The Mayor of San Antonio

[yesdachi]

I saw the Mayor of San Antonio Texas on CNN last night.

He basically said that they would take as many displaced people as needed, he estimated around 25,000, and that they were welcome to stay as long as they needed. He even offered to let the displaced children go to school there. When asked how that was possible he said that the kids would share books and desks or do whatever needs to be done, kids need to be in school. He was also asked how they could afford all this help and he responded by saying that the city would pay for it now and figure out all the details later. He also mentioned that FEMA would reimburse much of it and that donations will help but it didn’t matter someone needs to do something and no one else is so we (san Antonio) will.

If fun he mentioned that he would not like to be the mayor of NO right now.

He seemed like a stand-up guy doing a good thing but I am not sure it is politically the smartest. Bringing an extra 25,000 extra “mouths to feed” into even a great city like San Antonio will be a burden that might not look too good on his resume after the next election. Anyhow, I hope it works out.

Any thoughts on how your city would handle an extra 25,000 people or what you would think of your mayor for doing something similar?

[lancelot]

I may not like the burden an extra 25000 people might bring but Id like to think Id be compasionate enough not to moan too loud.

[Don Corleone]

If you put people into group shelter/housing and feed them cafeteria style, it'd be a LOT cheaper than you think. I just don't know how long the residents will tolerate living in tents/stadiums/shelters.

[Red Harvest]

The large excess rentals here in the local area are gone. I know of one with about 500+ empty units two days ago that is now full. These are earlier folks who evacuated, not the ones in the Dome's etc.

Coming soon to a city near you... The number of evacuees is huge and they are going to be spread across the Southern U.S. 450,000 from New Orleans, probably another 300,000 or more in various other parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.

[KafirChobee]

Maybe we create our own little "Palestine" for them in the Mojave. J/K.

It is an increadible task. Something like the displacement of people during the depression (dust bowl era) - only all at one time, rather than the trickle and then steady stream of them. Today, it's just a flood of humanity. Saddest thing I have ever witnessed in this country (though the x-mas tsunami is still unparalleled for pure numbers suffering from a natural event).

Atleast the Mayor on San Antonio shows he has a big heart. Though I'm not sure about the wisdom of placing that kind of burden on his own populace will be thought highly of in the long term by his constituency. Still, since the estimates are in years rather than months to rebuild the areas affected - a dispersal of those unfortunate souls will be necessary on some scale (Army recruiters must be wetting their lips - j/k). We can't leave them in the Houston dome forever. Can we?

[Strike For The South]

They can all stay at my house ~:cheers: ~:cheers: ~:cheers:

[Productivity]

They can all stay at my house ~:cheers: ~:cheers: ~:cheers:

~:) ~:) Thanks SFTS, that's about the first smile I've had for a while. For some reason it just strikes me as a great way to say it!

[Devastatin Dave]

My Church is having meetings all this week and weekend to find what sort of living conditions we could provide. The problem is we are kind of far for the folks to get here (east of St Louis in O'Fallon IL.). They are looking into a possible bus convoy to go down there and see what can be done. We've helped numerous villages in Afirca and South America, I'm sure we can help some distant neighbors as well.

[Strike For The South]

My church is sponsoring ten families (I think not definite but probable) so three cheers ~:cheers: ~:cheers: ~:cheers: