In the task of recovery and rebuilding, some of the hardest work is still ahead, and it will require the creative skill and generosity of a united country.
It’s great to be back in New Orleans. Our city. Our home. The joy all of us have when seeing our friends and loved ones after such a long break rivals any Mardi Gras or Jazzfest. It feels good to focus on something positive for a minute.
But, to paraphrase Chris Rose, a Times-Picayune columnist, maybe it’s time we all sat down and had an uncomfortable conversation about the state of the city.
The city suffered a great tragedy and, understandably, many people are growing sick of talking about it. But there’s a danger in turning the page and moving on too quickly. If we’re not honest and fully open about what we’re dealing with, we could wind up rebuilding New Orleans with all of the same faults as before, or even worse, we may never fully rebuild at all.
Everyone has his or her own story – some funny, some horribly tragic, some just plain odd. These personal stories are the blueprint for a new generation of New Orleanians. We must never forget them. But the biggest story, the one more important than anything else, is the story of our city.
Pre-Katrina, New Orleans was a city of history and tradition: The Big Easy, The City That Care Forgot. But it was also extremely flawed.
Pre-Katrina, our education system was one of the worst in the country. Sixty-eight of the 117 schools in the city qualified as failing under the state’s accountability program. Half of those schools were performing well below the state average. Will this concern be heard when the New Orleans Commission reorganizes the school system? Or will the same mistakes be allowed?
Pre-Katrina, Louisiana had a reputation for being a cesspool of corrupt politicians. Congressman Bill Jefferson’s house was raided by federal agents just days before the storm as part of a federal investigation into the finances of a high-tech firm. The administration of former mayor Marc Morial was also under federal investigation. Are we so sick of talking about bumbling politicians that we will allow a future generation of corrupt politicians to get away with the same crimes as their predecessors?
Pre-Katrina, the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet was a major problem for the city. Financially, MRGO benefited from the city’s shipping industry by providing a direct outlet from the Port of New Orleans to the Gulf of Mexico. Ecologically, the 76-mile long channel was a disaster. It negatively affected more than 600,000 acres of habitat in the Pontchartrain Basin. Salt-water intrusion from the Gulf created a benthic dead zone in Lake Pontchartrain. According to the MRGO technical committee, a total of nearly 22,000 acres of wetlands have been lost due to the canal. Most experts agree that MRGO increased damage due to storm surge in St. Bernard Parish and the Lower 9th Ward, not only by moving in excess water, but also from years of wetland depletion. If Governor Blanco and the rest of the fact-finding party currently in the Netherlands really want to implement Dutch damming tactics, isn’t this the ideal place to start?
We must go above calling our Congressmen, signing petitions and writing letters to the editor in pursuit of persuading government to allocate more funding for rebuilding the city. We must pressure politicians and decision-makers to stop wasting time in meetings and start putting plans into action. Most importantly, we must never stop talking about what has happened to our city and what we want for the future.
