New Orleans and its debris issue.
So much has been written and discussed about New Orleans lately that the "one-year-later" coverage could be described as gratuitous, I think. I would like to see more focus on moving forward instead of remembering the storm itself, and I think full-time residents would like some answers and some action in that regard as well. I can say that the news in NO is chock full of storm stories and stories about some aspect of the storm. Violent crime still rates pretty high, too. But it's mostly about the storm, what it did, what people are doing because of it, what the city is and is not doing about it, and on and on. Katrina still lives in a shadow world, lurking in the background, haunting everyone there.
Many are perplexed by the lack of movement toward a more speedy pick-up of debris; I simply submit that the scope of the problem is freaking HUGE. However, some little help from the city in areas starting to come back would really be helpful, like an assigned large trash item pick-up area. For starters, people all over New Orleans are struggling with what to do with large trash, still. As more and more people come home and rebuild, this problem isn't going to go away. I thought up a solution to it last week that I think could work, but you would need somebody at the city level to follow through with it.
First, assign an area where large trash items that ARE NOT a bio hazard can be dropped in large amounts, perhaps in a main street area, like the boulevard on St. Charles where the street cars aren't running, not yet. Regular household garbage is not allowed and violators will be fined. Ask people to drop their items there between Fourth and Fifth streets (as an example), and send the dump trucks over three or four days a week. Make this available for three months. Then close that site down and open another site for three more months. Put up signs telling people where the pick-up area has moved so they don't drop stuff there. It would be better to start these pick-up places in fringe neighborhoods just coming back online. And make it available to everyone dropping off big trash...no questions asked. Make it so finding these places is easy by putting notices in the Times-Picayune and sending press releases to the TV stations. Ask NOLA.com to put a permanent link up on the site to the large trash pick up schedule, a list of acceptable items, and a map. Yes, there are ecological problems to consider when making a temporary dump site, but at least you are getting help from the residents to help you clean up more quickly since they are meeting you half-way by bringing large trash to you instead of waiting around for the FEMA-large-item-pick-up-lottery to hit their block that day.
I hope that anyone reading this might take it to the right people and try to implement it. It may not be feasible, and I make no claims of understanding how hard getting anything going must be in Louisiana right now. But why not start with a pro-active campaign to get more people motivated and make it easier to get big stuff out of the way? Empower the people of New Orleans...help them help the city. Just doing this one little thing may get a whole bunch of things moving in the right direction. You never know.
Many are perplexed by the lack of movement toward a more speedy pick-up of debris; I simply submit that the scope of the problem is freaking HUGE. However, some little help from the city in areas starting to come back would really be helpful, like an assigned large trash item pick-up area. For starters, people all over New Orleans are struggling with what to do with large trash, still. As more and more people come home and rebuild, this problem isn't going to go away. I thought up a solution to it last week that I think could work, but you would need somebody at the city level to follow through with it.
First, assign an area where large trash items that ARE NOT a bio hazard can be dropped in large amounts, perhaps in a main street area, like the boulevard on St. Charles where the street cars aren't running, not yet. Regular household garbage is not allowed and violators will be fined. Ask people to drop their items there between Fourth and Fifth streets (as an example), and send the dump trucks over three or four days a week. Make this available for three months. Then close that site down and open another site for three more months. Put up signs telling people where the pick-up area has moved so they don't drop stuff there. It would be better to start these pick-up places in fringe neighborhoods just coming back online. And make it available to everyone dropping off big trash...no questions asked. Make it so finding these places is easy by putting notices in the Times-Picayune and sending press releases to the TV stations. Ask NOLA.com to put a permanent link up on the site to the large trash pick up schedule, a list of acceptable items, and a map. Yes, there are ecological problems to consider when making a temporary dump site, but at least you are getting help from the residents to help you clean up more quickly since they are meeting you half-way by bringing large trash to you instead of waiting around for the FEMA-large-item-pick-up-lottery to hit their block that day.
I hope that anyone reading this might take it to the right people and try to implement it. It may not be feasible, and I make no claims of understanding how hard getting anything going must be in Louisiana right now. But why not start with a pro-active campaign to get more people motivated and make it easier to get big stuff out of the way? Empower the people of New Orleans...help them help the city. Just doing this one little thing may get a whole bunch of things moving in the right direction. You never know.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home