Imagine this ....." Gulf Shores National Park"

[SoCalDem]

Unsullied open beaches as far as the eye can see..from Louisiana to Florida..

a scenic roadway that hugs the coast.

a 3 mile greenbelt, with public camping, picnicking spaces provided

small LOCAL restaurants..casual "beach food"

park-like structures for concerts, fairs, hotels & motels a convenient (and safer) few miles inland.. (offering free beach shuttle services)

recreation facilities: tennis, miniature golf, baseball diamonds, soccer fields/ rollerblading/ boat launching areas

easy access to the beaches via paths/stairs

beach vendors renting out shade canopies, selling cool drinks, and snacks

and when there's a hurricane, you get flooded tennis courts, baseball diamonds, and perhaps some lost beach chairs and canopies..


Nature does heal itself, and beach sand was made to be redistributed.

There's enough coastline to be used by all, and tourism might actually grow, with a more natural environment

Lots of people go to CUBA BECAUSE the beaches are not as cluttered with high rises and concrete.. It's been in a time-warp, and the "old-timey" feel of the place is a DRAW..

Perhaps the governors and planning commissions of the gulf states could get together and draw up a new plan:)

Can they all get along:) long enough to FIX what's now broken.:(

[TahitiNut]

1. I've been an advocate for development-free shorelines all my life.

Anywhere that land meets sea, we have the incubators of life on this planet. When I see abominations like Dauphin Island near Mobile, with McMansions on stilts all over a sandbar, it makes me :puke:. The hubris is astonishing.

The Louisiana wetlands are an incredibly precious ecological treasure - and they're being destroyed at a rate of thousands of square miles each year.

[henslee]

11. In Miami, there are so many mostrous buildings on the shoreline

that a goddam breeze can't even reach inland. And more and more are being built. Donald Trump has a few going up right now. This town has been sold out to the highest bidder. What a legacy of shit.

[MADem]

2. That would require a massive property buy out

and would be prohibitively expensive. Unless, of course, the government just stole the property from the landowners...they are doing that, lately, and the Supremes did not stop them last time...

[SoCalDem]

4. Cheaper long-term, I would think

and life-saving as well..

Global warming changed everything :evilgrin:

[DBoon]

6. That would be illegal!

you can only steal poor people's property for private development!

[Xithras]

7. Umm...we're about to do it anyway (better idea)

Here's a suggestion: Instead of FedGov rebuilding all of those houses, how about we just hand them a check for the value of their home (which we're going to pay anyway thanks to federal flood insurance) and allow the government to assume ownership of the property? They can take that money and buy elsewhere, or if they really want to stay can spend it on buying an undamaged property in the same area. This method allows people to continue living in the more protected areas while depopulating the obviously dangerous ones. Best of all, it won't cost us a dime more than we're about to spend anyway.

Sounds fair to me!

[meisje]

3. Parks do not support a local economy such as this

Where would all of those people work?

[SoCalDem]

5. Lots of people who "used to live there" will be moving on anyway

and the local governments did'nt seem to care a whole lot while all the manufacturing jobs "went bye-bye"..why would that be an issue now?

Many of those jobs were low pay service jobs anyway.. and in the larger sense, those jobs would just move inland a few miles :)

[DBoon]

8. Parks support tourism

Hilo Hawaii did something like this - after a tsunami wrecked their shorelien, they moved the town away from the water and made the shorefront a park.

[theboss]

9. This is something China would have done in the 50s

How many people and business did you just displace?

[SoCalDem]

15. squeeze a water balloon.. the water does not disappear..

it just "goes elsewhere":hi:

[theboss]

17. Can we move LA to Utah?

It really should not be sitting on that fault line. That should be a preserved desert.

[SoCalDem]

18. Not many Utah-ans would welcome Angelinos

but hey.. you're starting to think outside the box..:hi:

[Jacobin]

10. I can tell you haven't been to the Louisiana coast

It is a fricking ESTUARY, okay????


It ain't a fricking BEACH!!! There's no SAND. It's MUD. And Oil wells and shimpers and oystermen, and I love it.

And no, please don't turn it to to fucking Florida.

However, as turnabout is fair play, I would suggest that Los Angeles be bulldozed and turned into a nice canyon for the animals to roam in which would get rid of a lot of smog and polluting people, since the next Big One is gonna wipe it out anyway.

Determined Louisianian.

[SoCalDem]

13. I like your plan

:)

[MADem]

14. Stay determined!!

Hopefully, they can fix those wetlands and bring it all back. Especially the shrimpers!!!!!

[I concur]

12. I like it.

But I also like California Shore National Park, State of Florida National Park, and Va., Carolina, Ga. National Shore Park. If wealth people still insist on building pleasure monuments to leisure in the paths of hurricanes, I insist they do so with no insurance.

[SoCalDem]

16. I have advocated that FOREVER

all shorelines should be the buffer zone for storms.. Primitive societies all knew/know this.. they build permanent strutures inland. usually just beyond the "storm damage line", and use paths to get to the beaches/coasts which they DO use for recreation, commerce, fishing, launching boats.. they just try not to endanger their own lives by LIVING on the beach :)

It's worked for them for thousands of years

[GumboYaYa]

19. I am so sick of people dancing on the grave of New Orleans

while we are still trying to save so many people. Save your wishful thinking to get rid of the city until the tragedy is resolved.

And for all of you who want to see New Orleans disappear, I have some bad news for you; it ain't gonna happen. New Orleans is the soul of this country. Most of our great literature, music and food comes from New Orleans. Without New Orleans the country would be a a cultural waste land. Every other place in America has given way to McMansions, Walmart and Starbucks, but not New Orleans. All of you need New Orleans to survive even if you have never been there and have no recognition of how important it is to the development of our national identity.

Name another city in America whose public transportation system adds to the city budget. They don't exist, but it works in New Orleans b/c we saved our street cars. When all the rest of the suckers in America were tearing theirs down and growing suburbs, we kept ours and kept our city walkable. For some of you who don't know, that's why many people simply don't have cars (on top of poverty).

American music owes its existence to New Orleans. Without Congo Square there never would have been a backbeat in music. Rock n Roll, Jazz, Blues, R&B, all American music would not exist without New Orleans. Turn on your radio to any channel and you are listening to New Orleans.

So as far as I am concerned, all you beach clearers can go pound sand.

[SoCalDem]

21. New Orleans is not a Beach town

What can be preserved/saved/restored/whatever of it should be, and likely WILL be..
I only hope that there will be some serious planning this time around.. :hug: to you and yours

[Bridget Burke]

24. Yes, but the City was so untidy, even at the best of times.

Definitely not Anglo-Saxon enough for some.

And I'd like to add that some businesses need to be located on the shore. Fishing, anyone? Even the messy oil business. But I'm sure the pure folks ride their bikes everywhere.

[blitzen]

20. but where would we put the casinos? n/t

[SoCalDem]

22. Perhaps the fundies could be bound and gagged during the votes

to ATTACH them to terra firma next time around:)

[bloom]

23. that is what I think, also

anywhere a hurricane takes out a place - make it a park.

Rebuild inland.