[extropy-chat] Fill it in a pave it over

[Dan Clemmensen]

Adrian Tymes wrote:

>--- Dan Clemmensen <dgc at cox.net> wrote:
>  
>
>>Yes this approach would require writing off the
>>existing 
>>infrastructure in most of New Orleans (roads, sewers, utilities.) But
>>it's often cheaper to start from scratch than it is to repair old 
>>infrastructure.
>>    
>>
>
>Assuming you could buy out the entire city, or most of it.  While the
>government may have the legal right to force the sales (see recent
>eminent domain cases), even the US federal government might have a hard
>time coming up with that much money (without giving many people so
>little that it could credibly be called far below fair value/market
>price).
>  
>
No need to buy out anything. title for each parcel remains with each 
property holder.
The government just piles somewhere between three and twenty feet of 
gravel on top.
You lose the value of your improvements, but in a great many cases you 
already lost
most of the value due to flood damage. The really big buildings will 
lose the lower floor.
Most residences will be destroyed and rebuilt on top of the gravel. In a 
few cases, it will
be cost-effective to jack a house up and fill under it. In a few other 
cases, it will be cost-effective
for a home owner to build a private 3-foot levee and run a private pump: 
this would be
a decision made by the owner and the owner's insurer. But the government
would be out of the business of maintaining pumps and levees.