Somewhere around $12 billion in grants will be available to rebuild the housing stock. Issuing the money to individual homeowners based on the extent of the damage to their homes is the prevailing political idea.  Is this the best way? Especially in Orleans? Is anyone considering alternatives?

The $12 billion would become windfall cash for a few who would use the money to flee the area. Others would rebuild causing a construction bonanza for another few builders in the area. Prices for labor and supplies would be double and triple national norms until the money was exhausted and the job less than half done. The city will emerge as a hodge podge. Some areas will be blighted, some developed and most mixed. How that will attract national and international business interests is beyond understanding.

Efforts to reconstruct the city need to focus on the areas we can protect and use methods that will survive the likely events.  Motivation to build on high ground inside the 1898 footprint of the city would make sense. Writing checks to rebuild in St. Bernard and Ninth Ward may be politically pleasing, but from a rational point of view it doesn't make sense until the wetlands are restored.

And what about the landlords. They are being left out. Payments are only for the primary residence. Once again "sticking it to the fatcats" may be politically pleasing but it is decidely not the right appoach. And it leaves the renters out in the cold.

$12,000,000,000 used well, could secure free luxury housing for generations. For that kind of money everyone displaced by the storm could have condo type living in luxury structures for ever and the city would achieve densification with its existing population. Safe high rise luxury apartments and condos would redefine the city. Surround them with parks and playgrounds and imbed the schools. "Manhatten South" would be an alternative for the city that would offer a vastly different future than the dismal one we face. Offering a future would encourage private developers and offer a multiplier effect that could vast expand the impact of the $12 billion.

Providing incentives for people to rebuild in smarter ways is how the money should be used.