New Orleans in limbo


We wait for someone to help us out
The levees are broken and the floods destroyed so much.
Just beyond my high and dry neighborhood there are houses of friends
which were destroyed and
further away,
there are blocks and blocks of once proud homes that are now ugly shells.

This was a city lushly overgrown,
now once lovely gardens and parks are grey and dead.

And no one seems to care - they look at us as unwanted beggars.
Tax breaks for the rich - enormous expenditures of future tax dollars abroad.

OK

Face reality.

If we need to grow ourselves using our own resources - like colonists - that's also possible. But don't ask us for taxes.

We need housing urgently. Our citizens who want to come back but have no place to stay need shelter. And we need workers - to help grow the economy that we have - to help us rebuild. We need to identify property where construction will not flood and any investment will be also long-term. We need to get past legal and ownership hurdles.

We can then grow the city back away from the high-ground near the river - into the swamps - not depending on levee protection - not depending on pumping systems. We can take advantage of worthy existing structures and incorporate them. We need to incorporate utilities, sanitary services, public transportation as part of these new networks of expansion.