http://foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3575

Hurricane Katrina gave President Bush the opportunity to show what compassionate conservatism really meant.

I responded in a comment a day or two ago, but I’ll do it again … I think there’s something to what he says, but there must be a lot of Republican-voting communities in the Gulf states that are getting shafted also. So although I don’t doubt Karl Rove would like to see New Orleans turn red, that doesn’t account for the whole story.

For many Americans Katrina is already long gone, although we’re just paying lip service to the anniversary now. It seems to be a national habit to forget the past and move on. History may not let us off that easily, however. “What’s past is prologue,” wrote Shakespeare, a man who knew a thing or two about callous, uncaring leaders.

Looking back a year later at “Bush on a Plane” : A flyover president and his broken promises. It’s frightening that this guy has more than two years left in office, two more years to fly from here to there, posturing to his heart’s content, while the country goes to hell.

http://letterfromhere.blogspot.com/2006/08/flyover-president-and-his-broken.html

Enough rich people to cough up $30 billion or more? I doubt that.

I’m only telling it like it is: no American city has ever been rebuilt following a great natural disaster by the federal government.

The federal government has been running relief and reconstruction programs after hurricanes for some time. Several agencies pitched in after Camille, for example.

Regarding rebuilding: Usually after a natural disaster, government (federal, state, and local) rebuilds infrastructure and insurance and loans rebuild private homes and businesses. In the case of Katrina, however, in many places infrastructure is not being repaired, which is holding everyone else up. And lots of people who thought they were insured have been unable to collect. “How it’s been done before” isn’t working.

In the past century (since the San Francisco earthquake) how many cities have needed to be substantially rebuilt after a natural disaster? BTW, the U.S. military took an active part in the San Francisco earthquake, both as first responders and during the rebuilding process. You can read about it here.

But having large parts of cities destroyed and in need of rebuilding is just not something that happens a lot. And the damage done by Katrina is unprecedented in scale in U.S. history.

New Orleans is famous for corruption, I know. Some kind of public oversight system is desperately needed no matter who gets the money.

Are you sure you aren’t a rightie?

I’m not on the right: I’m a Democrat and I’m quite firmly in the center.

I’m only telling it like it is: no American city has ever been rebuilt following a great natural disaster by the federal government. It’s just never happened. Could it happen? Sure. Can the federal government help? Sure. Don’t expect either one.

And, of course, the fault with his reasoning is that New Orleans is a poor city in a poor state and lacks the money and resources to rebuild.

New Orleans may be a poor city and Louisiana a poor state but it has lots of rich people in it. In every historic case of urban reconstruction following natural disaster in this country the “leading citizens” i.e. the rich were instrumental in rebuilding the city. Shame them into it, incentivize their participation, whatever.

But I believe it would have been better for everyone if the feds had just handed the reconstruction money appropriated by Congress to the local governments of the Gulf Coast and let them get on with rebuilding any way they wanted, with local companies and labor.

So do I. Did you read the GulfGov report I linked to or the snippets from it I included? One of the biggest problems with New Orleans is New Orleans. In the poltiical environment of New Orleans handing the reconstruction money to the city wouldn’t have resulted in a reconstructed New Orleans. Don’t take my word for it—read the report.