MainStream Media is going wild with hard news stories, soft personality features and “in-depth reporting” to mark the first anniversary of Katrina.
The recurring theme is: “The Gulf Coast – and New Orleans in particular – are not back to the way they were a year ago.”
Excuse me? Is that not just what everyone would hope? The Gulf Coast – and New Orleans in particular – were death traps waiting to happen a year ago. In many ways Katrina and Rita were only a hint of what might have happened if “The Big One” made a direct hit.
In the early 70s when almost no one was yet talking about Global Climate Change, serious scientists and researchers – climatologist, hydrologists, civil engineers and ecologists all told us that the Gulf Coast had a target painted on its back.
The State of Louisiana paid us hundreds of thousands of dollars to develop a long-term strategy to fundamentally change human settlement patterns on the Gulf Coast, around New Orleans and in the upland urban agglomerations such as Monroe and Shreveport.
The governance practitioners put those plans on the shelf and ignored the advice. They proceeded with Business-As-Usual and Politics-As-Usual. See “Down Memory Lane With Katrina,” 5 September 2005 at db4.dev.baconsrebellion.com
Now no one we have observed – not Brookings who is documenting the recovery effort, not the MainStream Media, not the well intended volunteers, not the well fed government contractors, not the everyday carpet baggers, on one – is paying any attention to the shape of future.
Collectively millions of hours and billions of dollars are being spent on the “recovery” effort, but nothing is being done to implement strategies to Fundamentally Change settlement patterns. It is imperative that human’s ecological footprint shrink at the regional and community scale.
Some houses are being rebuild on raised foundations, there are plans to build higher and better levies. There are no strategic plans for making the New Orleans New Urban Region or the rest of the Gulf Coast more bad weather proof or to create Balanced Communities in the Coastal or the Upland areas of the State.
The Gulf Coast is not back to the way it was? Thank goodness. But it has not moved toward a more sustainable settlement pattern at the regional and community scale either.
Did someone mention Ernesto?
EMR