Friends of New Atlantis

After months of breathing toxic fumes emanating from the thousands of refrigerators lined up on the neutral grounds and sidewalks of the Crescent City, city leaders are flying high and dreaming big as they put together a blueprint for its rebirth in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, considering such audacious ideas as re-creating a long-gone jazz district, building a network of bike paths and commuter rail lines, and establishing a top-flight school system.

A commission appointed by Mayor Ray Nagin unveiled a collection of ideas that could become part of the master plan for rebuilding this devastated city.

At the heart of the proposals is one critical, and controversial, recommendation: All parts of the city -- even the devastated Lower Ninth Ward and other neighborhoods that were submerged to their rooftops -- should be given a chance to rebuild.

At times the meeting became acrimonious, with one angry Lower Ninth Ward resident, pointing his finger at members of the Bring New Orleans Back Commission and accusing Joseph Canizaro, the urban planning committee chairman and a prominent New Orleans developer, of plotting to take land from people.

Another resident said: "I don't think it's right that you take our properties. Over your dead body."

The Urban Land Institute caused a stir late last year when it issued a report urging the city to put its resources into rebuilding areas that were not flooded. The institute warned that if New Orleans tried to rebuild everything, the city would be condemned to a slow, patchwork recovery.

New Orleanians, never known from listening to anybody’s logical advice, were elated to hear the City Council’s solution to bring protection from flooding to the hardest hit areas of the city. Effective June 1, which is the beginning of hurricane season, the Lower Ninth Ward will be officially known as the Higher Ninth Ward. Central City will be renamed Central City Heights, and East New Orleans will become the Upper East Side of New Orleans.

Another idea is to use tax credits to re-create Storyville, the city-backed red-light district that operated for 20 years until it was shut down in 1917.

The idea, of course, is not to bring back the sex trade in its original form. Instead the idea is to make the area into a musical district with recording studios, perhaps a jazz museum and live music venues. Special projects will be set aside where the Conservative Wing of the Republican Party, The Religious Right and FEMA will take care of screwing the proud dwellers who call this third world slum home. Storyville, which was next to the French Quarter, was razed after it fell into disrepair. Arata, the music and film subcommittee chairman said, “New Orleanians have always fallen for a good song and dance.”