Comments on: When Did the Media Stop Distringuishing Between Facts and Guesses?

By: John Dewey

John Dewey — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 15:06:52 +0000

"Those who own homes have an incentive to return"

The incentive for homeowners in the Lower 9th Ward - where the federal government decided that borrowers did not need flood insurance - is probably very close to zero.

"And if other taxpayers, through the good offices of "the government", will subsidize your dwelling, why not return?"

Because they've discovered that government will subsidize their dwelling wherever they wish to live.

By: Angus S-F

Angus S-F — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 06:08:34 +0000

From the wording in your blog posting (and the article cited): “But people who … own homes … are more likely to have returned to the city than others”. I suspect this might be because they have something lose by leaving. If you don’t own a home, then you’re a renter, and you have no equity in your dwelling place. Those who own homes have an incentive to return, even if it’s small. And if other taxpayers, through the good offices of “the government”, will subsidize your dwelling, why not return?

By: jpt

jpt — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 18:44:34 +0000

Thank you for assuming it a typo — I almost always spell neighborhood rite.

By: Reformed Republican

Reformed Republican — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:56:12 +0000

Also, aren’t there people still leaving in hotels and trailers on the taxpayers’ dime. Why would they move back to places where they actually have to pay for their home?

By: John Dewey

John Dewey — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:32:41 +0000

The facts in this article, though perhaps correct, are misleading. The city of New Orleans was predominately black both before Katrina and today. Like those in most metropolitan areas, the suburbs of New Orleans were and still are predominately white. The last demographics I've seen show that the black segment of the Greater New Orleans population declined from 31% to 22% from 2005 to 2007.

One simple reason all the poor blacks have not returned to New Orleans: the New Orleans City Council voted to destroy rather than restore most of the Lower 9th Ward housing projects rendered unliveable by Hurricane Katrina. For many of the poor, there was nothing to move back to. The free housing they had learned to depend on was just not there anymore.

One more reason blacks may not have returned to New Orleans Lower 9th Ward: few homeowners there had flood insurance. Pre-Katrina Federal insurance maps had placed the Lower 9th Ward outside the high-risk flood districts. The Feds had assumed the levees would protect this area from flooding, and so lenders were not required to force home owners to obtain flood insurance.

Finally, it is important to note that the free market would have depopulated the Lower 9th Ward anyway following disastrous flooding during 1965's Hurricane Betsy. But the socialist government of LBJ stepped in with community development grants and housing projects, ensuring that this overwhelmingly Democratic sub-community survived. IMO, many of the Katrina deaths can be blamed on the LBJ-directed re-population of this lowest lying, highest risk sector of New Orleans.

Witness the miracles of central planning!

By: dearieme

dearieme — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 11:23:49 +0000

Let ‘em eat moose.

By: Larry Sheldon

Larry Sheldon — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 20:57:34 +0000

Oh. To answer the question.

The press has not changed much in my life time.

"Dewey Wins"

By: Larry Sheldon

Larry Sheldon — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 20:55:32 +0000

I'm with you.

(But I think there are some typo's that need fixing.)

By: jpt

jpt — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 20:06:18 +0000

Personally, i’m buying your view. I remember reading numerous post Katrina newspaper acticles about people moved to Houston, Atlanta, etc. who within two weeks of the storm had found better jobs, nicer apartments, in safer neiborhoods with better schools. Why would they go back?

By: ErikTheRed

ErikTheRed — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 19:24:52 +0000

In (weak) defense of the article, Mr. Frey does seem to be some sort of an expert on demographic trends in large cities and is probably more fit than most to engage in conjecture on the subject. That being said, as you pointed out the article is all speculation, no facts, and single-sourced.