I'm from the government, and I'm here to help: A flawed scheme to save an island community from the rising sea

 Anyone exploring Louisiana's coastline knows climate change and rising sea levels are real. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Pelican State has lost 1,900 square miles of coastland since 1932. It continues to lose the equivalent of a football field every 100 minutes.

Thousands of Louisianians are being forced from their homes due to rising ocean water and skyrocketing property insurance rates. The federal government has offered various kinds of assistance to these beleaguered people, including Flood Mitigation Assistance grants to enable some homeowners to elevate their houses above the ever-encroaching water.

Unfortunately, the feds can't fix all our climate problems, as a recent story in the Baton Rouge Advocate illustrates. 

Advocate reporter Alex Lubben recently wrote an informative story about Isle de Jean Charles, an island community off the Louisiana coast. A casualty of the rising sea level, the island shrank from 35 square miles to a single square mile in recent years. 

Most of the Jean Charles population are members of the Jean Charles Choctaw Nation, and many moved to the newly created community of New Isle, located forty miles inland. A $48 million grant enabled 37 new homes to be built at New Isle for these "climate refugees,"  and the grant also paid for the New Isle dwellers' homeowners insurance for five years.

A happy ending, right?

 Unfortunately, many of the grant beneficiaries are unable to pay their property taxes and insurance. One New Isle resident said he planned to sell his truck to pay $4,000 in back taxes on his new home.

Let's do the math on this federal do-good project. Grant administrators spent $46,600,000 to build 37 homes--more than a million dollars per home. The Jean Charles islanders got the homes for free but many can't afford to maintain them. 

It would have been cheaper for the federal government to have given every Jean Charles household a million dollars and let them build or buy their own homes. But that model won't work either.

According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, 330,000 Louisiana homes will be at risk of chronic flooding by 2045 (as reported in the Advocate story). That's a fifth of all Louisiana households. Will the feds give all these homeowners a million bucks each to obtain new lodging? Not likely.

Disaster looms for thousands of Louisiana homeowners who live on the Gulf Coast, and the cost to move all these people inland is prohibitive. This a problem that the federal government can't fix.

One thing seems clear. In the coming years, only rich people will be able to live on the Gulf Coast, people rich enough to pay skyrocketing property insurance. If you're not rich, don't move there.

Photo credit: Times-Picayune and Ted Jackson

Post-Election Violence in Baton Rouge? Should You Buy a Shotgun and a Case of Spam?

I received a message on my Nextdoor app inquiring about the possibility of post-election violence in Baton Rouge. "Does anyone know if there are safety precautions in place in case of a riot after the election?" the writer asked. "I don't anticipate a riot, but I keep hearing things that 'may' happen."

The writer's post indicated she (or he) lived in the Riverbend neighborhood, an affluent suburb located near LSU in the Mississippi River floodplain. I can't image election-triggered violence in Riverbend's quiet, leafy streets, and I initially thought the messenger intended to be humorous.

I was tempted to respond that the writer should drive to Academy Sporting Goods without delay and purchase a home-defense shotgun and 200 rounds of buckshot. Then, I would continue, she should make her way to Costco and buy a case of Spam, a fire extinguisher, and at least four bottles of Makers Mark whisky—enough alcohol to make it through a couple of weeks of arson and rioting.

On reflection, however, I concluded that the messager was serious; she really wanted to know if municipal authorities were taking precautions in case Baton Rouge is engulfed by post-election rage.

So, here is my serious response. Baton Rouge has experienced some tense times recently with remarkable calm and civic dignity. The George Floyd killing sparked large-scale riots in several American cities, but not in Baton Rouge. The city's mayor and police chief responded calmly and sympathetically to race-charged events, and no one rioted.

Baton Rouge residents have legitimate things to worry about. The skyrocketing cost of property insurance may soon force people on fixed incomes out of their homes—particularly in flood-prone neighborhoods. Coastal erosion and environmental hazards are ongoing problems that Louisianians can't seem to solve, and our educational system has flaws everyone recognizes.

However, Baton Rouge residents will not riot due to the outcome of the presidential election. After all, this is a city of decent people with proper regard for law and order, for which we should all be grateful.

Not in Baton Rouge