Nix Bits

So I put off reading E of We Could Be Famous’s analysis of the New Orleans School’s Master plan for the next 30 years. The local T-P proudly trumpeted the plan which calls for demolishing some 52 schools and construction on 28 over a 30 year period.

If one only reads the newspaper it all sounds good, but as always, the devil lies in the details.

And E takes on the details. Admittedly, I have been a little less keen on following all the ins and outs of the school system upheaval in New Orleans. I know it’s important but I don’t have children and there are so many other issues clamoring for my mental attention.

What E does is recognize that schools, like roads and other public facilities are resources that can only be provided by governments and they are critical to decisions about where and how we continue to rebuild. Doris Voitier, superindent of devastated neighbor St. Bernard parish understood this. And thus it is the holes in the RSD and school board plan that speak the loudest.

For flooded neighborhoods to recover, they need these types of basic social services. In order for businesses to open in damaged neighborhoods, they need to see that people will return. For people to return, they need to see that the government will extend the courtesy of basic social services.

…

Already-damaged neighborhoods starved of basic municipal services will only continue to flounder. Those still displaced from these communities will see little reason to rebuild and those that have already spend thousands to do just that will be stuck in the margins.

So it would appear that the this master plan either deliberately or through incorrect assumptions will backdoor the “shrink the footprint” notions of rebuilding put forth and rejected in previous planning efforts.

What is so bothersome about this is how disengenuous it all is. There continues to be no honest, open, transparent leadership about how we rebuild this city with limited resources. Except, of course, the leadership provided by the citizens themselves who understand the meaning of “ourselves, alone” in subtle shades that few outsiders can appreciate. So thanks E for putting it all out there.

Now go read it!