That?EUR??,,????'???s right, just two years ago; the city of New Orleans was awash in landscape architects, celebrating the historical significance of that grand city. Now the city is awash but the landscape is disastrous.

What of the planning of such a great city . . . What is it that drives us to even want to build a city in a low lying swampish area and then dig a little deeper so that the city ends up 20 feet below sea level . . . at the boundary of the sea?!?

Is it the levies that failed? Or is it the planners, who presumed that man could beat back Mother Nature, that failed? Look at the cost to the citizens of this country for the failed attempt to develop a system to hold back the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico . . . Why do we have to bear the burden of rebuilding an area where they basically hung a noose around their necks and then were surprised that it hurt when they slipped . . .

Hold back the mightiest river in the nation and the most hurricane-prone sea in the world . . . With concrete walls and a few dozen pumps . . . What?!?

This is a major tragedy for the individuals who have suffered so greatly, but it is also a tragedy for the rest of the country in how it will affect our lives in the future. For instance, with all the destruction there will be a large and prompt demand for building materials. This will work against current supply problems for wood, steel and concrete. This will drive up prices and slow many of your projects and raise consumer prices for almost everything . . . Just one topical example of the nationwide affect from poor planning.

I keep hearing how the Army Corp of Engineers didn?EUR??,,????'???t have the funds to shore up the levies . . . But why wasn?EUR??,,????'???t that money allocated for raising the level of those flooded parts of the city? Why were people allowed to build in such an area? Where are the city/land planners who pushed through these developments?

Sometimes land planning issues are strictly localized . . . Sometimes they affect the entire country. At what point does a local ordinance become a national hazard? At what point does concern for the nation?EUR??,,????'???s security override the demand to build in a flood plain?

This event affected all of us in many ways . . . Those decisions cannot remain in the hands of a mayor or a city council. At the very least there should be a state – if not multi-state – council to oversee responsible development in these disaster prone regions.

Landscape Architects, if not at the front of this discussion, should at least be in the room. Land planning can no longer be looked at as just traffic patterns and sewage lines. A new emphasis should be placed on the analysis of the potential for predictable natural disaster . . .

Sure there could be an earthquake that would split the California coast, but that is unpredictable. That there will be another hurricane to hit New Orleans and that the Mississippi will overflow again is predictable.

Hopefully, there is a development lesson here that will be learned and applied in the future. You, as landscape architects, can have a positive effect on this discussion . . .

Hopefully, too, as we gather in Fort Lauderdale we will still be discussing the New Orleans tragedy . . .

Not the next one . . .

?EUR??,,????'??+God Bless