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On 8/27/17 6:53 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism wrote:
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Why "development" made Houston flooding inevitable, just as the
disappearance of marshland near New Orleans made Katrina's impact so
much worse.
https://www.texastribune.org/boomtown-floodtown/
A comment on this from FB friend Avram Barlowe:
Many years ago I came to Houston two meet with a group of progressive,
alternative public school educators. I arrived at an airport that was
completely across town from the motel at which I had made a reservation.
It was pouring rain and since my trip was being paid for, I took a cab
from the airport all the way to the motel. As the cab slogged its way
through traffic and some flooding, the cab driver and I started talking.
He was from a sub-Saharan African nation, I can't remember which one. He
explained that Houston's climate was in some respects subtropical and
that the failure of local government to acknowledge this in the building
of infrastructure played a significant role in the transportation
problems the city experienced during rain storms. Put simply, the
notoriously reactionary Congressman, Tom DeLay, who represented some of
Houston's richest suburbs, had pushed a massive amount of pork
legislation through Congress devoted to the creation of multiple
highways and freeways, neglecting green land preservation in the
process. As a result, there was essentially not enough soil on the
ground to absorb massive rainfall when it came. Now it seems that
Houston is really reaping the whirlwind of that decision. Alas, we live
in a system where the expertise of workers and especially that of Black,
immigrant workers like my cab driver, does not matter.
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