I am not an engineer and I could have written the editorial, “The Reshaping of New Orleans Is a National Problem”. My point is that the essay requires no knowledge of engineering. It is a political document.
Most disturbing is your diagnosis of the causes of New Orleans’s situation. All of your symptoms are attempts to lay blame on the local population. I can assure you that the poor decisions about levee design, oil and gas development, and “overdevelopment” were made by national institutions and individuals. Also, the daily choices of Americans to build a national “culture” that serves mostly as a support system for cars and the consumption of fossil fuels are playing an enormous role in the destruction of my home city.