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looks like it could be satire but it’s really, seriously, and sadly not.
New Orleanians now can do even more of City Hall’s work for them thanks to the city’s new Adopt a Catch Basin program, which allows “basin parents” the honor and privilege of officially naming and caring for selected catch basins.
More than 68,000 catch basins are now up for adoption through New Orleans’ Adopt a Catch Basin program. The program allows residents to sign up to keep an eye on drainage issues near their homes and flag particular catch basins for cleaning.
As an incentive to go online and adopt nearby catch basins, the city is allowing residents to name the individual basins.
Here’s how the Adopt a Catch Basin program works:
Residents can go online to catchbasin.nola.gov to see an interactive map of New Orleans. From there, you can choose any available catch basin and adopt it by providing your email address.
Clearly recommending you do as they say and not as they do, the city states that adoption comes with some responsibility. It is asking residents to keep an eye on your adopted basin to make sure it’s nice and clean.
Thousands of catch basins are still available for adoption and the drainage of residents’ time and resources.
When reached by Neutral Ground News, Mayor Mitch Landrieu nor any other city official would comment on why they chose to pursue the adoption program instead of using the unspent $141 million federal grant intended to improve the city’s drainage system.