Tierney’s column in the New York Times has several problems, but the biggest is the lack of understanding as to what concentrated poverty brings on a community. He compares New Orleans system of evacuation with that of the Hampton Roads area surrounding Newport News, Virginia.
From a small sampling of that area you have a poverty rate between 10-20% in the communities in that area. I’ll virtually guarantee the institutions even in the poor neighborhoods of that area are far stronger than those of inner-city New Orleans. The comparison is just silly. Perhaps you can make some reasonable comparisons to places like Jefferson Parish, but the type of debilitating concentrated poverty in New Orleans is nothing like the demographics in the area Tierney points out. It’d be fascinating to compare police protection per 1000 people and other numbers as well.
Furthermore, New Orleans didn’t have any fantasies about what would happen–they knew exactly the problem they had. They were attempting to mitigate that problem and frankly, were just starting some serious efforts when the hurricane hit. As a community that is apalling, but the treatment of the poor in that City has long been appalling. I’m somewhat relieved to know that someone was starting to pay attention. You certainly didn’t see that under former Mayor Morial.
And again, this isn’t to say that Ray Nagin did everything perfect, but this fantasy that New Orleans was blithely unaware and didn’t do anything is demonstrably false.