Golden Opportunity going away... OT

[riverman]

What do you think, the engineers at the ORCS are tearing their hair out
at Bush's promise to 'rebuild New Orleans'. This was their golden
chance to have a permanent solution to the problem of holding back the
Mississippi to spare the city and infrastructure of the lower delta.
They should rebuild the city and refineries at the mouth of the
Atchafalaya, knock out the Old River Control Structure, and bye-bye
worries. The new city can be designed around a modern levee system, the
elevation is higher, the infrastructure can be modified, the old
historic building in Old New Orleans (which need to be refurbished
beyond description anyway) can be transported to the new site, and the
whole multi-level problem of Mississippi floods and hurricane danger
can be solved in one swell foop. And the entire groundwork and
infrastructure of a major city can be laid without anyone living on
site, a design opportunity never before seen, but one constantly
proposed for future scenarios like space colonies and future cities.

Rebuilding NO in situ is throwing good money after bad, and wasting a
golden opportunity to kill several birds with one stone. Its bad enough
that Bush ruins our present economy with his contrived war and
ridiculous tax cut for the rich, now he is spending $50Bn+ on something
that probably won't last another 100 years, (as soon as the inevitable
failure of the ORCs happens) and might very well get washed out before
we've even finished paying for it. Lets hope there are some brave
politicians, scientists and urban planners (who haven't already been
compromised) who dare to fight the rebuilding of the city on the same
doomed and poisoned site, and convince the powers that this is a golden
opportunity (which unfortunately, might very well come again.)

--riverman

[Cyli]

On 7 Sep 2005 06:51:30 -0700, "riverman" > wrote:

>What do you think, the engineers at the ORCS are tearing their hair out
>at Bush's promise to 'rebuild New Orleans'. This was their golden
>chance to have a permanent solution to the problem of holding back the
>Mississippi to spare the city and infrastructure of the lower delta.
>They should rebuild the city and refineries at the mouth of the
>Atchafalaya, knock out the Old River Control Structure, and bye-bye
>worries.

Hello? It was a politician speaking. He could have meant everything
you're suggesting and still call it rebuilding New Orleans. Most
likely he doesn't, but it could be faked.

I don't mind if they leave the French Quarter and some of the hotels
and historic buildings there and improve the levees around them. But
the idea of building the whole thing back in the same place is
foolish. If it's not evident to Bush (and it may not be), it should
be obvious to his successor. I doubt they'll have made too much
progress in the next couple of years of trying it, if that's the
intention. The EPA and the wildlife people will be putting spokes in
the wheels every which way, not to mention sensible people being
unwilling to give heavy support to it. If someone in the Corps of
Engineers gets a better idea and rams it into the bureaucracy, they'll
never put a whole city in that location again. Not likely, since
their entire philosophy has tradtionally been to dig and dam, but we
can hope.

Oil and gas and shipping companies may have a lot better sense and
ability to chose their own places to build, too. That will help
congregate living places nearer them.

Only 3 more years until a new president takes office. I hope both
parties can offer me better next time than last time.

Cyli
r.bc: vixen. Minnow goddess. Speaker to squirrels.
Often taunted by trout. Almost entirely harmless.

http://www.visi.com/~cyli
email: (strip the .invalid to email)

[riverman]

Cyli wrote:
> On 7 Sep 2005 06:51:30 -0700, "riverman" > wrote:
>
> >What do you think, the engineers at the ORCS are tearing their hair out
> >at Bush's promise to 'rebuild New Orleans'. This was their golden
> >chance to have a permanent solution to the problem of holding back the
> >Mississippi to spare the city and infrastructure of the lower delta.
> >They should rebuild the city and refineries at the mouth of the
> >Atchafalaya, knock out the Old River Control Structure, and bye-bye
> >worries.
>
> Hello? It was a politician speaking. He could have meant everything
> you're suggesting and still call it rebuilding New Orleans. Most
> likely he doesn't, but it could be faked.

Hello. :-)

Actually, it was also a banker. Some bank exec said on BBC how it was
inevitable that NO gets rebuilt on the same real estate, because
someone owns each of those plots. If the tenants own it outright, many
will rebuild on it because resale value is too low to sell. Others will
sell to someone who WILL rebuild. If they walk away from a mortgaged
piece, the bank will foreclose and resell to recoup some of their
losses. In any case, the land will have owners, and the owners will
rebuild, although maybe without the economic base of a refinery or mill
in the neighborhood.

I think the only way to avoid that happening, and the city rebuilding
itself peicemeal, would be if they knocked down the levees and the land
was submerged. But I don't think that is in the plans, and the levees
will certainly be rebuilt in Bush2's time, as that is a project that
even he can manage.

The rest will follow.

--riverman
(from tiny acorns, huge oak trees that fall on your car, grow.)

[Wayne Knight]

"riverman" > wrote in message
ups.com...
>
> I think the only way to avoid that happening, and the city rebuilding
> itself peicemeal, would be if they knocked down the levees and the land
> was submerged. But I don't think that is in the plans, and the levees
> will certainly be rebuilt in Bush2's time, as that is a project that
> even he can manage.
>

Jesus, pontificating again on the goold ole USA from thousands of miles
away.

Especially since it appears the main levee break which created the problem
might have been caused by a loosened barge and not the rain and storm suge
from the storm.

Of course New Orleans is going to get rebuilt, think of it, it's a once in a
lifetime opportunity to rebuild a city with all it's poor and unwanted
dumped on someone else. The hope is they will learn from the mistakes of the
past and institue practices that help rebuild the delta. Regardless the city
is a national treasure and that port can not be easily replaced.

A year from now that stretch of coast from New Orleans over to Pascagula is
going to be the hard goods economic driver of the US economy. Just think of
all the new refrigerators, cars, washing machines, cabinets etc that's going
to be bought, just in time to help the next fricking republican presidential
candidate.

[riverman]

Hmm, I'm pretty sure the person on BBC wasn't actually Jesus, but then
again, I might not recognise Him if I saw him.

--riverman