Death of an American City
NY Times
December 11, 2005
We are about to lose New Orleans. Whether it is a conscious plan to let the
city rot until no one is willing to move back or honest paralysis over
difficult questions, the moment is upon us when a major American city will die,
leaving nothing but a few shells for tourists to visit like a museum.
We said this wouldn't happen. President Bush said it wouldn't happen. He
stood in Jackson Square and said, "There is no way to imagine America without
New Orleans." But it has been over three months since Hurricane Katrina struck
and the city is in complete shambles.
There are many unanswered questions that will take years to work out, but
one is make-or-break and needs to be dealt with immediately. It all boils down
to the levee system. People will clear garbage, live in tents, work their
fingers to the bone to reclaim homes and lives, but not if they don't believe
they will be protected by more than patches to the same old system that failed
during the deadly storm. Homeowners, businesses and insurance companies all
need a commitment before they will stake their futures on the city.
At this moment the reconstruction is a rudderless ship. There is no
effective leadership that we can identify. How many people could even name the
president's liaison for the reconstruction effort, Donald Powell? Lawmakers
need to understand that for New Orleans the words "pending in Congress" are a
death warrant requiring no signature.
The rumbling from Washington that the proposed cost of better levees is too
much has grown louder. Pretending we are going to do the necessary work
eventually, while stalling until the next hurricane season is upon us, is
dishonest and cowardly. Unless some clear, quick commitments are made, the
displaced will have no choice but to sink roots in the alien communities where
they landed.
The price tag for protection against a Category 5 hurricane, which would
involve not just stronger and higher levees but also new drainage canals and
environmental restoration, would very likely run to well over $32 billion. That
is a lot of money. But that starting point represents just 1.2 percent of this
year's estimated $2.6 trillion in federal spending, which actually overstates
the case, since the cost would be spread over many years. And it is barely
one-third the cost of the $95 billion in tax cuts passed just last week by the
House of Representatives.
Total allocations for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the war on terror
have topped $300 billion. All that money has been appropriated as the cost of
protecting the nation from terrorist attacks. But what was the worst possible
case we fought to prevent?
Losing a major American city.
"We'll not just rebuild, we'll build higher and better," President Bush said
that night in September. Our feeling, strongly, is that he was right and should
keep to his word. We in New York remember well what it was like for the country
to rally around our city in a desperate hour. New York survived and has
flourished. New Orleans can too.
Of course, New Orleans's local and state officials must do their part as
well, and demonstrate the political and practical will to rebuild the city
efficiently and responsibly. They must, as quickly as possible, produce a
comprehensive plan for putting New Orleans back together. Which schools will be
rebuilt and which will be absorbed? Which neighborhoods will be shored up?
Where will the roads go? What about electricity and water lines? So far, local
and state officials have been derelict at producing anything that comes close
to a coherent plan. That is unacceptable.
The city must rise to the occasion. But it will not have that opportunity
without the levees, and only the office of the president is strong enough to
goad Congress to take swift action. Only his voice is loud enough to call
people home and convince them that commitments will be met.
Maybe America does not want to rebuild New Orleans. Maybe we have decided
that the deficits are too large and the money too scarce, and that it is better
just to look the other way until the city withers and disappears. If that is
truly the case, then it is incumbent on President Bush and Congress to admit
it, and organize a real plan to help the dislocated residents resettle into new
homes. The communities that opened their hearts to the Katrina refugees need to
know that their short-term act of charity has turned into a permanent
commitment.
If the rest of the nation has decided it is too expensive to give the people
of New Orleans a chance at renewal, we have to tell them so. We must tell them
we spent our rainy-day fund on a costly stalemate in Iraq, that we gave it away
in tax cuts for wealthy families and shareholders. We must tell them America is
too broke and too weak to rebuild one of its great cities.
Our nation would then look like a feeble giant indeed. But whether we admit
it or not, this is our choice to make. We decide whether New Orleans lives or
dies.
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