In article 42,
James Robinson wrote:

"Jay Honeck" wrote:

New Orleans survived for roughly three centuries. Yeah, maybe its
eventual destruction was inevitable, but frankly, the same could be
said of just about any city, if your timeframe is large enough.

True, but it has been brought to light that many contemporary N.O.
leaders knew -- and regarded as inevitable -- that their city was
living on borrowed time in the short-term. We're not talking geologic
time here; we're talking about in a single person's life-span.

For them to have known this, and not taken any discernible action, is
criminal.

Yesterday NPR interviewed the former city planner for N.O. (she was in
that capacity until 2000, I think), and she spoke extensively about
the levee system and its known weaknesses. Unfortunately, she also
admitted that the bureaucratic boondoggles (the levees were controlled
by an entirely separate government agency, outside the control of the
city) ultimately prevented the issue of levee strengthening from ever
being presented as an option to the voters.

In short, New Orleans government completely and utterly failed the
citizens of New Orleans. They never even brought the issue to a
vote, despite knowing the danger!

On the contrary. They understood that the levee system was part of the
overall Mississippi waterway system, under control of the Army Corps of
Engineers. You cannot separate the part in New Orleans from the rest,
as it all has to work together, particularly when many of the Corps
management schemes upriver have exacerbated the New Orleans problem.

When the budget for improving the levees was cut by the Feds, New
Orleans tried over and over again to get the money reinstated as a basic
safety measure for the city. Bringing the issue to a vote in the city
would have done nothing to free up the federal funds, which is where the
money had to come from.

That may not be completely true.
Does the Corp control all the levees?
Or only those adjacent to the Misissippi and the canals?