Jan. 27, 2006 - 18:30 MST

BIG EASY ENIGMA

The longer it goes on the more different viewpoints come to the front. Here is an article in this mornings Rocky Mountain News, by James Dao, of The New York Times. In full:

KATRINA MAY ALTER FACES OF BIG EASY

WASHINGTON -- "New Orleans could lose as much as 80 percent of its black population if its most damaged neighborhoods are not rebuilt and if there is not significant government assistance to help poor people return, a detailed analysis by Brown University has concluded."

"Combining data from the 2000 Censius with federal damage assessment maps, the study provides a new level of specifity about Hurrican Katrina's effect on the city."

"Of 354,000 people who lived in New Orleans neighborhoods where the hurricane damage was moderate to severe, 75 percent were black, 29 percent lived below the poverty line, more than 10 percent were un-employed, and more than half were renters, the study found."

"The report's author, John R. Logan, concluded that as much as 80 percent of the city's black population might not return because their neighborhoods would be not rebuilt, they would be unable to afford the relocation costs, or they would put down roots in other cities."

"For similar reasons, as much as half of the city's white population might not return, Logan concluded."

"If they didn't have enough resources to get out before the storm, how can we expect them to have the wherewithal to return ?" commented Elliott B. Stonecipher, a political consultant and demographer from Shreveport, La."

"If the projections are realized, the New Orleans population will shrink to about 140,000 from its pre-hurricane level of 484,000, and the city, nearly 70 percent black before the storm will become mostly white."

"The study, financed by a grant from the National Science Foundation, was released Thursday, 10 days after New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin, who is black, said, "This city will be a majority African-American city, it's the way God wants it to be."

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I don't know what the fate of New Orleans will be actually, and I don't believe anyone else really knows, thinking back to when I was younger, if such a thing happened to me and my family it would be obvious to me to try to find work wherever I lit and find housing and food for my family. Sure, maybe we would go back "home" to see what became of our old stomping grounds, but only to visit and sight see.

However, if our government and the pooh-bahs who wield the finances want New Orleans to be the major sea port city, the city with much of the oil industry around then I would say they must use the funding not on unbid contracts, but on serious and strictly supervised rebuilding.

Seeing that much of the work around a major seaport is labor intensive then many workers of that type must be lured back, same as the oil refineries and storage/pipeline facilities labor. Then there is infrastructure maintainence, usually worked by low wage people. Somehow, even if it requires a million trailers to house people they will have to be lured back and wage paying work guaranteed for them to even consider it, it looks like to me.

The statistics can be interpreted in many different ways and often preceeded by the big "IFS" slanted however the interpreters wish things to look.

And it is not just New Orleans, but most of our Gulf Coast that needs to be rebuilt and strengthened.

Sometimes I compare this situation to weather and its interpreters. We all know that here in the United States weather moves from West to East. A generality that pretty well proves itself. But the generality does not hold true when there is a wiggle, waggle in the jet-stream above. Some of the time here in Denver we are slathered with snow from the East because of conflicting swerves from above.

So a lot of the outcome of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in the end will be governed by what the administration does or does not do to rebuild or let things just lay and rot.

There are still many volunteer people, mostly in groups going to that area to help in any way they can. I don't think they will be enough to turn the tide and don't think they will have enough money to change things all that much. Concerted, sane action by our administration, in a timely manner (yesterday) might just solve the BIG EASY ENIGMA . . . . . . . . .

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