The next NOLA

Will the new New Orleans be built without the failings that doomed the city's previous incarnation? Probably not, according to the San Francisco Chronicle:

... if history, including San Francisco's experience in 1906, is any indication, the response will be a determined return to life -- with an emphasis on getting things done quickly, rather than getting them done right.

"Survivors don't want to take time and rethink the city. They want back what they've lost," said Stephen Tobriner, an architecture professor at the University of California who is writing a book that looks at the 1906 earthquake and fire.

In the abstract, it's easy to imagine a scenario in which New Orleans' storied history comes to an end: Why put a city of 485,000 people back into the middle of a narrow marsh between the nation's largest river and a 300-square-mile lake? Or why not wait until planners evaluate the best way to place a city in such an environmentally precarious location?

But in real life, neither scenario is likely.