Levees Not War

See the Rising Tide blog here. Prepare to meet people you’re gonna like.

“In Levees We Trust.” Engineer Timothy Ruppert gave an excellent one-hour overview of Army Corps of Engineers repairs accomplished and planned through 2011. He compared Corps’ Louisiana work to flood protection systems in the Netherlands and London. Tim Ruppert is president of the Louisiana section of the American Society of Civil Engineers. Stay tuned-we’ll be writing more about Tim and his report soon.

Progressive sportswriter Dave Zirin, author of Welcome to the Terrordome, was the widely praised guest speaker. He drew surprising connections between big-money athletics (in which billionaire team owners coerce cities into paying millions in taxpayer dollars for new stadiums, etc.) and the predicament of underfunded New Orleans. See his piece on Rising Tide 2 in the Houston Chronicle here.

(more…)

Rising Tide 2, the second annual Katrina bloggers’ conference in New Orleans, is only a few days away: Aug. 24-26, with Sat. 25th the main event at the New Orleans Yacht Club (map here). RT2’s theme this year is “No Holding Back” (which we interpret as determination, efforts?-we hope they’re not referring to the levees). A $20 ticket gets you in to a gathering of bloggers, writers, activists, and more, all coming together to talk and brainstorm and organize actions on behalf of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast’s recovery. Kickoff is 7:00 Friday at Buffa’s on Esplanade (1001 Esplanade, corner of Burgundy). Tickets can be purchased through PayPal. Rising Tide’s toll-free phone number is 866-910-2055.

Organizer Kim Marshall says this year’s emphasis is on ground-level, grass-roots efforts. “It has become clear to us in south Louisiana that we will have to watch the watchmen, and take the upper hand in setting the city back on track. To that end, there will be presentations on local politics and how to influence them, making civics sexy, sustainability, levee engineering, and media outreach.”

(more…)