Lakeview, New Orleans Citizens Ad

I would like to know what the message of the ad will be. What are the intentions of the ad? I can imagine what they might be, but I would like someone to explain exactly what it will be saying. Thanks!

I completely support this ad ands will donate but have reservations about the "toxic" mention. Being from the hospitality industry I know one of the biggest concerns for our tourists is the "toxic soup" the media burned into their minds. I have talked with many clients and heard this repeatedly. This is also a concern for our own citizens. If we don't lighten up on this point we will all lose in the end. We need tourism to rebuild this city. I also think there should be mention of the natural resources that we do not receive any benefits from as other states do. From what I have read this amounts to $150b since the Truman admin. If this ad gets the coverage from national media as we all suspect it will, we need to make sure our message is inviting. Who wants to waste money on a "toxic" city?

Sharon

Everyone in Washington knows we need to fix the flood protection issues. If we are going to move forward as a city or region. Congress has approved the millions needed to figure out the options for much stronger flood protection. That work is underway. They will not act on any new big dollar flood protection projects for us until they have that data. The message needs to drop the flood protection and the negative toxic verbage.

The message should be redrawn to make the case for rebuilding the entire region and why that is important to the world. That is the only issue on the table in Washington at this point. Rebuild a bigger safer New Orleans area or walk away from the area. That is what will be decided in Congress over the next few weeks.

We also need to move away from the white only Lakeview only approach. At least replace the old white lady with several ethnic faces. The picture the rest of the country has of New Orleans is already one of leave the poor people to drown then starve. The current add only reinforces the message that the middle and upper class in New Orleans are only concerned about themselves. This is killing us and your efforts will just add to the fire.

Great idea! Where can I see the ad in its completed form?

Thank you for taking the reins on this project.
We are very encouraged that we received attention from the news media -WWL-TV - to the looting problem. Since the Monday evening airing of our experience at our Canal Blvd. house, we have seen many police on patrol.
We are presently gutting our house and have plans to repair and refurbish. We are concerned that we will be one of the few in our block to 'owner occupy'. Hope many more continue to make Lakeview "home".
Tom and Darlene Schnatz

Since I am now a contributor, I don't feel guilty expressing my opinion ;^)

I agree with other forum posters who have suggested deleting the "toxic" references and asking specifically for "Cat 5" protection. "Cat 3" protection, properly constructed will likely be sufficient and more likely to get funding.

I fully support this ad and sincerely appreciate the efforts of Cherie, Dennis & his daughter and others that were involved in this. Debbie

I am so exicted about this ad, and hope that we can raise enough funds to run it, but I do think the message could be a little more compelling and ask the people of Washington for specific actions such as granting us 50% of Louisiana's oil and gas revenue to help restore our levees and wetlands. I think its important to ask for help, not handouts.

Where is the ad - why is so hard to find and read "our" ad?

I appreciate what you are doing and have donated but truly hope you will change the tone of the message. I believe the ad has a certain “whining” tone to it and would prefer a much more staunch approach. Such as a DEMAND for a fair consideration of oil and gas revenues so we may take care of ourselves. There is a great argument to be made that we have allowed the COE (and a US sanctioned oil industry) to plow our marshlands with the MRGO and over 7000 miles of pipeline canals. Not only has our safety been compromised, breading grounds for hundreds of species of seafood have been destroyed. We could go on and on regarding the value of the marshlands. The feds thought we were important enough back in the 60’s after Betsy to build a levy system. Look what they did. This did not have to happen. Our lives, the port, the seafood, the music, the culture are all still a vital part of the US. They just don’t get it. Please take this one opportunity to expose our lack of compensation of mineral resource revenue as compared to our neighboring states. I believe most of America will stand with us given a well articulated exposure of this inequity. These ongoing resources, along with the elimination of the levy boards, can provide a true Cat 3 levy system for now with a long term goal of Cat 5 protection. Again, thank you for your time and effort to our cause. Joe Lagarde

Congratulations to all of you, especially Cherie, Dennis, Art, Lakeview Civic on putting together an excellent plan for getting Washington's attention. The ad is great and I am very happy to contribute $500 towards this effort.

Jay Batt
New Orleans City Council
District "A"

The ad is available at nycnolahelp.org. It can be seen at the following address:

http://nycnolahelp.org/images/homebackad.pdf

As far as I know, this is the current version of the ad. It was received on 12-02.

If we raise over the amount required, can we work on a second ad?

How about "Long Live New Orleans" instead of "Long Live Lakeview"? Seeing the actual ad, it seems callous to the (less wealthy, less white) rest of New Orleans. I found out about this from an e-mail message from someone not from Lakeview, and I am not from Lakeview. Probably many other New Orleanians contributing to the ad are not from Lakeview; this may backfire as press could take a "wealthy white New Orleans residents buy ad to save their own neighborhood" angle.

How can I see the text of the ad?

i have lived in lakeview for most of my life and a long time ago decided that my dream would be to have a home in lakeview

i can't live anywhere else, i've tried.

i am coming home my wife and dog are coming with me.

we are broke and have no home right now but the only home we imagine is in our neighborhood, nowhere else.

we cannot donate more, we wish that we could

see you in lakeview soon

i have lived in lakeview for most of my life and a long time ago decided that my dream would be to have a home in lakeview

i can't live anywhere else, i've tried.

i am coming home my wife and dog are coming with me.

we are broke and have no home right now but the only home we imagine is in our neighborhood, nowhere else.

we cannot donate more, we wish that we could

see you in lakeview soon

I attended the January 11, meeting to hear about the Urban Plan. I have tried to get ideas out for 3 months that more directly address a process for home building and coordinated use of resources.

How can I get these ideas to the leadership of civic organizations like LCIA?

Ben Claassen
claassen@aol.com

Words from 21 slides on a rebuilding plan-- pictures tell 21,000 more words.
Example words...
Slide 1
The complex interaction of jobs, infrastructure, housing, education and quality of life (amenities) in this slide is termed as the “Urban Biosphere”. In nature, the set of animals, plants, and land, air, and water resources that support an interdependent living system.is a biosphere. In a city, people and other living things depend on the community resources to support life.

This plan is intended as an “idea starter” on how to rebuild residential property within a coordinated effort to build a new biosphere. One intent of this slide is to show that there is no single starting point and no way to choose what to do first. The design of the process and the work sequence will be critical to bring the “system back up” at a future date.
The elements are all related in that training and local jobs are the force to rebuild housing and to rebuild the damaged infrastructure while harnessing a powerful economic engine.

Slide 2
This slide and the next slide are a suggested set of steps that will provide assurance to property owners that they will be able to make sound decisions about the future of their property.
All owners will be contacted and required to commit to at least stabilizing their property, if not rebuilding. A complete database is essential to let other owners know that abandoned houses will not be their future neighbors. The rebuilding of infrastructure will be planned and timed based on the individual property owner plans.
.
The database and the New Orleans Flood Map will be used to direct resources to one neighborhood at a time with all neighborhoods processed in two years.

Slide 3
The implementation of the massive task of gutting, rebuilding, or clearing will be funded by a coordinated use of money from insurance settlements and other funding.
The plan envisions a large work force of past and future New Orleans residents who are willing to join a corps of workers. These workers will be offered free tent housing and provided food and medical attention during their term in the program. These work forces will attack the job of rebuilding whole sections of the city based on the owner plans in the database. Their work will be compensated and the money will be held in accounts for them to get a home and a new start after their work tour. The program will be designed to encourage rebuilding and home ownership.
With mass production, innovative construction, and a concentration of resources, the plan hopes to complete all houses in 36 months. Infrastructure will be rebuilt under the same coordinated effort.

Slide 4

The concepts in this plan were drafted to deal with an unprecedented degree of damage in Orleans and St. Bernard Parishes. The New Orleans Flood Map is one way to grasp the size of the problem. Visits to particular neighborhoods only add to the understanding of the required work scope.
No property owner can make a reasonable decision on what to do with their property without every owner working in coordination and mutual security for the future.

Slide 5
The Flood Map has a wealth of information. The water level at its peak directly tells the elevation of every block in the city. The three sources of water from failed levees provided huge lakes of still water all at the same level. If your street had 8 feet of water and my street, 5 blocks away, had 5 feet of water, my street is 3 feet higher than yours.
Rebuilding will require floodgates to prevent water from entering canals. Future levees must be designed and built of the same strength and height to prevent failure of the weakest link!

Full info if you email me!