The only pumps which survived the hurricane are the ones built in the 1920s ( Read more... )

There's a protest September 24th in Washington--the issues are really connected. For instance, the same private security forces in Iraq are patrolling the streets orf NOLA and protecting the interests of the rich, who have swooped down to land grab...and many residents are scattered, not present to defend their interests.

( The State of the Nation )

Apropos Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's proposition that a Gulf Coast Restoration Authority be formed, there's quite an interesting little trove of docs along these lines. And I think that's what the snail darter controversy was partly all about.

( Read more... )

I know nothing about business, but I wonder what the opportunities for discriminatory flood insurance sales FEMA and the banks have exploited, and how that will smooth the way for the takeover of houses owned by the uninsured poor.

Homeowners in "Special Flood Hazard Areas" are generally required to buy flood insurance sold by the National Flood ( Read more... )

A well-reported NYT piece on how fast the establishment has regrouped at Gino's Restaurant in Baton Rouge, and in temp offices elsewhere, and what their priorities are.

Mark Drennan, CEO Greater New Orleans Inc., a private development organization which represents many of the city's largest corps, has already started working with the Louisiana ( Read more... )

I wonder if this, if it is a fact, will help ensure that discriminatory eminent domain prerogatives will be met with early and frequent opposition and denunciation?

The New Orleans middle class chose to live in newer homes for all the same reasons as the rest of America. But these homes were low, and often as not African-American. The members of ( Read more... )

Apparently along Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) lines.

I know nothing about discriminatory eminent domain prerogs as practiced by the TVA. I suspect that the news is both good and bad.

Kennedy press release:
I believe that we need to look beyond the immediate response and put in place an agenda that lifts those communities and neighborhoods ( Read more... )

Only a few reports on real estate records surviving flood, of which this is the most recent.
It doesn't make clear whether current documents are endangered.

Most governments have digitized their real estate records, and Bruno was just about to hire a firm to transfer many of the documents in the archive to the computer. But at the Notorial ( Read more... )

X-posted from poor_planning. Original comments.OK, so this 'Eminent Domain' thread is about whether parts of NOLA and Southern Louisiana are going to be written off for human habitation, and it's also about trying to influence decisions towards the interests of the local community and of the environment itself, rather than letting the reconstruction be about ( Read more... )