I have never even been to New Orleans let alone live there. However, today does mean something to me. To me it means maybe we should revisit our ideas about developing every inch of land we think we can.
I cannot speak about New Orleans and I realize that it is a historic community and that influenzes decisions. But I can speak about Sacramento. I live here and have lived in the area on and off for over 30 years. I have watched the area grow. I have watched them improve our levies so that new homes can be built in what have been flood plains for hundreds of years. For the past year (since Katrina) we have been told that Sacramento is one of the nation's leading candidates for a major flood. Yet, our county representatives continue to allow developers to line their pockets by building in flood plains that will again flood one day. Much of this land has been farmland for the past hundred plus years, corn, rice, tomatos etc... A flood would ruin a crop and few farms. But now there are thousands of new homes surrounded by Walmarts, Home Depots and Starbucks. All in the great basin that will flood again someday. You and I will be asked to donate to telethons to help the victims. Billions of taxpayer dollars will be spent rebuilding. Then in our egotistical way, we will says to hell with nature. We can hold back the water next time, we just need more money for a bigger dam and bigger levies. All so we can do it again. Maybe some areas aren't meant to be developed. I would say some of the area around Sacramento shouldn't be developed. We need food and all those low laying farmlands produce a tremendous amount of food. There is plenty of land that can be built on just a few miles down the road. But the developers want all the land regardless of the danger and our politicians are too easily bought off. It may sound a little cold but maybe there are areas of New Orleans that shouldn't be rebuilt. I don't know, I don't live there. But as someone who is having my tax dollars spent to rebuild it, I would like to think that someone is at least taking a look at from an angle other than "it's our community and we will be back". I'd like someone to at least consider not rebuilding low laying area A as protection for areas B, C & D. Parks, ball diamonds, soccer fields, nature areas, horse trails and farms rebound from floods rather well. How much would New Orleans benefit from a park like Central Park or Golden Gate Park? Would it improve the community as well as serve as additional flood protection? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Introducing the Fusion Authority Quarterly Update. 80 pages of hard-hitting, up-to-date ColdFusion information by your peers, delivered to your door four times a year. http://www.fusionauthority.com/quarterly Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:214415 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
