New Orleans...Build a NEW Orleans

I'll certainly expect a round of snarls and snipes at me for this, but here goes, anyway...

New Orleans should not be rebuilt as it was, where it was. It doesn't make sense to me to rebuild a city that was hoping beyond hope for many, many years to "dodge the bullet." The fact that the city was mostly black and mostly poor has nothing to do with my belief it should not be rebuilt where and how it was. In fact, I think those factors contributed quite alot to the fact that it was built there and that it was not protected the way it should have been.

I'm not advocating tearing it all down. Perhaps the remnants of the Garden District, the parts of downtown that are readily salvageable, parts of the French Quarter, and other areas that were not utterly devastated should be repaired. Perhaps the levees should be rebuilt and reinforced to minimize the likelihood of another Katrina. But the row-houses that were ready to crumble, the buildings that were on their last legs, should not be rebuilt where they were. I advocate finding other areas to develop, areas that won't be as devastating to the environment as New Orleans has been. Bring the people back...those who want to come...to rebuild the diversity in other areas...areas that are liveable. Honor the architecture, but don't doom it to being submerged in the next storm by locating it in an area that should have been given over to nature years ago.

I know, I'm being insensitive...but really I'm not. Give people who were dirt poor in New Orleans a chance to build a new life in a house and in a city that has a chance. Build a NEW Orleans.