A New New Orleans
September 9, 2005
Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, became a lightning rod when he questioned the wisdom of rebuilding a city that sits 12 feet below sea level. Politicians, especially those from New Orleans and Louisiana, called his remarks insensitive. Call them what you may, he raises a serious question: Should New Orleans be built back as it was?
The short answer is, no.
I'm not talking necessarily about the physical infrastructure, although that's an important consideration. I'm talking about rebuilding the New Orleans social structure as it was. Here are some startling statistics. Before the flood, forty percent of New Orleans was illiterate. Thirty percent was on welfare. Half of New Orleans' black ninth-graders would not graduate within the next four years. High-rise government “projects” littered the landscape, warehousing the most desperate and vulnerable in society where the bulk of the 300 murders per year took place. This is a city that had lost better than 12 percent of its population over the last 15 years. A city where 28 percent lived below the poverty level and half of the renters were classified as VLI, or Very Low-income. A city whose serious crimes per 100,000 citizens were almost double the rate of New York City.
New Orleans was also a city full of corruption. It was a city where federal tax dollars were sent to fortify the levees but were, instead, used to bolster the casinos and build a marina. It was a city where graft was legendary, even thought to be part of the mystique and charm of the city. As it turned out, that corruption killed hundreds of people.
Rebuild New Orleans? With federal tax dollars? Surely, we will endeavor to rebuild this historic city but we should not attempt to duplicate what was washed away with the floodwaters. Instead, every able-bodied man and woman should be employed to rebuild her in a new image of government independence less she suffer the same fate down the road; a fate where thousands of government addicts could not find adequate refuge from the storm. With the building boom that will follow, there is no excuse for anyone to continue on welfare except those who cannot physically or mentally take care of themselves.
New Orleans has a chance at a fresh start. It's a chance that few American cities will ever get. It's a chance to rebuild not as it was but as it should be; a city devoid of monuments to government dependency. A city erased of the blight that comes from decades of hopelessness fed by a bureaucracy that offers no hope. A city made stronger by its adversity with a resolve to be the best city in America.
Federal disaster dollars will flow into New Orleans, as they should. It's a promise we make to one another as citizens. It's a pledge that we, as Americans, will help you overcome such disasters and rebuild your lives. But these dollars should not come without strings attached. The corrupt machine, which will certainly attempt to rise from the muck and mire that is now New Orleans, should never be allowed to put its grimy hands on our money. We – the hard-working taxpayers of America – offer our wealth in this time of need but we expect something more than the rebuilding of a city that was already crumbling, even before the winds of Katrina bore down upon her. We have an opportunity to see the full potential of an American municipality, baptized by the Gulf waters and born again through the power of the American spirit.
New Orleans, please don't fail us.