Progress Maps

If you haven't already, you should check out maps created by the city showing all sorts of information on flood recovery progress. Above is a screen grab of the map, which details property acquisitions, demolitions - with pop-up data on every icon - and overlays of the 2008 flood zone, FEMA flood plains and proposed flood protection zones.

Maybe it's been around and I missed it, but I spent some time playing around with it today. For those who argue repeatedly that the city needs to "clear the flood zone," this is pretty good visual evidence that a lot of that is happening, especially in what FEMA considers the 100-year flood plain.

The big question is, what happens to these neighborhoods, especially in the 500-year zone, in the future? Proponents of flood protection argue that it's needed to help encourage some reinvestment, both business and residential. Defeat of the sales tax measure casts some uncertainty on those hopes.  

But that's the future, and so far, there's no map for that.