Re: Eminent domain and N.O.

>For what it is worth, in regards to my choice of "sieze"...I know that
>the land must be paid for, but what is land that is flooded or subject
>to flooding worth? Sure as hell not as much as it is going to cost to
>meet the demands of the Mayor and Governor of La.

The land was subject to flooding long before the recent hurricanes,
and it was worth a lot then. This is true for most of the Gulf
coast and a good portion of the eastern coast of the USA. Yes,
currently a good chunk of New Orleans has a lot of toxic stuff in
it that needs to be cleaned up.

>They moved everyone out of Love Canal for their own protection. Surely
>the same could/would hold true of an area that caused the deaths of so
>many people.

What caused the deaths? Certainly not the *AREA*! (Unless you're
claiming it's now *haunted* and this will cause more deaths). Love
Canal was a problem because of the toxic materials there which were
not known earlier and they weren't present elsewhere. The threat
of hurricanes has been well known for a long time, and just because
a hurricane struck once doesn't make it more probable that it's
going to strike there again.

You might have a point about portions of New Orleans below sea level
which are now heavily contaminated with toxic materials. I don't
know what it will take to clean that up, or how difficult it would
be compared to Love Canal. And what's so toxic? Is it just gasoline
and other oil products released from flooded gas stations and oil
storage tanks? Or is it a lot deadlier?

Gordon L. Burditt
.