[Carfreeliving] New Orleans
Jason Henderson
jhenders at sbcglobal.net
Mon Sep 5 11:12:33 MDT 2005
A working passenger rail system would have gotten a lot of these people
out. There are buses on the docks at the naval base (dry) as well as
buses flooded in a parking lot in a low part of the city. The broader
reality is that Baton Rouge (and other parts of LA) does not want them.
Baton Rouge has seen gun sales skyrocket. Houston is containing them in
the Astrodome. This situation is going to degrade into one of 19th
century indian ieservations. The use of military bases is likely in the
near future to store these people, albeit with trailers built by the
likes of Halliburton. This was all predicted, modeled, and prophesied.
It is a big reason many did not want to leave - not just that they could
not, but where would they go? No credit cards...and so on.
It all stems from our broader capitalistic society - which requires a
reserve army of labor and a huge underclass in order for there to be a
middle class and an upper class. No one should be surprised. It is okay
in Aceh or Sudan, but not in 'merica.
For a bit more on what has unfolded, I am working on an essay. It is a
work in progress. I hope some of you find it interesting. I have thought
at length, for almost 20 years, about the rebuild of New Orleans. This
was not the big one.
-jh
* The Public Policy Disaster in **New Orleans***
Jason Henderson, Assistant Professor, Geography San Francisco State
University
Jhenders at sfsu.edu <mailto:Jhenders at sfsu.edu>
(415-255-8136)
[The author is a New Orleans native]
* *
This disaster was largely caused by public policy. These public policies
were centered on the accommodation, expansion, and unquestioned
dominance of unfettered automobility.
* *
*An act of Public Policy, not "God", not "Nature"*
What happened in New Orleans is no surprise. New Orleans has talked
about the "big one" ever since Camille and Betsy in the late 1960s. The
storm surges, overtopped and breached levees, and complete submergence
of large swaths of urbanized New Orleans have been predicted, modeled,
and prophesied for decades. It was taught in grammar schools, high
schools, and universities. Local television stations and the Times
Picayune have run dozens of special reports. Just one year ago, millions
fled via the elevated expressways out of the city in the wake of Ivan.
And the city has also had several dry runs with moving thousands of
people to the Superdome and then storing them there while waiting out
the storm. The huge logistical nightmare was predicted, modeled, and
prophesied, and to some degree, experienced before this day.
Hurricanes are normal, even a category 4 over NOLA. Hurricanes hit the
Gulf coast almost every year, somewhere – Texas, Alabama, Florida, and
Louisiana. If not a Hurricane, a weaker tropical storm comes in. These
storms are part of the reason the South is so wet, so fertile, and a
land of milk and honey.
But many, especially the political leadership, will pander to the
weak-minded and fall back on claims that this disaster in New Orleans
was an act of God. Just Tuesday the governor of Louisiana attempted to
marry church and state in a prayer session while New Orleans drowned and
festered. The media cuts to film footage of desperate victims praising
Jesus when rescued, or lamenting about "god's will" while surveying
their leveled homes. The politicians in control of this nation and the
state of Louisiana use prayer as a front. Calling it an act of God
deflects responsibility away from the last several decades of willful
negligence.
Meanwhile the focus on the "natural" part of this disaster is also
deflecting attention from the undergirding causes of this catastrophe.
The media and pundits focus on the inevitability of a Hurricane
eventually flooding a city. The city is indeed largely surrounded by
water and parts of it are below sea level. Yet the flurry of aerial
images that have proliferated on the internet show that parts of the
city, the oldest, most unique parts, remained dry – the French Quarter,
the Marigny, much of Uptown, and all along both banks of the Mississippi
River upon what is called the "natural levee". What flooded was largely
the filled backswamp of New Orleans – exactly what is supposed to flood
n an event like this. And the backswamp of Metairie, just to the west of
the city, is dry. It was waterlogged after the storm and then drained.
As predicted, modeled, prophesied. What is happened in New Orleans and
across the Gulf Coast is not an act of god or a result of nature – it is
the result of public policy.
*The Public Policy disaster of evacuation *
Post storm aerials show a yard of about 50 yellow school buses submerged
in the flood. Couldn't these buses have been used to evacuate at least
some? Public policy dictated no, not god, not nature. On Sunday, while
panic set in but the skies were clear, the airlines not only cancelled
flights, but extra planes were not sent in during this state of
emergency. We have a huge airline fleet ferrying business class right
now from meeting to meeting across the continent. It was only Friday
afternoon, five days later, that airlines offered planes [at a charge to
the government, of course]. That is public policy, not god. Passenger
rail? Forget it. Public policy in The United States says that this
efficient, clean, civilized and fast way to carry people for daily needs
as well as evacuation is not necessary in America. An Amtrak train in
route to Dallas on Monday Sept 5th carried 600 people. Imagine if a
passenger rail system approaching Germany or Switzerland had been in
place. Thousands, tens of thousands, could have been shuttled to Baton
Rouge in the hours before the first rains, while 1-10 was completely
jammed.
In the aftermath of this storm a variation of Mad Max and Hieronymous
Bosche "Hell" has set in. Wails and cries from attics. Bloated bodies
floating - some with bullets in the back of the head. Rape, hysteria,
insanity. Rotting corpses, a foul suffocating stench. For the smug white
racists in Covington, or the white flight racists from Metairie who fled
to Baton Rouge, New Orleans has indeed become Haiti. You know what I am
talking about.
The slowness in response by the Bush administration is despicable and
should be the focus of numerous investigations starting with FEMA and
the hobby horse good old boy network. It should be a centerpiece of the
2006 congressional races. The core issue – government was starved so
that it would fail. Self-fulfilling prophecy.
The response from the National Guard, our civilian, disaster relief
militia, was not even paltry. All lines were busy at the moment.
Logistics and relief services are tied up in Iraq, fighting for oil.
That too, is public policy – not god. And that should have been
predicted, modeled, and prophesied since we started to bomb Afghanistan.
But by then the American public entered the hypnosis of the "war on
terror" and forgot the purpose of the National Guard. Collectively it
was forgotten that the reason thousands of people joined the national
guard was for service to their country, and not the rich oil elites.
They joined to help with disasters just like this. Those national guard
people stuck over there in the desert must be feeling really shitty
right now.
* *
* *
* *
*Public Policy Disaster in the Making*
Like the bungling evacuation and apocalyptic aftermath, the causes of
this disaster were public policy. It is important to know these causes
in order to have a sensible rebuild. Without knowing the causes, the
trajectory of decision making is off course.
The public policy response to accelerated *coastal erosion* is a cause
of this disaster. For decades pipeline canals, shipping channels, and
oil platform access canals were built willy-nilly across the coastal
marsh of Louisiana. The oil industry was given carte blanche to decimate
the coast. Salt water intruded. Marshes died, open water moved closer
towards the city. The buffer for storm surges disintegrated. This was
public policy. It could have been different. And people knew it then, as
now. Environmentalists fought it, but Americans wanted cheap gas.
Public policy towards the *Mississippi River* is a cause. The River's
25-foot levees kept the river bounded in a swift and fast channel. Mud
was not deposited in the wetlands to recharge them – as it had been for
eons. Freshwater and silt was shot straight into the Gulf, instead of
fanning over the Delta. Discussion of breaching levees got nowhere.
Capitalist interests got priority. Shipping, refining capacity, and real
estate development blinded decision-makers. That was public policy. It
was decided by political leaders that the course of the Mississippi
(which shifts "naturally") must be maintained for commerce. Breaching it
both above and below New Orleans to deposit silt, mud, and freshwater
was considered communist.
The more subtle problem of widespread *subsidence* is also about public
policy. Subsidence normally took centuries, it was a "naturally" slow
process. The river floods mentioned above were an essential part of
slowing and mitigating subsidence - "naturally." The river deposited new
mud and silt on top of previous layers. Over the last few decades,
subsidence happened rapidly and in short time-spans. Not only do the
levees on the river block deposition of new silt and mud, the weight of
buildings and pavement accelerate sinking, and the removal of water,
oil, gas from ground causes even more sinking. In 60 years, the already
low floodplain around New Orleans sunk by 2 feet.
The subsidence is especially problematic in the *backswamps*, those
areas of greater New Orleans away from the river and its "natural"
levees. Historically, development in Louisiana, whether in New Orleans,
along the Mississippi River, or along the bayous, was on the higher,
drier grounds immediately along the rivers. These natural levees were
built by the rivers and bayous over centuries of flooding and
deposition. After an afternoon thunderstorm or huge hurricane, these
natural levees would drain into the backswamps. In New Orleans these
backswamps also stored the surges that came from Lake Pontchartrain.
These backswamps are now paved over with low-density,
automobile-oriented sprawl. New Orleans East, the New Orleans Lakefront,
and Metairie are largely filled backswamps. They continue to act as
storage areas for the surges and floods, but it is largely auto-centric
sprawl that is now submerged, not cypress swamps and marshlands. The
levees built to protect this backswamp sprawl now hold the water in,
allowing it to fester and stagnate, full of the toxic residue of sprawl
– motor oil, gasoline, lawn fertilizer, and so on. Sprawl has been a
national public policy for at least six decades. This is the face of
sprawl in New Orleans today – a toxic cesspool.
Enough has been said about *global warming* by the he media. We know
that global warming is happening, the debate is how much, how fast. We
know sea level is rising faster than under "natural" circumstances. We
know that the Atlantic is warming, thus spawning more storms like
Katrina. We know that rising sea levels mean that the already imperiled
coastal wetlands, deprived by public policies, are in even more trouble.
Global warming makes the coast of Louisiana even more vulnerable. But
the leadership in both the US and the State of Louisiana refuse to
confront global warming. Kyoto was weak indeed, but no one considered
signing or even improving Kyoto. Across the nation, motorists balk at
high gas prices, get "confused" by the conflicting data fed to them by
oil interests, and go about their daily lives of massive carbon
emissions. 25% of the world's emissions, 4% of the population. But from
the Bay Area to Charlotte the ethos is, "yeah, but I have to get to
work, yeah but I have to carry my big dogs to the park, yeah, but I
can't carry groceries home without an SUV." For global warming New
Orleans was the sacrificial lamb in this storm, while greedy motorists
hoard gas in Atlanta [where the nation's lowest gas tax was just waived
by the governor to ensure his re-lection].
>From coastal erosion and pipeline canals to filling in backswamps with
sprawl, these were public policy decisions and there should be hell to
pay. Anyone who says that this is "no time for blame" probably has
something to hide, or is beginning to understand their complicit role in
this disaster and seeking political cover.
But that is not the worst of it. The worst of it is yet to come. The
worst of it will be the way it is handled afterwards, especially the
denial and failure to recognize cause and effect. The leadership will
pray. The leadership will talk about natural disasters and acts of god.
The leadership, from Washington DC to Baton Rouge and to Poydras Street,
is interested in money, rich people, oil, extreme property rights,
hyper-consumption, and getting their frat boy or sorority friends in the
loop. The American public, largely in the dark about the true causes of
this disaster, and largely complicit in this horror, will proceed to
allow this pathetic leadership to misdiagnose and misallocate the
rebuild, setting the path for the next disaster.
*Rebuild?*
Here is what should be done, but will not be done until true progressive
reform occurs in Louisiana and Nation-wide. [and that reform will not
happen until American voters, both liberal and conservative, wake up]
*Removal of sprawl around **New Orleans**:* Much of Greater New Orleans
should not be rebuilt. I am not talking about the French Quarter or
Victorian sections and the development along the natural levees. What
should not be rebuilt is the sprawl surrounding New Orleans. Get the
sprawl out of the backswamps. Retreat the levees. Empty all areas north
of I-10 and along the Lakefront and recreate a marshland buffer zone all
along the southshore. This includes Metairie and Kenner. Even parts not
currently flooded should be axed and replaced by wetlands. Empty New
Orleans East & most of St Bernard (except the natural levees) and
recreate marshland buffers there too. The removal of this sprawl
wasteland will take decades, should be done in a methodical and
coordinated manner, and with ecological restoration as first priority.
Remove the levees along Lake Pontchartrain and rebuild levees below
I-610 (remove I-610). Restablish cypress swamps in the "bowl" of New
Orleans.
*Rebuild of "old" **New Orleans*: A sustainable New Orleans rebuilt
could densify and manage half a million people including tourists.
Permanent population might be lower. Rebuild and densify New Orleans
along the natural levee including downtown, French Quarter, Marigny,
Bywater, Uptown, and Riverbend. Most of these sections of the city are
still intact. Damaged, but intact. Gretna, Algiers, and West Bank areas
along the natural levee get rebuilt too. Mid City is debatable. Either
empty or minimally rebuild with adequate drainage and more open space.
The population of greater New Orleans (including both east and west
bank) would be under 500,000. The Greater New Orleans economy would
center on tourism, arts, university, seafood processing, light
manufacturing in waterborne craft/ Shipbuilding, and a port (smaller
than the 2005 version). Construction and craftwork will be very
important in the decade after this storm. The city should create a
systematic bike network, bus lanes, and expand streetcar. Reduce parking
city-wide. Access to the city should be primarily by rail. Flood control
should be upgraded or rebuilt. Levees should be rebuilt closer to the
city's natural levee, and massive ecological restorations should be
undertaken in all of the former sprawl surrounding the city. A civil
conservation corps should be established.
*Baton Rouge**: *Electric passenger and freight rail from New Orleans to
Baton Rouge should be constructed. Baton Rouge would be the primary
entry to New Orleans. Rail would utilize natural gas for electricity
generation until another source can be found.
Build rail station in downtown Baton Rouge along present rail lines
along the Mississippi. Create high density housing and retail-services
downtown.
The city of Baton Rouge would experience major densification. Baton
Rouge should be reconfigured into a compact city of 1.2 million. Main
arterials and highways should be lined with 3-4 story apartment
buildings, with ground floor retail, services. No parking would be
provided. The space would be used for housing, services, and green
space, and drainage – not car storage. Implement Bus Rapid Transit,
priority bus lanes, bike lanes, wide sidewalks, and eventually electric
trams in dense areas radiating from downtown. Areas of densification
would include: Florida Boulevard, I -10 corridor, Airline Highway, I-12
corridor, Scenic Highway corridor, Essen, BlueBonnet, Siegen, College.
The physical footprint of Baton Rouge should not be expanded. Rather,
the city should absorb new population by developing all surface parking
and low density sprawl. The Baton Rouge economy would function as a
regional commercial, government, service hub. Information, government,
refining, petrochemicals, food processing, freight distribution, and a
minor port would make up the economy. Construction will dominate the
economy for many years.
*Mississippi River**: *a greater portion of the Mississippi River should
be diverted into the Atchafalaya. About 60- 70% of the total flow at Old
River (in Point Coupee Parish) should flow down the Atchafalaya. The
remaining 30-40% continues down the present Mississippi. The flow down
the Mississippi should be preserved but significantly reduced. *
*Strategically breach levees of the Mississippi north and South of New
Orleans to allow sedimentation, aid in replenishment of wetlands. Use
New Orleans as a port until a new port is built on the Atchafalaya.
Maintain smaller-scale port in New Orleans as river levels are lower at
New Orleans. Build new port on Atchafalaya at a suitable site to be
determined. Do not build one single mega-port. Build multiple smaller
ports. Connect ports by rail, with modern intermodal facilities.
Minimize truck access.
*North** **Shore**: *Build passenger rail from Baton Rouge to Florida,
Parallel to I-12. Focus compact development in Slidell, Covington,
Hammond. Distribute 200,000 along corridor as bead on a string along
railway line. Economy – services, farming, food processing, light
manufacturing. Wind farms. Solar collector farms.
* *
* *
* *
*Funding*
This disaster was largely caused by public policy. These public policies
were centered on the accommodation, expansion, and unquestioned
dominance of unfettered automobility. It is only fair and logical to tax
automobility and its supporting land uses – sprawl. The funding would be
implemented incrementally.
First, a 50 cent gas tax should be implemented nationwide for direct and
immediate aid and disaster relief/ clean-up. It should remain in place
until every person is accounted for, fed, sheltered.
Second, an additional 50 cent gas tax should be implemented nationwide
to finance the rebuild fund.
The US consumes 10 million barrels of oil a day. Each barrel is 42
gallons. A $1.00 tax per gallon (at the site of processing) would bring
in 420 million dollars per day. All of that money should go to this
disaster every day until the rebuild is complete. Afterwards, these
funds should be utilized for a massive reconfiguration of Baton Rouge
and other Louisiana cities, and the construction of passenger rail,
transit, and smart growth development.
This should eventually be expanded to a "global warming mitigation fund"
and some funds should be distributed around the nation to help cities
expand transit, and reconfigure sprawling developments into more
sustainable spatial organization.
Public policy was the root of this disaster. Public policy must confront
and resolve it. A 50 cent gas tax is a good place to start.
Emily Drennen wrote:
> Hi all-
> I thought that this post from a woman from the New Orleans Metro
> Bicycle Coalition might interest you all, esp. since she speaks about
> the important distinction between living a car-free lifestyle and
> being broke and not having access to car. She raises some really good
> points, and things I have been thinking about for some time now. Much
> of what my rant earlier was about centers in things she brings up here.
> Best,
> Emily
> Date: Sat, 3 Sep 2005 12:23:52 -0700 (PDT)
> From: audrey warren <audreykwarren at yahoo.com
> <http://us.f315.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=audreykwarren@yahoo.com&YY=87530&order=down&sort=date&pos=0&view=a&head=b>>
> Subject: update from New Orleans
>
> Hello All,
>
> Just checking in. We are pretty sure that everyone on
> the New Orleans Metro Bicycle Coalition board got out
> safely, myself included, but not without a deep
> sadness in our hearts. If anyone has any questions
> about specific people and their whereabouts, they can
> contact me directly at audreykwarren at yahoo.com
> <http://us.f315.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=audreykwarren@yahoo.com&YY=87530&order=down&sort=date&pos=0&view=a&head=b>.
>
> There are a thousand different ways to look at what
> has happened, but since this is an organization of
> bike/ped advocates, I wanted to give a perspective
> that is relevant to this group. It's a long posting,
> but I hope you will indulge me. I've got a lot on my
> mind.
>
> There's a tricky question on the US census longform
> that asks if your household has access to a car. I
> live by myself and haven't owned a car for years, but
> I can't honestly say that I don't have access to a
> car. I have a friends and family who I can (and do)
> call on anytime to borrow their car. I have money to
> take a taxi or rent a car whenever I need it. I have
> chosen to live without a car, but have access to all
> of the privileges that would go with ownership, just
> none of the hassle. It was never a question as to
> whether I would get out of the city. We had
> reservations at a hotel in Dallas by Friday night.
>
> Perhaps the largest issue that we have struggled with
> in the formation of the New Orleans Metro Bicycle
> Coalition is connecting with the population of folks
> that depend on their bicycle as their only mode of
> transportation, people who are honestly just barely
> scraping by. We all know that it is notoriously
> difficult to get numbers on cyclists, much less get an
> accurate sense of the demographics, but I would say
> that easily more than half the bicyclists on the road
> in New Orleans are riding not because of some ideology
> or health goal, but because they are broke and even
> bus fare is beyond their means.
>
> The vast majority of the people who were left behind
> had no way out. When you are watching these images on
> the television, I challenge you to see them as the
> unseen, marginalized faces of bicycling - the folks
> that ride everyday, but never find their way to our
> membership lists, or speak at the Bike Summit, or
> subscribe to The Ride. Part of the horror of this
> event is that we as a nation have turned our back on
> the poor, and that in most urban areas, poverty and
> race are inextricably linked.
>
> For me, advocating for bicycle and pedestrian rights
> is about social justice, and the 900 lb gorrilla in
> the corner is that the complexion of our momement is
> largely white, middle class. I would like to hear a
> conversation in the bike/ped advocacy movement that
> really addresses these issues so that we as a
> collective can work to put our own house in order.
>
> If you would like to help out with the tragedy, please
> consider working in your own organizations to
> strengthen your ties with communities of color, and
> connect with people who are struggling with poverty
> every day. With all of the madness that is being
> broadcast on the television, it is difficult to know
> what to do, and I offer this as a meaningful way to
> channel your desire to help. Reaching out beyond our
> historic base is not trivial - or easy - but we can't
> claim that we're just an upstart grassroots movement
> anymore without enough resources to do it right. If we
> in New Orleans had made it a priority to address the
> needs of those who can't afford a car, we would never
> have seen the devesting images of those that were left
> behind.
>
> -audrey
>
> ------------------
> Audrey Warren
> New Orleans Metro Bicycle Coalition
>
> From: Jason Henderson <jhenders at sbcglobal.net>
> Subject: [Carfreeliving] gas tax fund for New Orleans
> CC:
> Date: Thu, 01 Sep 2005 17:30:05 -0700
> To: Nancy Wilkinson <nancyw at sfsu.edu>, Carfreeliving at livablecity.org
>
> Hi,
>
> I grew up in New Orleans. I have known this was coming all my life. I
> sat through a few. I am in geography and interested in urbanism and
> transportation issues because of this.
>
> The damge to New Orleans is not a surprise at all, and much of it should
> not be rebuilt. I am not talking about the French Quarter or Victorian
> sections, nor the development along the natural levees. What should not
> be rebuilt is the sprawl surrounding NOLA. This is a major reason the
> damage has been so immense. Global Warming, sea level rise, coastal
> erosion resulting from canals to access oil and gas, subsidence on an
> immense scale due to the weight of sprawl. Massive levees constructed to
> protect sprawl. Filling in once essential backswamps for sprawl [These
> backswamps used to "store" these surges and rising tides.] Hurricanes
> happen all the time. This was not an act of God or nature, it was public
> policy.
> A sustainable New Orleans rebuilt could densify and manage half a
> million. Like San Francisco, New Orlenas had 800 thousand in the 1950s
> and had a much smaller footprint.
>
> SO, on to the money. Funding for the ecologically sustainable rebuild of
> parts of NOLA (including densification of Baton Rouge without expanding
> physical footprint):
>
> 50 cent gas tax for direct and immediate aid
> 50 cent gas tax directly into rebuild fund
>
> Since America's automobility addiction largely led to this, this seems
> fair, Maybe $2.00....
>
> Also, consider a
>
> 50 cent gas tax for global warming mitigation fund
> 50 cent gas tax for sprawl mitigation fund (i.e urbanism fund)
> 50 cent gas tax for national high speed rail network
> 50 cent gas tax for national transit fund.
>
> $3.50 gas tax total. Nationwide. ($2.00 additional for all
> non-utlility suvs, which is 99% of them)
>
> just a thought as the cost of this is pondered.
> -jh
>
> --
> Jason Henderson
> San Francisco CA
> (415)-255-8136
> jhenders at sbcglobal.net
>
> begin:vcard
> fn:Jason Henderson
> n:Henderson;Jason
> adr;dom:;;;San Francisco ;CA
> email;internet:jhenders at sbcglobal.net or Jhenders at sfsu.edu
> tel;work:415-405-2483
> tel;home:415-255-8136 (best number)
> version:2.1
> end:vcard
>
> _______________________________________________
> Carfreeliving mailing list
> Carfreeliving at livablecity.org
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>
>
> Emily Drennen
> Executive Director, Walk San Francisco
>
> 415-431-9255 office/fax
> www.walksf.org
> 1095 Market Street #502, SF, CA 94103
>
> Advisory Council Member, Bay Area Air Quality Management District
> Citizen's Advisory Committee Member, Metropolitian Transportation Agency
> Past Chair, SF Bicycle Advisory Committee
>
> __________________________________________________
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>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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--
Jason Henderson
San Francisco CA
(415)-255-8136
jhenders at sbcglobal.net
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