New Orleans: Up for grabs?
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Here are some questions that should be getting asked right now:
- Who will decide what gets demolished in New Orleans?
- Who will bear the demolition costs?
- If you are a property owner, will you be responsible for the cost of demolition?
- If you refuse (or are unable) to pay, what rights do you have?
- What is the process whereby empty property can be acquired through eminent domain?
- What is the appeal process?
- Who has the authority to grant contracts for rebuilding the city?
- Have any contracts already been awarded?
Here's the thing: we've already seen what happened to the people at the bottom of the pile before the storm hit.
There's a different group of people at the bottom of the pile now, in the aftermath of this storm.
I think someone, anyone, everyone, should be asking some of the questions listed above, right now.
What usually happens after tornadoes, mudslides or fire? Isn't is a combo of city, state and homeowner?
So I'm guessing that the Kelo hysterics aren't going to insist that people who demand to rebuild on their land under the current watery graveyard be allowed to, just because it belongs to them.
On related matter, connected by even more egregious Republican constitutional hypocrisy -
Do you suppose that when the framers wrote this:
“No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury,…”
They meant this:
“U.S. Can Confine Citizens Without Charges, Court Rules”?
I suppose that, in Republican ideology, the compensated taking of a house by an elected legislature is far worse than a federal court (at Bush administration behest) taking the liberty rights of Americans. Is it wrong to guess that this hypocrisy will last only as long as those Americans aren’t white Republicans?
So I'm guessing that the Kelo hysterics aren't going to insist that people who demand to rebuild on their land under the current watery graveyard be allowed to, just because it belongs to them.
Why would you guess that? I think that people should most certainly be allowed to do with their land what they want. People rebuild after all types of disasters, why would this be any different?
”Why would you guess that?”
Well, because it would be colossally stupid to let people put themselves and their property in the path of disaster just so we could pay the cost to clean up the mess in the name of materialistic ideology. But, silly me.
You’d better start getting your torches and pitchforks together, Rosemary. What government is going to have to do to do the right thing in New Orleans will make Kelo look like taking a pack of gum.
Well, because it would be colossally stupid to let people put themselves and their property in the path of disaster just so we could pay the cost to clean up the mess in the name of materialistic ideology. But, silly me.
The government does colossally stupid all the time. All government. They have been handing out incentives to build in mudslide zones, tornado alley and the path of many, many hurricanes (Florida anyone?). I mean, who would live in Kansas on purpose?
What government is going to have to do to do the right thing in New Orleans will make Kelo look like taking a pack of gum.
I guess we'll see.
"The government does colossally stupid all the time. All government. They have been handing out incentives to build in mudslide zones, tornado alley and the path of many, many hurricanes (Florida anyone?)."
It is government in service of development interests, i.e. the free market, that creates the ability and incentives for such development. And, yes, it is colossally stupid and why those who understand the mechanism vote in support of restrictions on such development and the corrupt campaign financing system that encourages it.