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girl4you2 -> RE: Just a thought... how to "fix" New Orleans? (9/26/2005 7:58:45 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: ShiftedJewel
I understand that New Orleans is a wonderfully historic place with it's own culture... but the way I see it is that no matter what they do it's just gonna keep getting flooded... right? Well, instead of spending billions to rebuild it every so often... why not build it up to be the American version of Venice? You know... dig out the canals and use the dirt taken from there to build up parts of the city and let the water in.... I think it would be a great tourist attraction which would bring money to the city, flood control would be easier and by raising parts of the city would help to avoid future floods. I know, it's hard to imagine a gondola cruising down a "street" in New Orleans try to avoid gators and snakes... but it could be interesting.
Just a thought....
Jewel
to add to what was written earlier by john, this is an "interesting" concept i must say. but where do we stop? shall we rebuild much of the western states (and the area around the new madrid fault as well) because it's just too expensive to rebuild after earthquakes? maybe have a go at all tall buildings that might be targeted by unsavory characters as well? and there are those places in the midwest that flood a lot, too. and we've all seen how much of florida gets hammered; the panhandle is at best barely above sea level. where do we stop, or shall we rebuild the whole country to make it "safe(r)?"
new orleans is indeed the most unique city in this country and the oldest continually settled city in the u.s. as well (st. augustine doesn't count). it is not famous just for having beignets and pralines. the above ground crypts are famous for muggings, carnival is great for social events for 2 or 3 months (that's mardi gras to outsiders) all over the city--not just the quarter--and for getting drunk if you're a tourist, and the audubon zoo is famous in song and in fact. the antique shops and architecture are unmatched other than in europe. the annual jazz and heritage (notice the name includes both things) festival, tippitina's, and blues cruises showcase the roots of jazz in this country and others, as well as the foundings of rock and roll.
new orleans, however, is much more than a mere sum of its parts. it is a city with crime (tulane medical center is a great place to intern and puts out trauma docs that have skills second to none) and that unique flavor of louisiana politics; it is also a city of people with grace, with caring, with love, and with more than what can be said by saying they are a part of the city that care forgot. the crescent city is in anyone's eyes as special as any other in this country, and should not suffer a fate to become merely a theme park for those with money. to take the homeland of generations of people and think of building only the vieux carre or the riverfront (built up mostly after the world's fair), or the high ground (that would be the crypts which held from what i've seen) is to condemn a city to a fate worse than death by water. new orleans has a sense of heritage, of the past, of family values, and that je ne sais quois. it welcomed people unwelcome in other places and embraced them into the family. shall we now turn our backs on these people and on this city? no more would people say, "laissez les bon temps roulez" in the city that started it all. a sad commentary that would be.
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