I wonder what's the big hurry with re-opening NO? I mean why

[texpatriot2004]

the rush? Why is it necessary to bring it back up right now? Just curious.

[justiceischeap]

1. I read somewhere on here

That the city of NO is officially bankrupt. Nagin said it.

[pitohui]

9. he said it but he didn't mean it literally

the city ain't officially bankrupt at least not yet

but it is accepting donations because its tax base has been crushed obviously

he ain't the best speech-giver in the world but you get the idea

[Yupster]

10. I'm worried about

ground contamination and the like.

They said the water was toxic. Well as it's drained away, the toxicity is going to go somewhere isn't it? Isn't the ground, buildings, carpets, etc going to have big pollution and biohazard problems?

I'm thinking don't rush this thing.

[stray cat]

2. People are still there and its bad to leave things unfunctional

Even cars go bad if they are not used.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. The port is vital

for shipping foodstuffs from the Midwest around the world. Harvest time is coming, and so the rush to reopen New Orleans.

[Gman]

4. Because people work there and live there?

Sounds like two good reasons to me.

[the_spectator]

5. You got it.

This is GOOD news. The faster people can return, the faster the city can get back on its feet, and fewer evacuees will decide to give up and live somewhere else.

The city was 80% inundated. According to the Corps of Engineers as of a couple of days ago, only 50% of the city now has standing water. Let people go back!

This is a good sign that New Orleans will NOT fall into the limbo that the World Trade Center site did after the last big disaster in this country. It is four long years since the towers came down. They took their good time first to approve a ridiculously ugly and cowardly design at first (the "Freedom Tower.") Then they took their good time to "revise" the plan - at this point, they plan to build something that looks more like a WTC tower - except twisted - planning on spending extra millions to make it look ugly - I guess everyone wants to be Frank Gehry these days. :puke: How long will it take before they finally decide to rebuild the towers? They could have been up by now, so easily.

This move to let people back in coming from Mayor Nagin is a good thing: don't let New Orleans become another WTC site, locked into do-nothing stagnation because of security ninnies and various special interests.

[mcscajun]

6. Because the Port of New Orleans is THE Major center for imports

coming in from South America, etc. From there it goes by rail to all parts of the country.

If the port doesn't work, we are well and truly fucked.

From Wikipedia: The Port of South Louisiana (which includes the port of N.O.) is based in the New Orleans metropolitan area and is the fourth largest port, in terms of raw tonnage, in the world.

The Port of New Orleans handles about 145 million short tons (132 million tonnes) of cargo a year and is the largest faction of the Port of South Louisiana, the latter being the largest and busiest shipping port in the western hemisphere and the 4th busiest in the world.

About 5,000 ships from nearly 60 nations dock at the Port of New Orleans annually. The chief exports are grain and other foods from the Midwestern United States and petroleum products. The leading imports include chemicals, cocoa beans, coffee, and petroleum. The port handles more trade with Latin America than does any other U.S. gateway, including Miami.

New Orleans is also a busy port for barges. The barges use the nation's two main inland waterways, the Mississippi River and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, which meet at New Orleans. The port of New Orleans handles about 50,000 barges yearly.

That's why.

[etherealtruth]

7. Because its home n/t

[pitohui]

8. do you have a house in the area?

how do you like going homeless for oh 90 or 120 days instead of oh 21 days

sheesh, ppl, stop & get a clue train

we want to go home

is that so damn sinister

[MissMarple]

11. Viable areas need to remain viable. People still live there.

The city has to survive, it is a necessary point for commerce in the world market, and the entire middle part of the country. New Orleans is a huge factor in global and US prosperity. It's the rivers to ocean connection.

[expatriate]

12. The Port Of New Orleans has been reopened

There are also people in the city - the city needs to come back ASAP, so it isn't tied up endlessly in governmental nonsense. The faster people come back, the smaller chance of there being a huge land grab, and New Orleans Disneyworld With Cocktails being built there instead.

Mayor Nagin knows this. He knows that the longer people stay away, the less chance there is for the city to be revived.

Also, consider the situation of the people who have been evacuated - what are they supposed to do? Though most news coverage has been of the low income people who went through that horrific ordeal at the Superdome and Convention Center, there are tens of thousands of people who evacuated before the storm as well. These people have homes, mortgages, bills - and right now, they can't work. How are they supposed to live if they can't return to their homes and straighten out their lives? If they have dependent children, they could apply for welfare - but in Louisiana, that would mean that they would recieve $240 a month - and only after they had liquidated ALL of their savings and checking accounts. If they don't have dependent children - they're on their own, completely. It isn't as simple as just going to get another job - unemployment and underemployment is a huge problem in America to begin with. It truly isn't that easy to just start over somewhere else.

People cannot live in limbo. Sooner or later, the breast of charity goes cold. People who are welcoming now will begin to tire of evacuees who have to have all their needs supplied. It has happened many times in the past.

If those people can get back home and get their city running again, I'm all for it.