The Red and Black

You should read "How to Steal A Coastline" by Matt Taibbi.

After the hurricane wealthy politicians and developers siezed large parts of the property, destroyed the public school and housing system, and sold off large chunks to be developed into land for millionaires (condos, malls, etc).

Also good is "The Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Klein.

Zaid, you should read, "How to finally help yourself after complaining about how unfair and racist the government was to you for the last two years" (you'll have to wait for New Orleans to write that one). Also read "Lets rebuild this a Chocolate City but we want the help of the racist government" by mayor Ray Nagan.

Sure the government let those people down but they did little to help themselves. Look at the difference between the evacuations and aftermath around San Diego from the fires and what happened in New Orleans (remember that New Orleans had a couple days more warning that a hurricane was coming). FEMA was not much help in So. Cal. either but things went a little smoother.

Um..'s right. The dawgonne comparison is silly.

Dawgone wouldn't believe it unless he visited, but he won't. If he did, he might be one of the ones that spent all their time on Bourbon Street and not even see reality.

Dawgone don't know that throughout the floodzone tens of thousands of families have already managed to rebuild or repair their homes - without much help from government. Actually, many homeowners are starting to get some help rebuilding via federal 'road home' grants to help cover their gap between what they got from insurance and what they need to rebuild and are we are very grateful. The grants were very slow in arriving (most are still waiting) and the feds have not yet distributed the promissed hazard mitigation funds. Many people are waiting to get the hazard mitigation funds so they can afford to build their house elevated above the flood line from the federal levee failures. I wish they would compensate homeowners and renters for their lost 'contents'. The feds are not compensating for 'contents' or the loss of friends, family, neighbore or their businesses. Half a million people lost virtually everything they ever owned.

Dawgone probably don't know how hard it is to rebuild when its not only your loss, but everyone in your family lost everything too. Or, how much harder when everyone, including every business in your whole zip code got seven feet of water - and everyone in 12 adjacent zip codes lost everything too - heck two or three adjacent parishes (you call them counties where you live) have the same problem. Where do you go to get a beer? You cannot borrow a shovel from Uncle Antoine because he ain't dere no more.

God bless the thousands of volunteers that have come down and helped us gut to the studs the many tens of thousands of moldy rotting homes and helped us cart the hundreds of thousands of tons of our moldy 'contents' to the landfill.

Dawgone don't know that 85% of New Orleans homeowners are trying to rebuild their homes and our population is already about 70% of the pre-k figure. He don't appreciate how we're stacked up without enough places to live and doing the best we can to survive that flood.

I bet dawgone don't even know the levees fell down like cheap movie props because of numerous engineering mistakes - even due to very simple math mistakes - and that those engineers were federal government employees.

Dawgonne should visit.

Great article, I just got back this morning from touring New Orleans,could not believe people are still sleeping under the I-10 ramps,we need a way we can get donations to help these people.

I'm all about helping out...but why when I went there to work on someone's gutted house were all the neighbors sitting out in their comfy FEMA trailers doing NOTHING? I'm sorry but they are totally taking advantage of the situation! Let the volunteers and government do all the work...I mean, it's not our fault we were stupid enough to live in a city that is BELOW FRICKIN SEA LEVEL!!!!

spoon, get your facts straight. The major parts of New Orleans (i.e., the "original footprint" where the French settled) are NOT below sealevel. For instance, the Uptown and Downtown areas along the river are above sealevel. Over hundreds of years, suburbs sprawled into areas that are under sealevel (9th ward, New Orleans East, etc.). Property is cheaper in those areas and thus mostly poor. Its economics mostly; maybe some stupidity. But don't generalize about all New Orleanians. You really don't know what you're talking about.

Have you been there? Clearly you haven't. The "poor" people are only that way because they are the lazy ones waiting around for the government to do something. In the neighborhood I was working in, I saw one family chilling in their trailer and roasting marshmallows they undoubtedly purchased with their fraudulent welfare check. Their house was still soggy and nothing had been accomplished. But who cares? They have free housing, even if it is a trailer! Right next door, the trailer was gone and the man had FINISHED his house. Hmmm...the one who was finished sure wasn't sitting on his ass waiting for a cryptic third party to step in and do the work for him! It's definitely worse in New Orleans. I also went to Mississippi and the people there were very proactive about rebuilding their city. Granted, it wasn't hit quite as hard, but it is still a WHOLE COAST to rebuild. And about the sea level thing...the people who lived above sea level had much less of a problem rebuilding, so no, I was not generalizing about all New Orleanians. I was targeting the ones who knowingly set up their home and family below sea level. Cheaper property? Whatever...I'd rather live in a cardboard box on a hill than a house underwater...but that's just me.

"comfy FEMA trailers doing NOTHING"

Are you on some kind of psychoactive drugs?

http://www.coxwashington.com/hp/content/reporters/stories/2007/07/20/BC_KATRINA_TRAILERS20_COX.html

FEMA to Issue Warning That Its Trailers May Have Dangerous Toxin Levels

Real comfy.

Spoon, I live in N.O. and have my whole life. I tend to agree with your comment about the laziness; I had a similar experience when volunteering. However, those jackasses don't accurately represent the city. Most people here are hard-working and thankful for the help. What I was disagreeing with is you're sea level comment. All of New Orleans is not under sea level. Also, you are way off on the Mississippi comment. They had minimal damage compared to N.O. Only their coastline got hit (from about the shore to a quarter mile inland). Most of the property on the coast was business or wealthy residents. The difference in scope of damage is enormous. You're comparing apples and oranges.

I am from Mississippi and had lots of family on the coast. Not only did we have to rebuild our whole coast, the whole state was hit in one way or another. I couldn't get in touch with my family in Jackson, two hours from the coast, for two days. Places in Oxford, 30 minutes from Tennessee, were flooded. But you don't hear nearly the complaints. Mainly because the Mississippi government started preparing the minute we thought we might get hit. If the state and the people aren't willing to help themselves then I don't have alot of sympathy. I live in Dallas now and have met many NO evacuees and I understand that the laziness is not everyone. But the ones that complain the most and the ones that we hear about are the ones that are lazy. The people who are actually trying to help themselves don't have time to whine about it. And for them I am truly sorry they have to go through this. But I am tired about hearing how the federal government has let NO down. Southern Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and California have all had horrible natural disasters in the past 5 years and only NO is still complaining.

I'm glad to see that there are other people out there who agree with me about NO's problems. Granted, the town was struck with a devastating disaster, but like others have said, Miss, Alabama, parts of Florida, and parts of Texas were also hit. Just because the media decided to camp out and follow the people hit in NO does not make the damage done in other towns any less worse. A destroyed home is a destroyed home, regardless of who once lived there, or where it was located. I do have to say that when I visited to volunteer after the storm hit, that the people in Miss (in general) were much more upbeat about rebuilding and helping eachother out in such a dreary time, in comparison to those I met in NO. It's unfortunate, but it's the truth: Too many people have taken advantage of the free housing and money given after the storm, and don't care to try to start their lives back up. Of course, our biased media today has shown nothing but those people and tainted the nation's view of them, making ignorant people feel as though they are all victims of the Government, etc. I think we should all pray for those who lost homes, lives, etc.. in all the towns affected.

Why cant everyone just cut the BS and help each other, be genuine people and actually try to give a crap about the situation! peoples lives were ruined and no one really wants to step up and resolve the issues!