The whole question of "lessons learned" has been in my mind for quite some time. There are times when I wonder if human beings are truly creatures of folly or, to take the question further, whether we like to imagine that there are indeed lessons to be learned by coming up with contrived comparisons between past and present.
In my quest for answers, I stumbled upon this article from Businessweek 
. Entitled San Fran's Lessons for New Orleans, it compares the social, political and economic conditions in San Francisco during the quake of '06 with New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, and looks at San Francisco as inspiration for New Orleans' reconstruction. Special attention is given to San Francisco's mass temporary housing as a possible template for sheltering New Orleans' displaced . It’s an interesting read, especially when compared with this assessment presented by University of California Irvine Economics Professor Mason Gaffney .
good post and insights. this line in the UC assessment was key:' "There is no market solution to New Orleans. It is essentially a problem of coordinating expectations... ." By that he meant simply that each person's incentive to move home and rebuild depends on his or her confidence that others will do likewise.'