Bill Barrow's Sunday front page story in the Times-Picayune is a must-read for anyone that's been following not jut the hospital controversy but the long history of aborted development projects in New Orleans over the last several decades more generally.

BATON ROUGE -- Architects recently unveiled renderings for the teaching hospital that Louisiana State University System executives and state facilities managers have envisioned for lower Mid-City since before Hurricane Katrina.The three concepts vary, but all depict a massive medical complex -- three wings of in-patient beds, a clinic building, a diagnostic and treatment wing with the emergency department, a parking garage and a central energy plant -- that would reach every block in an area bound by South Claiborne Avenue, Tulane Avenue, Galvez Street and Canal Street. But, in fact, fewer than half the structures in the drawings actually make up the proposed $1.2 billion, 424-bed hospital.

Map: latest renderings of the proposed state teaching hospital.

Architects dubbed that "phase one" as they presented the drawings. The rest of the buildings -- duplicates of everything except the energy plant -- are designated as "future" construction in "phase two."

It is not unusual for such a venture to include several stages with room for expansion. Various documents drafted during the federal planning process have referred to the "future needs" of both the state complex and the adjoining U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs hospital, slated to be built across Galvez to South Rocheblave Street.

Yet the renderings raise new questions about the project, particularly given uncertainty about how the state will pay for "phase one" and the lack of any timetable, bed count, cost estimate or financing source for "phase two."

Indeed perhaps nothing better illustrates how misguided this plan is than LSU's own renderings of their proposal. SaveCharityHospital.com will be working to further highlight the flaws of this plan, particularly in comparison to the reasonable RMJM alternative that we believe ought to be seriously evaluated so that we can make informed decisions about the fastest, least expensive, and most effective ways to bring health care and jobs to the citizens of New Orleans.

It's not just that almost all of the gigantic Lower Mid-City footprint that LSU is having the city seize from private citizens will remain a series of unoccupied lots as part of a hypothetical "phase two" development. It's not just that this "phase two" has no financing source or even a basic cost estimate. It's not just that there's not even a timetable in which a plan for "phase two" must be developed for public consumption.

It's also that the massive proposed $1.2 billion "phase one" still remains hundreds of millions of dollars short of secure funding.

Yet the citizens of New Orleans and taxpayers throughout the state are being asked run full speed ahead to an unknown destination with their eyes closed, their fingers in their ears, and their mouths shut.

Even the Speaker of the Legislature, Jim Tucker, seemingly had no idea what kind of boondoggle he's been supporting this whole time.

But after following its planning since LSU shuttered Charity Hospital after Katrina, Tucker said he was unaware there was a second phase. "I thought the $1.2 billion was soup to dessert."

How could we expect soup to dessert when we haven't even looked at the menu? We're starving for health care and jobs in New Orleans and there's a heartier meal available.

It's the RMJM alternative.

It will arrive faster, it will cost less, and it will taste better.

Waiter!