ideas worth stealingAll dollars, no sense
Three years after Katrina, the house in this photograph sits right where the flood waters swept it, across the street from where it was built.
We saw several others like it. But more importantly, we saw a huge number of empty lots where homes no longer even exist. Where nothing is being built to replace them. Where the government has left a community for dead.
A tour of the lower 9th ward in New Orleans (NOLA) reveals that thousands of homes were wiped out and have never been replaced. The upper 9th is seeing new development, but the lower 9th sits just as it has for three long years.
After all this time, three of the top five stories on the local news last week were still about the after effects of the storm. One was about a neighborhood that has still not been fixed up, and a long-delayed plan to do anything about it.
But here’s the kicker.
Another story on the news that night was about a temporary relief plan to lower gas prices a bit over the next few months. During the story, a city official revealed that NOLA could most certainly afford the budget hit that would result from the plan. You see, New Orleans has a 1 billion dollar budget surplus.
He almost smirked as he said it. As though it were laughable that anyone would even ask if the city could afford the plan.
A local told us that the only real way to make a difference in NOLA through donations is to donate directly to Habitat for Humanity.
All that other money that’s been donated? Yeah, that didn’t necessarily go to reconstruction. It went into a budget surplus. It may help some people save a little cash on gas for a little while, but it won’t help the 200,000 people who were displaced by Katrina and have never returned. It won’t help the people who got less money from the government as they should have and couldn’t afford to build new houses in the place they used to call home.
The system was probably not designed to fail this badly. But it has. And no one seems to be doing anything to get it back on track.
Tell me something, Mr. City Official. How is it that the NOLA government, working in conjunction with FEMA, can have that much money in your pocket and not one iota of common sense between you?
When systems fail, we need to get them back in order. It doesn’t matter if you’re a government, a non-profit, or a web startup. When your system fails, so do the people who put their trust in you.
If the system continues to fail—if your constituency continues to fail—you’re done. Finito. You’ll never earn that back.
If your job is to help people succeed, you’d be wise to remember to do it.
Posted by Robert on May 5th, 2008
2 comments
I am somewhat surprised at the lack of comments on this post. I know it seems to be a bit off topic but it is a major concern even to web development. It kind of proves the point in my mind that no one wants to take responsibility for anything anymore. It always seems people constantly step up to the plate to hit the homerun but when they strike out, they blame the pitcher or the bat maker.
If there is one trait I hope to carry with me through my career it is my undeniable ethic of responsibility. No matter how bad the cost or the outcome I will take responsibility for my actions and doings, be they personal or professional. I take pride is saying I made a mistake but I also take pride in standing by my decision because I know it was the best decision I could have made at the time.
Thanks for posting this, even though it seems to not have garnered attention from the development community. I feel it holds a very important underlying trait which means a lot in our industry were the majority of us work as freelancers or sole proprietors. Responsibility, tell your kids it isn’t a dirty word.
@Lee -
Alas, the world seems to have forgotten about old NOLA. Katrina is old news.
You know, unless you live there.