i am glad someone is saying it. if we are to finance a city to be rebuilt, we should be do it responsibly. after the 1900 hurricane in galveston they raised the whole city up and built the seawall which now requires a 18' storm surge. why should a city that not could but WILL go through this again. not only that why should we the public rebuild it with money that is already being used to rebuild countries like afganistan and iraq.

i don't want to be seen as a guy who doesn't care...but at the same time we are very emotional and just want to rebuild...with the same reslove as rebuilding the WTC. one day we will realize that the earth really is more powerful than us.

so naturally what is the real solution with what to do with NOLA?

i think maybe go with what has worked best with the city...let is be a vacation spot...and that is it. that way it keeps the historical...including the historical flood. and each investor coming in knows what they are doing...what are the costs and benefits. and they take it...not us...

what is your opinion?

we should definitely rebuild more responsibly, absolutely. the point about NO geography is right-on.

i am a bit amused by the offhand, casual manner in which things like "regional government" and "50-cent gas tax" are tossed out there. i love the way liberals love spending someone else's money. of course, "conservatives" these days seem to have the same romance with big government. they're just spending the money on the "wrong" things.

I don't disagree with the guys assessment of problems with New Orleans. I even like his solutions of turning the sprawl back to the swamps, etc. It's just those last two paragraphs I take issue with.

Not sure where he says the US refuses to regulate carbon emissions. The US has the highest standards for emissions in the world. Our vehicles are the cleanest running in the world. If you want to regulate emissions based on how much our population can travel you want nothing more than to create state not too short of communism that isn't America.

I agree that sprawl has been subsidized. Part of that is thanks to low gasoline taxes, but higher taxes alone will not stop sprawl. If you want to really stop sprawl stop all the real estate loopholes. Don't let people deduct mortgage interest from their taxes. Make people pay capital gains on all home sales. Have the fed tighten interest rates and quit giving away money.

I'm all for increasing gasoline taxes to fund public projects, but I'm not for a massive increase to just fix New Orleans. How about funding a decent interstate high speed rail network, rather than bailing out airline after airline. Just gradually push up that tax. A 50 cent increase would push this country and the rest of the world headlong into a deep recession. That's why I say cut sprawl using other methods.