links for 2009-01-15

No house should cost more than $150,000, of which, it was hoped, the new owners would be able to put up 85 percent from insurance and government disaster funds. Since most of the lots were long and narrow, just 40 feet wide, the houses would also have to be long and narrow. And since the entire Lower Ninth is in a danger zone, almost all had to be raised eight feet off the ground. To provide escape in a catastrophic flood, all were required to have a hatch in the roof. When Katrina’s waters rushed in, many people climbed into their attics. When the water continued to rise, some, unable to get out, drowned there.

"Each of us humans (in the developed world, at least) on average, in our lifetime, uses some 500 tons of sand and gravel, plus limestone, brick clay, and asphalt. From these we create our roads, houses, and foundations, schools, hospitals, restaurants, and multiplex cinemas. Together with the iron, steel, copper, plastic, this can, over the human generations and the centuries, pile up to form a great mass of material, for new houses tend to be constructed upon the rubble of the old. "