Huh?

Months after Katrina devastated New Orleans, there are stories coming back that make me sit back and say, "Now, what the hell is that supposed to accomplish?"

I understand the frustration of people who have lost their homes. I can even understand, to a certain extent, the desire to try and get back to what was lost. But there are people in New Orleans that are taking this to an apparently extreme degree, judging from mayoral comments.

Mayor Nagin formally announced the rebuilding program. Among those announcements was a statement that the city would continue to issue building permits to anyone, to rebuild anywhere in the city...but those who chose to build in the low-lying areas that got devastated would do so at their own risk.

Now, to me, this sounds like political double-talk. First of all, we KNOW that there will be a degree of risk involved--he pointed out that the damaged levees will not be fully repaired for a couple of years, so these same areas could be flooded again if another hurricane hits land near New Orleans. So, rather than keeping people out of areas that are known to be of dubious safety, he folded to the complaints...apparently, short-term satisfaction of constituents is politically more important than long-term protection of life.

Second, while the people who build in these areas will be taking risks, we know that the risks will not be theirs alone. If their taxes were the only ones being spent on emergency relief, then I'd buy that 'at your own risk' line. As it is, I honestly can't complain that much, because there's only been once in my life where I made enough money to actually owe taxes (although this year might be different...I made a fair amount freelancing last summer); but I get frustrated at the thought of paying for someone else's pig-headedness.

Current estimates are that the population of New Orleans is about half of what it was. I'd say those that are devoted enough to the city to have stayed, or to have gone back early, should get first crack at the prime real-estate. I know it'll never happen...for one thing, land developers are too eager to line their pockets and a lot of the people looking to rebuild are poverty-level. For another thing, sad as it is to say, the upper-class does not like sharing their neighborhoods with the lower class, generally. If they did, you wouldn't get upper-class and lower-class neighborhoods.

Nagin's trying to please everyone. That never works. Usually, what ends up happening is that no one is satisfied with the results. But that has never stopped short-sighted politicians from continuing to attempt it. One of the reasons our nation is so screwed up is because so many politicians are more interested in winning their constituents' votes than they are in protecting their constituents' interests, and they take the convenient, short-term solution that will pass the problem off to someone else in a few years.

I hope the citizens of New Orleans aren't so caught up in their drive to restore their city to its former glory that they fall into the trap of moving back into the line of fire. I hate politicians taking the short-view; I'd hate it even more if it led to another tragedy.