Comments for Food for thought.

Food for thought.

2005-09-19T12:32:58Z

A juxtaposition of things today offers food for thought.

The Confederate Yankee has been doing some digging, and suggests that rebuilding New Orleans as it was is perhaps, long term, just not a good idea. Go read it. I'll wait.

Okay, yer back. Now, what makes that interesting today is that in addition to the paean to the Coast Guard that Blake sent me yesterday, he also sent along the picture he took of Fort Knox, Maine, along with some history.

Golly, John, but I hope you have broadband, as I'm sending several pictures with this. The first two are the ones I couldn't send earlier, and the other two relate to the little essay below. I particularly like the Ft Knox one, because it shows how a single fort could command both entrances to the anchorage at Bucksport. I don't recall if I mentioned it in my earlier post, but Bucksport was important enough to rate a large coastal fortification specifically because it was a major source of spars for shipbuilding, and supplied both the Portsmouth and Boston Navy Yards. [emphasis mine] There's also one picture of this garden spot I'm living in, just for GP. [see post below this one] I expect that a lot of your readers have already seen Kuwait at least once...

So, what's the point? One reason that New Orleans and the mouth of the Mississippi gets so much attention is because of the Port of New Orleans. How much money do we spend to keep the river flowing through there, if the river *really* wants to be somewhere else?

And the point of Fort Knox - Bucksport is to point out... realities change. We don't need spars for merchant and naval vessels anymore. Perhaps this is the opportunity to fundamentally change the nature of New Orleans. It's certainly food for thought.

Not that we'll have much discussion that way. People are generally short-sighted, and politicians are sensitive to people. 50 years is a long time from now. Politicians will get votes for spending the money here, now... and with the exception of a Strom Thurmond, none now serving will be around to hear the blame if the scientists are correct.

So I doubt we'll seriously have the discussion of just what New Orleans *should* be, given this opportunity to make fundamental changes. And I'm not spitting in the eye of Donna Brazile, Mayor Nagin, or others on this, I'm just saying let's take a look at the alternatives.

Comment from ry on 2005-09-19

2005-09-19T19:58:14Z

There's a certain amount of hubris in this topic. We like to think that we, humanity, can overcome nature(Jack London novels, Mary Shelly, etc). We like how things are and we believe we can keep them that way. Do we really have that ability? If we do should we be using it anyways as the planet isn't in a static equilibrium but instead a dynamic one? Questions that should be asked in regards to NOLA, IMHO: 1) What disparate impact would come from shutting down NOLA as an energy reception point(lots of LNG goes through there)? 2) How long would it take to build new infrastructure to move these energy stores around vice maintaining NOLA? 3) Are we collectively willing to pay the costs, both economic and emotional, of not rebuilding? Personally, I'd say we aren't. Oh, and because it's speak like a pirate day, Arrrrr.

Comment from John of Argghhh! on 2005-09-19

2005-09-19T17:59:40Z

My - ya musta been there during Mardi Gras or something similar... we like to go when it *isn't* crowded. And a lot of that bad behavior *is* imported... kinda like Spring Break on South Padre or at Daytona. Obviously, mileage varies around here!

Comment from Jim on 2005-09-19

2005-09-19T17:23:36Z

One four day trip to NO was enough for me. No reason to build that cess pool back the way it was. Bring in 100 feet of fill dirt and then rebuild you might have something. Relocating 95% of the inhabitants to China wouldn't be a bad idea either!

Comment from Dave Schuler on 2005-09-19

2005-09-19T14:27:31Z

Roughly 2,500 people work at the Port of New Orleans. Another 80,000 work in the hospitality and tourism industry there. Add families for those workers and various support people and their families and it still doesn't doesn't add up to a city of a half million people. Restore New Orleans? Sure. But by no stretch of the imagination does restoring a viable New Orleans mean that New New Orleans will be a lot like Old New Orleans.