Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Hurricanes, followed by greedy developers

News that New Orleans officials are considering suspending planning and zoning regs to allow quaint historic homes to be replaced with suburban tract boxes reminded me (by contrast) of Warsaw, Poland. Visiting the city center in 1984, I learned that what looked like 17th and 18th century buildings were less than 40 years old. Old Warsaw had been destroyed in World War II, but immediately afterwards the surviving residents rebuilt it, with many squares, palaces and culturally significant streets recreated exactly as they had been before the war.

1 comment:

  1. Call me a pessimist, but I am doubting that New Orleans is gonna look half as good as it did.

    I'm guessing it's going to be one wasteland of tents, garbage, and unused FEMA equipment.

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