Huey Long

He wanted a five cent per barrel oil tax to fund social programs. He was impeached because of such impertinence.

Some people call Detroit Metro the example of the unsustainable way of life that Americans relished in for the last sixty years. Detroit isn't sinking into the gulf of Mexico. Gustav won't be much more powerful than Katrina was, and it won't hit New Orleans dead on. Still, the writing is on the wall.

It doesn't matter what great music and culture there is in a place that is literally below sea level. The end is coming.

The only way to save New Orleans is to abandon it. Simply put, the commerce that flows through the port of New Orleans must be maintained. As such, the Mississippi must be let off of its leash.

The myriad flood abatement programs that have been enacted have quite literally become victims of their own success.

The mud no longer flows down the Old Man. We are losing a football field's worth of land AN HOUR to the gulf of Mexico. This is untenable.

We must acknowledge that unless we make the business of New Orleans to raise itself above sea level, that there is no future for the city.

We can do it, but it will come at a cost. Quite simply, New Orleans would have to not be a place to live, but in effect the largest public works site in history. For years. Perhaps decades.

Commerce will flow. The oil will flow. The food? The Music? The culture?

Move it about fifty miles north.