody cares:
George W. Bush is trying to force Louisiana into becoming
a full federal state so he can have all access to
the oil-Louisiana has no rights left. This is what I believe
is occurring-financially forcing people out is a step in his plan.
Make lots of Noise!!!
Laurie
I thought the editorial was well done but I think we as citizens of New Orleans need to give up comparing the money spent here to the money being spent in Iraq. Its a battle we will not win so lets not waste our time. I’m personally against the war, didn’t agree with it when we first attacked so I hate the money being spent on and in Iraq. The situation in New Orleans is unique and should be handled that way. The devastation stands on it’s own and does not warrant being compared to other governmental matters.
On another note will someone please tell me to stop watching the Saints - 1 good play, 5 bad ones…put me out of my misery please.
The San Antonio Saints!
You’re definitely wasting your time!
Start a puzzle.
Laurie
Thanks for printing the editorial.
I agree with the author’s “worst case scenario” comment. The current administraion says it has plunged America into a war to protect us from harm, but they ignored the clear warning signs of danger at home. I wish they had displayed that “pre-emptive strike” mentality when it came to heeding the well know hazards of, and assistance requests for, the aging levy system. Would have been a lot cheaper.
A lot of big cities in America could be in the same shape as New Orleans due to potential natural disasters. It gives me a creepy feeling knowing my government might ignore us if that happened and allow yet another tragic diaspora.
New Orleans is NOT out of the news. Many of us, from very far away, are observing the slow progress the administration is making. We may not live in New Orleans, or have to endure the environment you are all struggling to cope with, but we’re all connected. I’ll do what I can to badger our government to do the right thing. Please don’t lose heart.
Any one have Bill Gates address so he can adopt Louisiana?
Laurie
citizens turning to billionaires for help to save their city because government won’t has got to be the saddest thing i’ve ever read coming out of a rich, democratic country.
Kohlehydrat–I absolutely agree.
Why shouldn’t we?
Do you honestly feel good about the Federalizing of Louisiana
while the rest of the nation watches it happen? I don’t.
What’s the difference between major losses of electricity
and picking up solar panes, wind mill blades, and water wheels - keep
back stock some where safe.
The government is stealing your minerals too; they
have been doing so for 50 years now. There was no vote!
What exactly do you believe this is actually about?
Not what’s being said. We are in their way.
We got through hurricane Katrina, Rita, and Cindy
we can certainly survive an energy source change over.
There is no reason that the government is allowed
to choose our energy source for us!!
A federal buyout is entirely suspicsious - people should ask
for it written down and have it all checked before it is stolen.
Gamblin’?! Mr. Nagin? These people ain’t got no money!!
Laurie