2008 Woodie Awards
What About New Orleans?
If we can't rebuild the Big Easy, how can we rebuild Iraq?
Donald Bunce
Issue date: 2/22/07 Section: Opinion
By Don Bunce
Special to the Log
When I saw the destruction in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and the response afterwards by local, state and federal officials, the only good thought that went through my mind was that it couldn't get any worse.
Boy, was I wrong.
In the sea of paperwork that is the federal effort at rebuilding, 104,000 people have applied for grants to rebuild their homes-and about 500 have actually gotten checks. FEMA points their fingers at the state….and the state points their finger at the federal government.
Couple this with a high murder rate, breakdowns in electricity, and a lack of affordable housing, and you can take a guess which finger residents are extending to government in general.
All of this begs the question: if we can't fix New Orleans, how are we going to fix Iraq?
The Big Easy is on our own soil. It doesn't have suicide bombers, explosive devices hidden in the roadways, or two religious groups trying to kill each other. Heck, it even has a good ol' American football team. And yet, somehow we can't seem to get the job done.
Unfortunately, New Orleans is a symptom of a much bigger problem.
It would be nice if our rebuilding efforts were succeeding in New Orleans-but they're not. Rebuilding isn't just putting up a bunch of trailers and calling it a day. It means you restore a city either to what it was, or to a condition better off than before the disaster. This means not only providing permanent housing, but bringing back basic services like power and light, traffic signals and emergency services. But the federal government is doing a lousy job at assisting the city. The New York Times reports that those people who have come back to the city are thinking about moving back out, either because they don't feel safe, or because they don't see opportunities for themselves or their kids. Let's not forget the billion dollars already lost to fraud while dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Special to the Log
When I saw the destruction in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and the response afterwards by local, state and federal officials, the only good thought that went through my mind was that it couldn't get any worse.
Boy, was I wrong.
In the sea of paperwork that is the federal effort at rebuilding, 104,000 people have applied for grants to rebuild their homes-and about 500 have actually gotten checks. FEMA points their fingers at the state….and the state points their finger at the federal government.
Couple this with a high murder rate, breakdowns in electricity, and a lack of affordable housing, and you can take a guess which finger residents are extending to government in general.
All of this begs the question: if we can't fix New Orleans, how are we going to fix Iraq?
The Big Easy is on our own soil. It doesn't have suicide bombers, explosive devices hidden in the roadways, or two religious groups trying to kill each other. Heck, it even has a good ol' American football team. And yet, somehow we can't seem to get the job done.
Unfortunately, New Orleans is a symptom of a much bigger problem.
It would be nice if our rebuilding efforts were succeeding in New Orleans-but they're not. Rebuilding isn't just putting up a bunch of trailers and calling it a day. It means you restore a city either to what it was, or to a condition better off than before the disaster. This means not only providing permanent housing, but bringing back basic services like power and light, traffic signals and emergency services. But the federal government is doing a lousy job at assisting the city. The New York Times reports that those people who have come back to the city are thinking about moving back out, either because they don't feel safe, or because they don't see opportunities for themselves or their kids. Let's not forget the billion dollars already lost to fraud while dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
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