XDA

The New York Times carried four different articles today advocating various rebuilding plans for New Orleans. I think they ought to give it some antigravity repellers so the city could float above any storm or flood that comes it way like that city in The Empire Strikes Back (just kidding). Actually my plan is not much less fantastic than those published in the NYT. They are:

Make it an island like Venice by renowned city planner Bruce Babbit, erstwhile Secretary of the Interior under the Clinton administration;

Restore the swamp by Craig Colten, professor of geography at Louisiana State University (I'm reminded of a line from a Randy Newman song--"college men from LSU; went in dumb, come out dumb too...");

Raise the ground by Duke engineering professor, Henry Petrosky, who says: "Engineers are ready to come up with whatever it takes to rebuild New Orleans. The real question is how much the politicians are willing to invest. Whatever it will cost to raise or otherwise protect New Orleans surely will seem worth it when the next ferocious hurricane hits." (Hey, not to me, pal!); and,

Make sure it still has lots of poor people by assistant professor of geography at the University of Kentucky, Michael Crutcher. What is it about geography professors and silly ideas? Actually this one is not so silly because the city will have many poor people no matter what the government does, as our four decades long War on Poverty has proved.

Of the four, raising the ground, if possible, would be better than building bigger levees, which is what will almost certainly happen.