The New York Times reported this weekend (letters, editorial) that the Katrina-devastated Ninth Ward in New Orleans remains almost exactly as the storm left it: a ravaged ghost-town of mouldering shoved-about homes and empty streets. The president’s tough talk about rebuilding has turned out, nearly two years later, to be empty words. Here he was then, two weeks late, but live at prime time in flood-light-drenched Jackson Square:
“Tonight I offer this pledge to the American people: Throughout the area hit by the hurricane, we will do what it takes. We will stay as long as it takes to help citizens rebuild their communities and their lives. All who question the future of the Crescent City need to know: There is no way to imagine America without New Orleans, and this great city will rise again.”
Hurricane season begins officially next Friday, June 1st, but given that nothing has changed in the greenhouse-gas-emissions department, we should probably extend the season by at least a week on both ends. That means hurricane season is now and that everybody south of Ohio should get the hell out of the pool! Whew!
New Orleans is the new Detroit: a once-great, largely black, American city devastated and left to moulder. It’s been thirty years since bad-business-management hurricanes began laying waste to the Motor City. At YouTube, you can watch amazing Detroit homes crumble and literally just fall to the street, a kind of virtual tourist attraction, a form of “video violence” no congressional committee is ever going to be heard railing against. This below is “Old Slumpy,” a YouTube poem to America. It’s got all the power of movie metaphor and some real-life midwest-accented shock-cussing to boot.
Photo at the top courtesy matt cohen, who posted his ninth ward series with interviews at flickr.
Tags: detroit, ninth ward, old slumpy
Bush said something that wasn’t true? Oh, sorry, I missed that as I tuned him out years ago based on this nasty habit of his. The more interesting – and unpleasant — issue is whether U.S. taxpayers should foot the bill to rebuild a city which will likely face similar disasters in the near future. To all those that say aye, I hope you have put your money were your mouth is and donated a hefty sum to the rebuilding effort. It’s always easy to spend other people’s money; sadly it seems that it’s even easier to spend our children’s and their children’s money.