New Orleans IS Forever
This is a great post from Metroblogging New Orleans that everyone should read.
Lots of folks have suggested the idea that maybe New Orleans should be abandoned, or that it’s just not worth rebuilding what’s been lost. Jack Shafer wrote about it in Slate last week, Dennis Hastert argued it in congress, and it’s a sure bet that right-wing talk show hosts have been saying the same thing. As pragmatic as this stance may be, it’s simply an argument that isn’t even worth making; not only is it defeatist and completely unamerican, but the city will rebuild no matter who foots the bill, there is no question about that.
Sunday’s Washington Post features an opinion piece called “A Sad Truth: Cities Aren’t Forever.” In it, writer Joel Garreau doesn’t quite argue that the city shouldn’t be rebuilt. He just suggests that the city will not rebuild itself despite the best efforts of the government. The main points of his argument are as follows:
A large segment of the population will not return to the city
Looking at the situation right now, this may seem probable, but once the smoke clears and the anger subsides, people are going to miss their home. Garreau suggests that the city’s poorest citizens are the ones who won’t return, that they will stay in Texas and wherever else they end up. I can’t see this happening. Although many people in the shelters right now are saying they’re never coming back, these are the people with deep, deep roots in New Orleans. Sadly, once they realize they’re just as poor in Texas as they were in New Orleans, they will come back to the city they know best. If anything, the people who don’t return are going to be the more recent transplants to the city who don’t have roots there. But they will be replaced.
