RE-START! What's behind all of this idle talk about the sudden demise of the grand City of New Orleans?
You don't just walk away from a city which has been one which
needs to be remembered ...always.
I agree that New Orleans has its problems. All cities do, I suppose, that of this particular city being (parts of it, not all of it) twenty feet or so "under sea level" - and we use of that term most of the time which shows how much we actually know about the situation. Much of the land within the city is under the high water levels of the Mississippi River on the west side and of Lake Pontchartrain on the northeast, top end. The "sea level" it is supposed to be "under" is a good hundred miles downstream and getting more so year because
Louisiana is the only state in the Union which adds land area every year. The tons of silt brought down by the Mississippi system stretch he delta out into the Gulf of Mexico a square mile or so each year.
Think about this: How should we explain it to the Village Idiot that if the sea level were higher than that of the river level at the city site why isn't the river flowing north.
If and when properly constructed and maintained a system of modern levees, dikes and associated locks and canals, will be efficient and dependable. The example has been cited perhaps too often, the Netherlands seems to have survived using dikes and sea walls. And what about Venice, some one else suggests, where the city itself is the sea wall. But, let's refrain from using those two as examples. Both the V-people and the ZZ-folks face troubles as their systems age.
Think instead of other cites where underground extended downwards growth are drilling deeper and deeper - many below local "sea levels." As soon as the pumps get the city empty and the fans have run for a spell, the paint brushes and carpenter's hammers and saws will put much of, it back the way was it back to it was before. Much of the lasting charm of the of the French Quarter, after all, dealt primarily in used goods; repeated circumstances; new attempts at living out of truncated dreams of romantics from the past.
Yes, the Crescent City will live again. It will, once more, thrive as the main multi-cultural city Mid-western, largely French, partly Spanish, even for a short, glancing time and the seed city for a special treasure the whole world has and loves - authentic jazz music.
A. L.M. September 13, 2005 [c449wds]
