It's a known fact that cities will implement a hotel tax so travelers foot the bill for city toys and necessities. Here you have widely traveled part of the United States and everyone would much rather have their priorities *** backwards as usual.

Read this Article from one of NO's newspaper outlets I dug-up. I got to thinking about taxes and knew there had to be something on this. Make sure you read it. Then when you realize they yielded $30million in one year you might reconsider who's more at fault here.

This is exactly why Sacramento is having a hard time bending backwards for the Kings and the Maloofs. It's because Sacramento isn't a traveling hot spot. Most traveling done to Sacramento is done by state and federal officials from the Hyatt. So when we're asked to **** a new multi-million dollar state-of-the-art stadium it's a major blow to us. It's also a big reason why cities like San Francisco are self-reliant. It's a year around hot spot for weekend and business travelers. The only other thing they had to implement was the recent toll on the Bay Bridge IIRC. But still, a slightly higher toll isn't so bad when having to build a $billion+ bridge. At least a lot of local travelers pay the toll as well on the weekends. Hell, those that cross the bridge and stay in a hotel really drive your economy, don't they? I probably paid for a bucket full of those rivets.

My point is if they started in 1965 or even as late as 1980, they wouldn't be in half this mess. They could have a funded the most intricate levee system ever created. One that could withhold an atom bomb. Seriously. But instead, they pissed it all away on the Superdome and other sports & recreation venues. It's just carelessness at the umpteen level.

 

Yeah, you are absolutely right here. Take it from someone who lives here, the city's last priority was it's citizens. Crooked politicans and police are common-place and a great deal of funds are direct based on personal friendships and favors. I feel obligated to mention though that the city of New Orleans did (and probably still does) have the most advanced levee system in the world. The problem with it was its age. The portion by my house was a mechanical marvel. All rebar reinforced concrete with steel locking doors that shut electronically. In front of those were massive wave breaks to prevent damage from surge. In other parts of the city (east new orleans were there is about 15-20 feet of water now) was levee that dated back to the French Occupation, nothing but a 30 foot high mound of Earth that was expect to hold back the weight of a massive lake and the Mississippi River. Before the hurricane hit the biggest concern in New Orleans was "when will the Saints get a new arena". It has been on the news everyday since I moved here last year. The priorities are totally out of line. If our football drew enough revenue to sustain itself and give something back to the city that would be understandable but the team is little more the an expensive political hobby. It sucks up the New Orleans funds like a sponge and provides nothing more than a drunk display of poor sportsmanship from some of the NFLs most criticized players. The French Quarter restaurants and bars made such massive amounts of money its unfathomable to most. During Mardi Gras the average bar will serve 50,000 customers a night at an average of 6 dollars per drink. If they all buy only one drink that's 300,000 a night. Mardi Gras lasts for over a month and the city sees tourism year long (i.e. Jazz Fest, Essence, Octoberfest, Halloween is huge, New Year's, etc...). If not a better levee why not a well cordinated hurricane center that can handle the response necessary for a serious event that was evidently coming.

 

Great post! Thank you.

 

I posted this at Nasioc without any response there: http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=840274

I posted it there because every thread on Katrina is incredibly against Bush when it really shouldn't be.

 

Very good post 1reguL8nSTi! Thanks for the info.

All of the blame for this shouldn't be on one person, or city. New Orleans screwed up. FEMA screwed up. Bush screwed up by not coming down sooner (if not to help, just to help his reputation). Its just a big mess.

 

I agree. I wasn't trying to pass the buck off of Bush and FEMA and specifically mention the logistical rat****. They screwed-up without a doubt. But the more I hear about New Orleans incompetence the more I’m inclined to bestow more and more responsibility and blame on their shoulders.

I guess what really pisses me off is that **** somehow rolls uphill in the civilian world as opposed to downhill in the military. Maybe that's why the military is efficient, more conservative and incapable of error without a huge dog and pony show? I really miss that part of the service. If the civilian world caught wind that a fat solider failed his PT test then they'd be happy to bestow more blame on the Division commander for not making PT twice a day mandatory. The fact he was stuffing his face with tacobell at the PX and beer on the weekends without doing remedial PT on his own would fly right out the damn window. I guess a lot of the animosity comes from the fact most of these people never liked Bush since 2000. Obviously...

 

Exactly!!!!! This is no one persons fault!!! It is a culmination of bad cordination that in affect exaggerated the incompetence of every federal organization. This is all combined by the fact that security has to be provided everywhere. We had a ****ing helo shot down last night!!!! It was the nations fault for the way of the response was cordinated but in reality it's New Orleans fault. We should have been allocating funds for a better levee/hurricane response effort to avoid such a incident. Especially when it was so evidently coming.

 

I would have to agree. I think that the war has stretched us thin, but I think that the problems in NO and MS go way beyond that thinness.

One question though: where is the love for Mississippi? They got hammered but noone seems to care. Im thinking about driving down there from GA and load my pick-up with some gear.

 

Yeah, they were plenty pissed about that from what i've heard.