Gulf Coast Recovery A Public and Private Sector Failure
Sluggish government response and a reliance on market forces have failed to resolve the housing crisis faced by thousands of Gulf coast residents, argues a recent editorial.
"The normal hard decisions of real estate are amplified a thousand times by the possibility that a house in an empty neighborhood in a broken city could be worthless. Imagine every house in your neighborhood is damaged or destroyed. The average government award in Louisiana is $60,200, and it will cost more than that to replace your house, and more than it was worth before the storm, when every house on the block was whole and children played out front. Do you rebuild?
...[F]ederal housing money alone is not going to solve the difficulties faced by Katrina’s victims, particularly in New Orleans. The normal market mechanisms on the Gulf Coast have been shattered, and they need to be repaired if Katrina’s victims have any hope of putting their lives back together.
...The ruin of a region and the historic city of New Orleans could not be more important, and the tangle of destruction is nowhere near unwound."
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Wait a minute!
I thought the New Urbanists, Louisiana Recovery Authority, Louisiana Speaks, Mississippi Recovery Project (and super-charrette), and the ULI/BNOB Commission with their "green dot" plans were supposed to take care of all this "messy stuff"?
That's what all those gushing articles in Urban Land Magazine and New Urban News told us a few months ago. I am utterly shocked!
Well, at least we have those cute little "Katrina Cottages"...
Latte Sippers Shop At Lowe's
They have started to mass produce those cute little Katrina Cottages and sell them at Lowe's.
This proves that that Katrina Cottages are not popular with ordinary people. Only latte-loving elitist bo-bos and their rich corrupt politician cronies go to Lowes to buy low-cost housing for themselves. If it weren't for the back-room machinations of the cutsey New Urbanists and the corrupt politicians, those cottages wouldn't be sold at Lowe's.
Real men shop at Home Depot. Latte-sipping elitists shop at Lowe's.
Charles Siegel
Is there a Lowe's in the Lower 9th Ward?
Do people in the Lower 9th Ward shop for their "Katrina Cottages" at Lowe's? Are any of the FEMA trailer residents stuck in Houston shopping for "low cost housing" at Lowe's? What do big box store consumers have to do with any of this?
Does your sanctimonious point make any sense?
No.
Caffeine needed
Your conflationist rants grow tiresome. Do you have something to add that isn't boilerplate?
Thank you in advance.
Best,
D
Reflection of our desensitized, sanctimonious society...
The fact that Dano actually gets "tired" of this grave and horendous issue, and has no critical awareness of the severity of the situation in the Gulf Coast leads me to believe that we have reached the end of the line here.
Thank you Dano and Charles for your comments.
This thread is complete.