Does anybody else think that the mayor's decision to let people return to New Orleans as soon as September 19 is basically a political move, and a bad idea? It's. Not. Safe. It's toxic. I can understand people wanting to go there to salvage what they can -- but then they should leave again until the cleanup has progressed much farther. I don't blame Mayor Nagin if he wants to give people hope that they'll be able to call New Orleans "home" again. I certainly don't blame him if he's worried that the longer people stay away from the city, the less likely they are to come back — or to be allowed back. But it's still not a good idea to encourage people to return this soon.
Mayor Nagin is being a mayor, doing what most mayors do, which is cheerlead and suck up to wealthy people. (The notion of any typical mayor leading an evacuation effort makes me want to laugh).
ReplyDeleteIt's up to the rest of us to provide the intelligence.
Speaking of the wealthy people, some of them are already out there planning how to take advantage of the "slum clearance" effected by Katrina across the Gulf Coast.
ReplyDeleteIs it bad of me to hope that these richie-rich types wind up taking the brunt of the early pollution in the area right now?
Naive, maybe.
ReplyDeleteFor such speculators, land and building are commodities no different than shares of equities or barrels of oil, which they trade like chips at the croupiers. Only the game is rigged, so that they win, win, win. Risk is something for little people.
Actually, I'm hoping that the richie-riches currently out in the flatboats cruising the drowned Ninth Ward wind up picking up cholera (or better yet dysentery).
ReplyDelete