From Deseret News archives:
2 years later, New Orleans a mix of good and bad
On Wednesday, New Orleans will have endured exactly two years since Hurricane Katrina hit, and the moment will be marked by ceremonies solemn and silly, in keeping with the city's twin masks. President Bush, an object of lingering if unfocused resentment here, is expected to drop in. In the meantime, nothing in the city's halting march back is too small, or too large, to be examined in earnest prose and PowerPoint presentations raining down from Washington and points north, sometimes accompanied by overnight politicians or think-tankers vowing to bravely fight on.
The condition of the swamps, the progress of the poor, arsenic in the schoolyards, awful conditions at the jail, great conditions at the hotels, the generosity of corporate donors, the parsimony (or beneficence) of the government, the wisdom of the bond-rating agencies, the in-migration of the young, the out-migration of the old, the hopeful (or hopeless) schools: all of it is grist for the report-making, assessment-mongering frenzy in a slow August news season.
What the reports seem to suggest, taken together, is that there is no useful yardstick, and no clear indicator of whether the arrow points down or up. Signs of progress and hope in latter-day New Orleans are always accompanied by their opposites.
Downtown blocks are moribund while Magazine Street, in the Uptown section, is humming. The Lower Ninth Ward remains a wasteland, and the Gentilly neighborhood is reawakening. Crime is up, but so is tourism. The medical district in central New Orleans remains empty today, but in an announcement this week, the Department of Veterans Affairs appeared committed to re-establishing a hospital there.
An anniversary-assessment briefing here Friday by the state agency that has helped organize the halting reconstruction, the Louisiana Recovery Authority, was typical of this Jekyll-and-Hyde picture. Grim and hopeful news, reams of figures promising and discouraging, were dispensed in equal and bewildering bursts.
Recent comments
Rebuild New Orleans by all means,but hurry up already! I am ashamed...
Charles R. Sears II | Sept. 1, 2007 at 11:15 a.m.
It is stupid to rebuild the city of New Orleans, and the citizens of...
R. Lang | Aug. 27, 2007 at 9:38 a.m.
More than half of New Orleans sits above sea level. And sea level is...
Come Now | Aug. 26, 2007 at 8:58 p.m.
- Obama: Troop drawdown gradual 9:29 a.m.
- Exports up 6th straight month 9:24 a.m.
- Austria passes gay civil unions bill 9:18 a.m.
- EU seeks united front on climate 9:16 a.m.
- Nobel returned to Iranian laureate 8:46 a.m.
- Stocks rise on trade deficit, jobs data 8:45 a.m.
- Gay-friendly curriculum phased out 8:43 a.m.
- Spanish gov't to change abortion bill 8:41 a.m.
- IOC OKs cycling, tennis changes 8:28 a.m.
- BCS = power conference monopoly 8:15 a.m.
- Crash landing next to I-15
- Palin signs books, chats with fans
- Psychologist: Mitchell schizophrenic
- Panel passes BCS playoff bill
- Nude bathers cited for lewdness
- Hot Rod behind mic for Lakers
- Max Hall wants to look ahead
- Cougars use depth to beat ASU
- Non-BCS schools not given fair shot
- Jazz fall apart late at L.A.
- Letters: Global warming a lie
234 - TCU to play Boise in Fiesta Bowl
206 - BYU football: Bronco weighs in on Hall
185 - Cougars going back to Vegas
150 - Utah/BYU rivalry can be more civil
147 - Andersen apologizes for Jordan hoax
138 - Max Hall wants to look ahead
120 - Palin signs books, chats with fans
116 - Revive full food tax?
101 - Panel passes BCS playoff bill
99
Love him or hate him, Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch knows how to get attention.
How can all of us even imagine all the things that Pres. Obama had to face...
What's the reason for going out in the woods to shoot animals? What...
I have heard liberals say that trickle down economics doesn't work. Yet, if...
Way to go Bro. Hatch, you ROCK,
The fact that the liberal media has invested so much energy in trying to...
Tiger isn't a tiger anymore... he's a cheetah!
It's funny how people call Kobe just a "Good" player because (at this time)...
A nice honor for him and our country. A fitting symbol that we are regaining...
I normally agree with the sheriff's actions, but not in this case. At times...
What is a professor to do when he carefully lays it out for the dunderhead...



