The New Orleans disaster casts a harsh spotlight on the dismal features of what passes for infrastructure, environmental and transportation planning in the United States.  Consider:

· Class-based attitude toward transportation/official “windshield perspective.”  Despite New Orleans’ status as the most traditionally urban, least car-oriented city in the American south, the pre-hurricane evacuation order took absolutely no account of the 27.3% of city households that did not have access to a private motor vehicle (see gnocdc.org).  Transit-dependent citizens were abandoned to their fates by city and state governments and federal emergency managers.  Compare to remarks attributed to one New York suburban county executive that the local bus system is not a matter of transportation, but is rather a “social program.”  

· Infrastructure neglect.  Despite long-standing warnings about New Orleans’ vulnerability to a large storm (including in a relatively recent FEMA report), funding for basic flood prevention and control systems has been reduced rather than increased.  Compare to the recent federal transportation funding legislation, which authorized U.S. spending amounts over six years far below what any interested group says is necessary to prevent overall transportation system conditions from worsening. Compare also to the sinking city of Venice, Italy, where a national debate, scientific and engineering experimentation and major infrastructure investments to save the city have been underway for years. 

· Ostrich-like approach to environmental challenges.  Rising sea levels and warming oceans obviously pose increasing threats to coastal areas, making evacuation planning, flood management and a broad response to global warming urgent priorities instead of cause for post-catastrophe head-scratching.  Robert Kennedy Jr. posted a column on-line this week noting the irony of Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour’s role as a fossil fuel lobbyist as the Bush administration was organizing its policy priorities shortly after taking office.  Barbour helped ensure that the administration would take a hands-off approach to climate change.

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