And if you want to see the sun rise, build your window facing east...

Leave it to Da Paper to make what appears to be a valuable conference/panel discussion look like a bunch of goofs because of a stupid headline:

Rebuilding should begin on high ground, group says

If that's all this group did, they could have saved a bunch of money by just calling me. My extensive training in Secondary Education and lots of years working with computers makes me eminently qualified to proclaim that we should rebuild on high ground. What is it with Da Paper, they get settled back in on Howard Avenue and they go back to pre-Katrina stupidity.

Thing is, this conference did come away with some interesting recommendations:

Firing off a collection of bold ideas, the group also proposed creating a public development corporation that would buy and sell property to speed the city's redevelopment; establishing an oversight board with broad powers over the city's finances; and engineering a secondary flood-control network inside the city that would use natural ridges, levees, water reservoirs, and green space to stop widespread flooding.

This panel had folks on it who advised Los Angeles and San Francisco after their big earthquakes. We're talking about some intelligent people, and their ideas were well-received:

When the panel concluded its hourlong presentation, members of Nagin's commission said they were extremely impressed by the detail of the draft report and the panel's wealth of ideas. Although the ULI panel stopped short of advocating a merger of Nagin's commission and Gov. Blanco's Louisiana Recovery Authority, it did stress that city and state leaders must craft a single vision -- and move more quickly in their rebuilding efforts.

"I appreciate your bluntness," said commission co-chair Barbara Major. "You have challenged us to make more difficult and controversial choices. As my aunt used to say, 'God can put a ram in a bush.' There has to be some behavioral changes across the board. I think we just have to kick a little butt and do what we have to do."

Of course, there's a flat-earther who denies the obvious in every group. In this one, it's the Councilwoman for Da East, Cynthia Willard-Lewis:

While the proposal was immediately questioned by New Orleans City Councilwoman Cynthia Willard-Lewis, who represents eastern New Orleans and the Lower 9th Ward, others attending the panel's presentation were more receptive to the idea, but questioned whether the political will exists to make it happen.

It's interesting to watch a politician's brain explode when a trap door is sprung under her feet. Willard-Lewis can't visualize representing Da East without its majority-black population. Perish the thought that she'd move forward with whomever is willing to come back now.