Invite the best and brightest to compete for a grand prize to come up with designs, including new zoning, building codes and so forth, for New Orleans that could make it safe from water, and let the state and city pick the plan that works best for Louisiana.
Venice, Italy, survives 365 days out of every year in water; New Orleans can survive a few days of water if it has to.
The immediate, highest priority need, in my humble opinion, is that we build quickly the interim structures that can channel water away from population and businesses in the New Orleans area.
New Orleans has to learn to live with water rather than in fear of water, and we need a master plan that shows us how to do this. It's so critical that we send a signal to everyone in the country that we're serious about rebuilding New Orleans.
And if citizens of New Orleans who are really contemplating coming back heard that we're really intent upon making the place secure again - regardless of whether the levees held or not - then I think a rebuilding process would really take shape.
We want to make sure that the people of New Orleans have a right to vote and to be active in their city's elections. We will be down in New Orleans on Election Day to make sure that the process is fair and that no one will be left out.
For a while I was living in New Orleans for like 4, 5 years. I had just come back to town.
And we live in a French Quarter a lot of the time, in New Orleans. And the camaraderie of everybody there. Everybody takes care of each other.
New Orleans won't be safe from another storm like Katrina until we restore this hurricane buffer.
New Orleans will not be safe from another disaster like hurricane Katrina unless we begin to restore this natural hurricane buffer.