Turd In The Pool

The Urban Land Institute has just finished making their presentation for the future of New Orleans to the Bring New Orleans Back Commission and some of their ideas, like the four-month moritorium on new building permits and the light rail system, have gone over like at turd in the swimming pool. At least according to the public comments going on right now.

It's not very often that residents of Lakeview and the Lower 9th Ward agree on anything, and when they do, watch out!

Their power point presentation is available online here.

UPDATE: I've had a chance to take a look at the ULI rebuilding proposal and most of it is not objectionable yet much of it seems pie-in-the-sky dreamed up by an eye-in-the-sky without much sensitivity to local sensabilities is probably what rubbed most people the wrong way.

Based on the public comments, peoples main objection is the misconception - at least according to the report - that people will not be allowed to rebuild their own homes. However, the report does go a long way to recommending that financing be made available for rebuilding. But, in order to the plan to be fully implimented, eminent domain will probably have to be invoked to achieve it's goal that is what gets people riled up.

If eminent domain is used to rebuild infrastructure that is determined locallyto be needed, you may not find the level of objection that you saw today where infrastructure is deemed to be necessary from outside.

As I've said before, rebuilding needs to be driven from within, not from without.

UPDATE: Breitbart.com has more.