For all the talk about rebuilding New Orleans from politicos of both parties (seemingly trying to outdo each other) it sounds as if the city may never rise again, as the New York Times writes:
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.
This is partly due to the way our political process works. Some of it has to do with media coverage.
When this was a hot story, politicos were scrambling all over each other to point fingers at the opposite party and make stirring vows on how their side would help the people of the region.
Now that the immediate, dramatic coverage has waned (as the storm passed and the shock value of what happened was absorbed and human beings made their mental adjustment to yet one more shock) it doesn’t seem like top priority any more.
There are new battles. New compelling stories. New bits of dramatic video on television. New polls showing how other issues can make numbers go up and down.
So The Powerful And Well Fed Elites of both parties dither — and a city’s tortured moan for help becomes an unheard, slow death rattle.