Katrina Memorial

Is this the best way to spend $3.5 million in New Orleans?

The simple answer is NO.

NEW ORLEANS -- Tucked inside a $14.4 billion blueprint for the rebuilding of New Orleans is a proposal for a Hurricane Katrina monument on a grand, "Homeric" scale, like the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

The idea is to honor Katrina's victims and the spirit of New Orleans, and create a tourist attraction.

But with many sections of the city still in shambles and only about half the population back 21 months after the hurricane, some question the need for a $3.5 million memorial, even if it is paid for mostly with private money, as proposed.

...The rebuilding plan is making its way through city approval processes. While the memorial is a far lower priority than upgrading drainage and reconstructing neighborhoods over the next decade, it is still listed among the top projects.

Troy Henry, project manager for the Unified New Orleans Plan, said planners believe — and the local arts community seems to agree — that a memorial would create a place where people could reflect on Katrina.

"It's something that's with us everyday, the remnants of it anyway, and I think it's affected so many people, not only the city and its fiber — its architectural and structural fiber — but also the fabric of the people living here," said Mary Len Costa, director of public art for the Arts Council of New Orleans.

A memorial to commemorate the victims of Katrina and honor the strength and determination of the survivors would be appropriate.

There's no question about it.

However, it's nuts for millions of dollars to be spent on a memorial when so much rebuilding still needs to be done in New Orleans.

There's plenty of time (forever) to create a memorial. The more pressing need at the moment is rebuilding homes, schools, hospitals, and other facilities destroyed by Katrina.

It took nearly 60 YEARS after World War II ended for a memorial to be constructed in Washington, D.C., recognizing the service and sacrifice of the millions of Americans who fought and the hundreds of thousands who died.

If it took that incredibly long to honor the World War II generation, surely a Katrina memorial can wait.

Building a monument in New Orleans has to be considered low on the priority list.

And whether or not funds for a Katrina memorial would come from private donations isn't the point.

Any funds rasied at this time, with storm victims still living in trailers and without permanent housing, would be better spent on rebuilding.

Ask those still homeless by the hurricane if they think that money should go toward a memorial at this stage.

Now isn't the time for $3.5 million to be directed toward a "tourist attraction," not when so many people have yet to put their lives back together.