Live from the Nuke Free Zone

A couple of weeks ago, a Republican congressman from Louisiana, apparently known locally for his free-market philosophies, acknowledged reality and proposed a plan for New Orleans redevelopment: a federal agency, similar to the savings & loan bailout, would buy up damaged parcels from homeowners at decent prices, oversee cleanup, and either resell them or, if homeowners didn’t care to return, repackage them for new commercial or residential development. This came at an important time — the city has been struggling to find consensus on action to call for, attention is waning in Congress, and every day the city sits empty is another day its citizens put down roots elsewhere. Baker’s credentials let him go to China on this one, and he overcame the factionalism in the city and Congress, receiving wide support from most quarters:

Desperate for a big-scale fix to the region’s huge real estate problem, Louisiana officials and business leaders of all stripes - black and white, Republican and Democrat - have embraced this little-known congressman and his grandiose plan, calling its passage crucial. While the White House has yet to sign on, there are already signs that some Congressional leaders are interested in pursuing it; Mr. Baker said administration officials had not rejected it outright.

Well, yesterday the White House rejected it outright.

The plan had been described as “one of the few last best hopes out there for people whose homes were flooded, and had no flood insurance… Without this kind of help, there’s a very large number of people who are just sunk… Without it, homeowners have very little chance of realizing any of the equity they’ve lost.” The Administration’s rationale for rejecting a plan with support from both parties in both houses, and from the people of the region, and for which no better alternative has been yet proposed — especially by them?

“Bush did not want to create another bureaucracy.”

Because the ones that we’ve had so far have been so effective.

For reference, Baker’s plan is essentially a version of what are called land banks. Land banks are a new but growing tool being used by a lot of municipalities to improve land use in their communities: they buy up vacant and abandoned property, refurbish it when necessary, and either manage it themselves or resell it at attractive prices to people who will develop it in ways that fit the municipal growth plan. They’re not quite self-funding, but they’re cheap after their revenue stream is taken in to account, and they give a great benefit to the community in terms of avoiding dilapidated and decrepit lots. See here for more details; it’s still on the front page currently, search for “land banks” in the archives if you come in later.

It’s exactly the kind of agency New Orleans needs, the kind of big emergency project that even staunch privatization advocates recognize needs collective effort from the nation. Only someone convinced to his marrow that government is ineffective could possibly oppose it, and he did.

Hence we see the problem with electing people convinced that government is ineffective: they’ll find a way to be right.