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New York, 12:26 AM
Sun Nov 29
9 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/28/09
If it were up to me, we'd bulldoze anything that isn't historic or commercially necessary and relocate it all to somewhere in Mississippi.
11/28/09
11/28/09
As for the NYC architect quoted in the story... I'm guessing Mr Pitt didn't choose one of his designs.
11/28/09
The residents seem happy enough, aside from being asked about Pitt all the time by reporters.
11/28/09
11/28/09
I know some folks with houses around a hundred years old and back then, at least on this particular island chain, houses were built with plugs in the floor; When the water rises, you pull the plug and the house floats. But, whenever one of them wanted to put another house in the backyard, it had to be built on stilts.
The article mentions a floating house, but the writer doesn't explain the technology. Though I'd assume that it would satisfy flood insurance because if not, then we all could eventually pay.
11/28/09
I do think Pitt should be lauded for his efforts, however, a green home can be built in any style. Perhaps he is guilty of forcing his architectural style on this neighborhood, when he could have built homes that blended in with the culture of New Orleans a bit better. But I haven't seen any other celebrities trying to help, or the government for that matter.
11/28/09
11/28/09
11/28/09
I just find it funny how some of the critics seem to be acting like this is all some big pose by Pitt and the architects he's working with, as though the architectural answer to this challenge, by several contemporary architects/firms, doesn't qualify as worthy of some amount of respect. Instead, we're supposed to live with an answer like "Well, we can just build them to look like the old houses, but make them green and weather resistant."
But this situation presents a great opportunity, one that rarely arises, in which architects get to come in and ask "What would a purely functional house look like in New Orleans?" They aren't being asked to design gaudy palaces, entirely without regard to practical limits. In a way, these houses, if taken as the summary judgment of the contemporary architects involved with making them, epitomize ideal New Orleans architecture, because they are being designed from the ground up specifically to work for that place. Who are we to thumb our noses just because they don't look quite like anything else around them? How well did all those old houses stand up to the task of, oh I dunno, not absolutely being demolished in floods?
11/28/09
Clearly, Pitt was the one who chose the designs - thus his style, preference, choice, pick, selection, etc.
11/28/09
11/28/09
11/28/09
And there is nothing wrong with that. He saw a chance to combine his passion for architecture with his desire to help rebuild and construct green homes. But he did have an aesthetic in mind and he would never deny it.
11/28/09
I think that, if it's a question of whether or not Pitt said "I need you to make affordable, green, sustainable housing ideal for these weather conditions, BUT they also have to look ultra-modern and quirky or it's a dealbreaker," that most certainly didn't happen.
11/28/09
11/28/09
11/28/09
11/28/09
08/30/09
08/30/09
08/31/09
08/31/09
08/30/09
stories like this take lots of time -- years if it's one person; fewer months but as many person hours if it's a team
it's not whether blog or newspapers can do this best: it's who has the resources
a brokeass newspaper will no more produce coverage this deep than a blogger sitting at starbux with enough resources to get another latte
time is money, money is time, and the time and money required to support magisterial work like this are in short supply everywhere now -- print, broadcast and blogs alike
the business model pro publica is putting together is an interesting one
i am in favor of any model that puts out work like this, as soon as possible and as much as possible
the value of this piece in particular is enormous
-- real accountability for the failed federal presence, and markers for how to do it right
-- identifying publicly a gap in healthcare emergency services thinking that put the staff as much at risk as the patients: medical academics and planners take note
08/30/09
We're so fuckity-fucked if mainstream media orgs cannot fund such stories. Deeply and thoroughly fucked.
08/30/09
08/30/09
W.
Bush --- never forget.
08/30/09
Blaming GWB for all of the evils of the world is awfully simplistic. Yes, his agencies did not respond quickly enough to provide relief. I seriously doubt that GWB doing a fly over would have positively impacted the situation.
As to the cause, there are a lot of state, local, and federal officials to blame.
08/30/09
As a matter of fact, we know for certain that GWB doing a flyover would in no way help the situation (other than to help usher him and his friends from power).
08/30/09
08/30/09
This is my experience, but to be the ultimate caregiver in these condition for such ill folks must have been horrific. Not to mention the clusterf*ck of government bureaucracy at the time, who can forget dubya peering out his Airforce 1 window or his mama quiping to the Houston refugees "The're better off now" or some such nonsense.
Knowing what I know, had I been in that hospital, I would have begged to be put down.
08/30/09
You cannot kill people because you do not feel like carrying them down the stairs or waiting around for someone else to do it, no matter how tired you are or how long the lights have been out and the toilets stopped up.
And the people did not "beg to be put down."
Read the story.
08/31/09
08/30/09
Or the health care story.
This article, along with Sam Donaldson's grilling of Liz Cheney on ABC today, give me some hope for the future of journalism. (though Sam is going to be eligible for one of those death panels soon, so I guess it's Sheri Fink to save the profession.)
08/30/09
also:
-- healthcare
-- war
-- the safety net
08/31/09
By no means am I saying such things are the answer, but if anyone is interested in donating toward these kinds of stories, a mechanism and model does exist.
08/20/09
08/20/09
08/20/09
08/20/09
08/20/09