The rich occupy the highest ground

[Judi Lynn]

Last update: August 30, 2005 at 11:26 PM
The rich occupy the highest ground
August 31, 2005 ED0831SIDE

New Orleans, surrounded by levees, is emplaced between Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi like a broad shallow bowl. Nowhere is New Orleans higher than the river's natural bank. Underprivileged people live in the lower elevations, and always have. The rich -- by the river -- occupy the highest ground. ... Every drop of rain that falls on New Orleans evaporates or is pumped out. Its removal lowers the water table and accelerates the city's subsidence. Where marshes have been drained to create tracts for new housing, ground will shrink, too. People buy landfill to keep up with the Joneses.

Jackson Square, in the French Quarter, is on high ground with respect to the rest of New Orleans, but even from the benches of Jackson Square one looks up across the levee at the hulls of passing ships. Their keels are higher than the Astro Turf in the Superdome, and if somehow the ships could turn and move at river level into the city and into the stadium they would hover above the playing field like blimps.

-- John McPhee, "Atchafalaya," 1989.

http://www.startribune.com/stories/561/5587662.html

[Lex]

1. In every city, small or large, generally the rich have the highest ground

and the poor are in the lowest, most prone-to-flood areas.

[Judi Lynn]

2. I'd never heard this until tonight. Very sad. n/t

[Lex]

4. My job is in the real estate industry and you're right

it is sad. And unfair. But it seems to be that way in every place I've ever lived.

[ultraist]

10. Housing for the poor is always in the worst locations for disasters

Except for the coastal vacation homes which are right on the beach.

Housing for the poor is also always closer to the nasty industrial zones.

[Skittles]

12. so they can look down on people

yes indeed

[MissMarple]

3. Well, yes.

Then there is St Louis and "The Hill", the Italian neighborhood. But, that area isn't prone to flooding. :) Go figure.

[achtung_circus]

5. True, except for beach front.

Few paupers on Malibu.

[SeattleGirl]

7. And on lakefronts and other waterfronts in Seattle

I have to say, in all fairness, that in the mudslides we've had in Seattle, it's often the wealthy who lose everything when their houses get pushed down into the water by a wall of mud. A couple of years ago, a whole family was buried alive in a midslide. Thus showing that no matter how much money you have, you still are not immune to Mother Nature, and no, I don't mean that as a sarcastic statement. It was very sad when that family died -- I did not care what their financial status was, they were dead just the same in a very awful way.

[phusion]

6. I dunno...

I saw some really large mansions on WDSU today that were flooded up to their roofs. They obviously aren't on higher ground...

[NYC]

11. Everything is flooding now,

except Algiers. Since the pump at 17th St. failed, the whole city will flood. I don't know why Algiers is exempt.

[SlipperySlope]

8. Highest ground is usually Oldest ground

Highest ground is usually the first developed, and therefore the oldest "upper crust" neighborhoods. More marginal (lower) ground isn't developed until later.

[tx_dem41]

9. Not true at all for a lot of New Orleans....

the Lakefront areas have some of the newer and richer homes in the city and they are underwater...and the WB has mainly lower and lower middle class homes and they are dry right now (except for one area of richer homes...that are underwater).

It only holds true that the Uptown area (which ranges from upper to lower class homes) is on higher ground.