Sunday, November 11, 2007

New Orleans?

I've been thinking about New Orleans. I had brushed it off out of lack of interest, but I think I simply hadn't thought enough about it. Catching up with readings and comments provided by Lisa, my interests in political influence on the build environment and environmental disaster meet in New Orleans. Should we rebuild? Probably not, but people want to. They want to keep their idea of home. But should home be such a dangerous environment? These storms are only going to become more frequent. Speaking of sustainability, what if all the progress made since the storm gets wiped away? All of the rebuilding efforts put a considerable strain on the price and availability of materials throughout the entire country, and could all be for naught. Could the rebuilding effort be a planning initiative to restrict parts of the city? Instead of levies, what about walls? Housing towers way above the high water mark? I don't know, just a few thoughts, but I might be bringing New Orleans back to the table.

1 comment:

jpron said...

Paul-

Its too late to write extensively now- and we will all be meeting in 18 hours to talk- but I will say that its good stuff- you are truly eloquent in your re-defining of the issues surrounding Gettysburg (my most unfavorite site in the world, you know), and even New Orleans is being quite properly addressed. Sorry to see DC fall out of favor (but for sure the Reichstag is your primary monumental sustainable case study and maybe it just point too directly to obvious solutions. OK)....but the bigger issue to contemplate on Monday is programming. What is the fundamental nature of a program best conceived to make manifest your philosophic intent. Here is where your creative mind should now focus, on both Gettysburg and New Orleans.