"Let the People Rebuild New Orleans"

[shance]

Let the People Rebuild New Orleans
by Naomi Klein

from the September 26, 2005 issue of The Nation

On September 4, six days after Katrina hit, I saw the first glimmer of hope. "The people of New Orleans will not go quietly into the night, scattering across this country to become homeless in countless other cities while federal relief funds are funneled into rebuilding casinos, hotels, chemical plants.... We will not stand idly by while this disaster is used as an opportunity to replace our homes with newly built mansions and condos in a gentrified New Orleans."

The statement came from Community Labor United, a coalition of low-income groups in New Orleans. It went on to demand that a committee made up of evacuees "oversee FEMA, the Red Cross and other organizations collecting resources on behalf of our people.... We are calling for evacuees from our community to actively participate in the rebuilding of New Orleans."

It's a radical concept: The $10.5 billion released by Congress and the $500 million raised by private charities doesn't actually belong to the relief agencies or the government; it belongs to the victims. The agencies entrusted with the money should be accountable to them. Put another way, the people Barbara Bush tactfully described as "underprivileged anyway" just got very rich.

Except relief and reconstruction never seem to work like that. When I was in Sri Lanka six months after the tsunami, many survivors told me that the reconstruction was victimizing them all over again. A council of the country's most prominent businesspeople had been put in charge of the process, and they were handing the coast over to tourist developers at a frantic pace. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of poor fishing people were still stuck in sweltering inland camps, patrolled by soldiers with machine guns and entirely dependent on relief agencies for food and water. They called reconstruction "the second tsunami."

(snip)

Here's a better idea: New Orleans could be reconstructed by and for the very people most victimized by the flood. Schools and hospitals that were falling apart before could finally have adequate resources; the rebuilding could create thousands of local jobs and provide massive skills training in decent paying industries. Rather than handing over the reconstruction to the same corrupt elite that failed the city so spectacularly, the effort could be led by groups like Douglass Community Coalition. Before the hurricane this remarkable assembly of parents, teachers, students and artists was trying to reconstruct the city from the ravages of poverty by transforming Frederick Douglass Senior High School into a model of community learning. They have already done the painstaking work of building consensus around education reform. Now that the funds are flowing, shouldn't they have the tools to rebuild every ailing public school in the city?

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0909-27.htm

[MercutioATC]

1. You ARE talking about using only skilled laborers for the actual building,

right?

I see some logistical problems with the idea, but it's worth exploring.

[RandomKoolzip]

2. I've been floating this idea to friends the last week or so...

We need an new FDR to create another Public Works program for New Orleans....have the federal government PAY the evacuees and those stranded there to rebuild the place. They can stay in tent cities until the work is done. Then New Orleans can be the income-generating tourist trap it used to be and continue bringing in money for the federal government again, and all sides will benefit.

Too radical, right? Everyone I've talked to says "Well, FDR ain't in office right now, is he?"

[shance]

4. It's the logical solution. And the most healing one for the city.

n/t

[Frustratedlady]

3. Amen!

Power to the People!!! Let them rebuild their city.