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While the original article in the initial post by legion deals with disatisfaction along racial lines, the problems and frustrations in Nola are really along class lines. Keping in mind that pre-Katrina the black population was 70% its undertandable that it appears to be only a racial issue. I am troubled that some posters seem to allude that this is solely a function of race without saying so outright.
But I digress. Many of you seem to think that all the "whiners" should just pick themselves up by their boot straps and not look to the feds for assistance. Just take their insurance checks and rebuild. Sorry, but most of the folks in the 9th ward in particular had no insurance. Why? Most of that arae is not owner occupied. The owners/landlords got their insurance check and chose not to rebuild. And why shouldn't they expect some assistance from the feds...after all, prior to Katrina HUD was subsidizing rents and that money was going into the pockets of the owners.
Many of the people who have been displaced were the working poor. Those folks you never see when you left coasters come to the Big Easy to party in the Quarter. Those folks who made sure your beingnets were hot when you stopped in at the Cafe du Monde. Who made sure your creme brulee was glazed perfectly at Brennan's.
The infrastructure in Nola still is a mess. Only 40 % of the schools are reopened. People are still living in FEMA trailers 2 years after the storm. Fema trailers the Feds paid $25K apiece for that are reslidtically worth $4K...trailers where the contracts were farmed out to mfr's 1000's of miles away when mfr's were available less than 200 miles away but didn't have the right "pull" with Congress.
Lets see...I guess the disgruntled working poor and elderly should just band together and start their own schools and build their own homes and establish their own utilities systems... meanwhile billion$ are being sent abroad. And Halliburton is a strong buy on Wall Street.
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