Progress

Two pieces of news in the past couple of days highlight how far New Orleans has yet to go. Firstly, a census bureau survey concluded that City estimates as to how many people have returned were grossly overestimated. Travelling around the City, it is clear that those original estimates were wrong. With vast swathes of the City uninhabited, nay uninhabitable, it was clear that things were not as rosy as advertised.

The second piece of news is that barely 1% of the $7.5 billion designated to help residents return has been distributed, 2 months after it was supposedly supposed to start flowing. At this rate, it could be years (assuming the money remains available for that long) before a significant number are able to consider rebuilding.

If we are to catch up to City estimates of the population of New Orleans we need to cut through the red tape and get the return funds flowing. This is the same old story that has plagued the FEMA relief process from the beginning. No doubt the Dunce in Chief will continue to not live up to his promise, and will not step in to cut the red tape.