LOUSIANA CONGRESSMAN WANTS THE FEDS TO BUY-OUT NEW ORLEANS KATRINA VICTIMS

NYTIMES:

Representative Richard H. Baker, a Republican from suburban Baton Rouge who derides Democrats for not being sufficiently free-market, is the unlikely champion of a housing recovery plan that would make the federal government the biggest landowner in New Orleans - for a while, at least. Mr. Baker's proposed Louisiana Recovery Corporation would spend as much as $80 billion to pay off lenders, restore public works, buy huge ruined chunks of the city, clean them up and then sell them back to developers.

Desperate for a big-scale fix to the region's huge real estate problem, Louisiana officials and business leaders of all stripes - black and white, Republican and Democrat - have embraced this little-known congressman and his grandiose plan, calling its passage crucial. While the White House has yet to sign on, there are already signs that some Congressional leaders are interested in pursuing it; Mr. Baker said administration officials had not rejected it outright.

I love New Orleans. I think it is imperative to keep the STATE and LOCAL government OUT OF reconstruction; the federal government is less corrupt than either. BUT THIS PLAN IS A COLOSSAL MISTAKE, TOO. It's too statist.

I think, the best way to quickly redevelop New Orleans, would if the the local and state governments used KELO.

YUP: KELO. They should condemn huge swathes of destroyed real estate and then sell it to PRIVATE DEVELOPERS who would have to pay market price and then redevelop it according to an urban develoment plan approved local, state, and federal governments.

THIS WOULD NOT COST THE TAXPAYERS A PENNY.

I hated the KELO decision. But it is the law of the land. I love New Orleans - and want to see it beautifully rebuilt - more than I hate KELO.