Quotations Weblog

There is a lot of finger pointing going on. I’ve seen fingers pointed at the politicians in office that voted to forego the levee repair and strengthening. I’ve seen fingers pointed at President Bush for his apparent lack of empathy. I’ve seen fingers pointed at the war in Iraq blaming it for the lack of helicopters. I don’t see anyone pointing their fingers at themselves.

When Mike and I bought our first condo, we attended the yearly condo association budget meeting. The association was trying to raise condo fees to pay for the soon to be necessary improvements. The condos were over twenty years old. Some of the balconies were precarious. The swimming pool was in disrepair. The windows were aluminum frame and leaked air like they were screens. You’ve never seen an angrier bunch of retirees. They didn’t want to pay one penny more in condo fees and they were willing to argue and scream and threaten the board members.

We kept that condo for three years. We sold at the height of the market right before the Olympics and got top dollar for a condo with a rotting balcony. The president of the board resigned in frustration and the new board members adopted a strict, “Don’t fix it unless they threaten to sue” policy. We got out of there before it was obvious that things were falling apart all around us.

Mike and I took a drive through the condo park last week. They have replaced those dangerous balconies with cheap vinyl fencing that is neither aesthetic nor secure. The air of decay has set into that once lovely neighborhood all because the owners of the association didn’t want to raise the condo fees.

I suspect something similar happened in New Orleans. Politicians try their best to do what their constituents want. The fact that National Geographic was able to predict this disaster with such accuracy means that no one was really in the dark about the danger.