New Orleans Elections Going Ahead

People displaced by Katrina but no longer living in Louisiana will have a tough time voting. I'm not sure if Ray Nagin views this as good or bad news. It's not like he's Mr. Popular with displaced blacks, whites, purples or pinks. Anyway, black leaders are reportedly outraged. Why? New Orleans is not now, nor will ever likely be again, a predominantly black city. Unless by some Divine Fiat the low lying places which were traditionally home to the city's black population suddenly rise above sea-level, rebuilding there will be sheer folly. That doesn't, of course, mean that it won't be attempted.

My feeling is that as time goes by, the issue of rebuilding parts of New Orleans will cease to be an issue. As people settle in elsewhere, going back to NOLA will be inconvient. That would mean leaving jobs, leaving family, leaving a community. People resisted doing that when a Category 5 Hurricane beared down on them. It will be tougher still when there is nothing to go to.

We'll see. I've been wrong before. Maybe the professed adoration for the crime-filled, utterly corrupt city will bring people back in droves. It is such a draw to live in a city courting natural disaster by it's very existence in addition to being inhabited by the fear and despair associated with the highest per capita murder rate in the U.S. Sounds like paradise to me.