Day 641: “It’s Not Our Fault”

No, Mayor Ray Nagin, it’s not our fault the federal government completely abandoned strengthening our levees prior to Hurricane Katrina and that the State of Louisiana has bigger shrimp to fry than New Orleans. It is also not our fault that the Bush administration continues to ignore our pleas for rebuilding support and makes it very hard for us to move on our plans.

Yet, it is YOUR fault for not being man enough to be mayor of New Orleans. It is YOUR fault for whispering, not yelling, to those above you in the legislative food chain, with a sound plan in hand. It is YOUR fault that we have a trainwreck of a criminal justice system. It is YOUR fault that not one of our existing plans contains a comprehensive makeover of our public schools system, without which this city is dead in less than a decade. It is YOUR fault this city languishes economically while you travel the nation and singlehandedly kill the empathy we have garnered so far. New Orleans is being rebuilt not because of you, but inspite of you.

“The orange cones that you see around the city are signs of progress and rebuilding!” Yes, we stuff them in our potholes; aren’t they cute, colorful and useful? “Public safety is the most important challenge our city faces and reducing violent crime in this city is my top priority!” Spikes in the body count are mere “blips.”

For the love of those working hard to make a meaningful life in this city everyday, how can you say these things?

Finally, if this speech were your attempt to get a message across to Bush, Blanco and their people, wouldn’t it be best to deliver these words to them than to us? We, meaning we minus you, know what this city needs, they don’t.

* Editor B: Nagin’s Speech

Up until the end I thought it probably played pretty well — positive, determined, critical but not whiny. Then at the very end he went off script with a repeated refrain: “It’s not our fault!” That soundbite won’t play well in the heartland, or anywhere else for that matter.

* Schroeder: ‘Tis The Season … Hurricane Season!

Could you please be a little more pro-active with the state and federal government?!! It’d be easier to point out their faults if you had a friggin’ plan, man! It’s our job to complain, not yours. Instead, we’re the ones trying to come up with a plan, and you’re the one doing all the complaining. You’ve got your roles reversed, man.

* Adrastos: Confessions of A Slacker NOLA Political Blogger

I knew he’d brag about the trash program; take credit for things that he didn’t have anything to do with and conclude by going off script and blaming the Governor for everything. Nagin is a perpetual innocent bystander.

* da po’ blog: State of the Nagin Address

What he meant: “It’s not MY fault.”

… May 30, 2007, the day Nagin gave his State of the City address, was 150 days into the year. As of that day, 77 people were murdered (by my count) on the streets of New Orleans. That is an average of one murder every 1.94 days. A murder every other day. The “blips” are not anomalies. They are analogous to a murder every other day in the city of New Orleans. Is that trending in a positive direction?

* American Zombie: Outside, It’s America

We’ve marched on City Hall, we’ve formed alliances, we’ve blogged our asses off … and every time we turn around we get hit with one more scandal, one more setback, one more blow to our very survival. But still we fight … and still we believe.

It’s not just New Orleans that is dying … I think it’s America in general. We are just the cynosure of the descent … the most photogenic example. [emphasis mine]

May 31, 2007 | culture-society-history, government, new orleans, recovery, we are not ok | 9 Comments »

Day 640: Nagin’s State Of The City Address

Not wanting to give myself a headache on top of the existing one, I declined showing up at the D-Day Museum this evening for Mayor Ray Nagin’s State Of The City address, completely last-minute and his first since right after the flood.

No, Mark Folse, you will not be stuck with the mere account of the Times Pravda, Alan Gutierrez, of Think New Orleans and the Citizens’ Road Home Action Team, uses Twitter to keep us updated on the mayor’s speech. Think of Twitter as the blogging equivalent of IM (instant messaging). I look forward to dissections from other SOTC attendees in the coming days.

Related Links:

* Text of the May 30, 2007 SOTC Address
* Video of the speech will be posted on Nola.com shortly after the address is completed.
* Nagin: NO On Road To Recovery, But Still Needs Help (AP)
* Your Right Hand Thief: Recall Nagin, unelect Jordan and force Riley to resign

We are way, way, WAY past the point of needing Nagin to “know” that we are “waiting for him to speak more forcefully”. We are at the point now, I believe, when Nagin needs to know that he will be recalled if he doesn’t fire Warren Riley immediately. That might get his attention … Expecting that this “State of the City” speech will mean something, that it will be full of specific promises that Nagin will fulfill is pure folly. It may have some soaring rhetoric, as did last year’s inaugural, but so effing what?

May 30, 2007 | government, new orleans, recovery, we are not ok | Comments Closed

Day 638: One Way To Take Care Of Migraines

Give yourself a permanent one.

While visiting family and friends up north this weekend, I slipped and fell (with a momentary, split-second blackout) at a friend’s housewarming party. Unfortunately, the last part of the fall involved the back of my head making strong contact with a wall and the subsequent raining of hot tea all over the dupatta of my nice off-white Indian outfit. And, no, I was not involved in a battle dance-off at the time.

Horror of horrors: My eyes and head cannot handle computer exposure for more than 10 minutes at a time. The prefrontal cortex has decreed that the current happiness of Maitri will be maximized by lying in bed, sipping water and watching Law&Order reruns until the cows come home.

Before this blog’s regularly-scheduled programming is postponed to some time later this week, here’s something to think about: On this Memorial Day, I’d rather be in bed with an aching skull than have its contents spilled on the floor of a land where the situation has gone from bad to worst. That blood, gore and misery is on all of our hands, not just a few, and no amount of head injury and vapid entertainment will let me forget it.

May 28, 2007 | family & friends, government | 18 Comments »

Day 636: “Oh Noes, That Sparrow’s A Terrist!”

Thanks, Schroeder, for the stirring prologue to Memorial Day, followed by this:

Pooped

Related: Bush knows what he is, but what are you? – On War Funds, Democrats Saw No Option but to Cede Ground to Bush

As First Draft commenter, frenchdm, says, “Many Democrats in Congress proved today they stand for nothing other than getting reelected. A very small percentage of Bush’s base still supports him but he doesn’t abandon them. A large percentage of the Democratic base was abandoned by their members of Congress. I wish the media would cover the amount of military industrial dollars that flowed into campaign coffers today and the role of lobbyist in the vote.”

May 26, 2007 | government | Comments Closed

An example of the news I find when out of town: $3.5 million Katrina memorial proposed for New Orleans. “The [Unified New Orleans Plan] is making its way through city approval processes. While the memorial is a far lower priority than upgrading drainage and reconstructing neighborhoods during the next decade, it is still listed among the top projects … It is not clear whether the memorial will ever get built. No money has been secured for it.” Aaah, priorities, especially hurricane-shaped ones that have nothing to do with the FLOODING that almost destroyed New Orleans.

| blurbs, city planning, new orleans, recovery, we are not ok | Comments Closed

Day 633: City Planning Commission Approves UNOP

Tut, tut, not so fast.  All is not that easy in the city planning arena of the real K-Ville.

nola.com: As rebuilding of N.O. continues, recovery plan OK’d

No one on the commission or its staff expressed much enthusiasm for the plan, which was created by outside planners and consultants at a cost of several million dollars, and it is unclear what practical effect approval of the plan will have … Rebuilding already is well under way in some neighborhoods, and prospects for obtaining the more than $14 billion in federal, state or private money needed to carry out the plan’s laundry list of 95 infrastructure and other recovery projects are uncertain at best.

How recovery czar Blakely’s plan fits in with this Unified New Orleans Plan (UNOP) is murky at best:

It also is unclear how the plan’s sweeping citywide recommendations will mesh with the list of 17 targeted recovery zones where Ed Blakely, director of the city’s Office of Recovery Management, wants to focus rebuilding efforts. Blakely’s plan calls for spending $1.1 billion in public money to spur private investment in the 17 zones, and not even the source of that $1.1 billion is assured.

Right Hand, Meet Left Hand:  According to the UNOP website, “UNOP has informed the Office of Recovery Management and been used as a tool in selecting the initial 17 geographic focus areas in New Orleans,” which is somewhat corroborated in this City of NO press release.  But, of course, it’s short on specifics.  How will the UNOP’s “clustered neighborhoods” concept, for instance, interface with the 17 recovery zones?  Does Blakely’s plan target short- to long-term economic recovery while the UNOP plan focuses on long-term residential recovery?  If Blakely’s proposed development zones and the UNOP ostensibly do not operate exclusive of one another, why the media confusion?

Show Me The Money: The UNOP requires $14 billion while Blakely wants $1.1 billion.  If Blakely is unsure of the source of 1/14th of the UNOP budget, what’s UNOP to do?  Where’s the money machine?  “Investment incentives” for private businesses and developers?

How ‘Bout That Flood Protection?: As of May 21, 2007, the Bureau of Governmental Research expresses strong reservations against the UNOP in the area of residential flood protection. (Full 8-page UNOP Revisited report here)

… the plan indicates that some areas of New Orleans will remain particularly susceptible to storm surge for the indefinite future, but does not respond with comprehensive strategies. In fact, BGR found the plan would actually encourage settlement in high-risk areas through a voluntary, incentive-based, $1 billion clustering program.

Whoa, Horse: Wasn’t the object of the UNOP to create a replacement to previous plans that were rejected by FEMA and the federal government ?  To quote Becky Houtman, “The release of billions of dollars in federal recovery funds, as well as some private grants, depends on the formation of a master plan covering everything from city-wide infrastructure issues to neighborhood-specific projects.”  Does the City Planning Commission have an opinion on whether the UNOP, as it stands, will get us promised federal funding?  Probably not, because the plan has yet to hit the Mayor’s table before it is lobbed over to the LRA’s court (which may or may not exist by the time said plan exits New Orleans) and then plummets down a one-way trip to Federal Administrative & Partisan Hell.

Related Links: People Get Ready – City Planning Commission Passes The Buck; Some Came Running - Questions 67 and 68 (in which Celcus attempts to demystify the planning process and provides his answers to the questions posed above)

May 23, 2007 | city planning, government, new orleans, recovery | 3 Comments »
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