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Should mayor nagin step down


eastover neworleans

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oh lord, finally someone brings his bleep up. I hate him, absolutely. A black New Orleans, WTF is that supposed to mean? How bout them buses left sitting to get swamped by water? Calling for the evacuation of a city of 450,000 and metro of 1.3 million ONE DANG DAY before a CATEGORY FIVE is supposed to hit, WHOOOO GREAT JUDGEMENT THERE. As of recent, yeah, he's done some good, but his comments criticizing others after Katrina, it all started with you delaying your evacuation to one day before, not even a full day before to be exact. He wont be anything more than the mayor of ReNew Orleans

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oh lord, finally someone brings his bleep up. I hate him, absolutely. A black New Orleans, WTF is that supposed to mean? How bout them buses left sitting to get swamped by water? Calling for the evacuation of a city of 450,000 and metro of 1.3 million ONE DANG DAY before a CATEGORY FIVE is supposed to hit, WHOOOO GREAT JUDGEMENT THERE. As of recent, yeah, he's done some good, but his comments criticizing others after Katrina, it all started with you delaying your evacuation to one day before, not even a full day before to be exact. He wont be anything more than the mayor of ReNew Orleans
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Even if you got rid of that sting operation in which Jefferson accepted $100,000 in bribe money from an undercover government agent, I don't know of many people who keep $90,000 in their freezer, and have "nothing to hide." :rolleyes:

Bill Jefferson is a crook.

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Good job New Orleans for voting jefferson in , now the Government isn't going to trust us with any money, We keep electing the same people over and over, is New Orleans incapable of change? I wouldn't be suprise is Blank-O wins reelection, first it was Edwards, Morial ,Nagin, Jefferson,and Kathleen. I'm so damn upset! :angry: The whole state of Louisiana is a laughing stock to the rest of the nation.

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Good job New Orleans for voting jefferson in , now the Government isn't going to trust us with any money, We keep electing the same people over and over, is New Orleans incapable of change? I wouldn't be suprise is Blank-O wins reelection, first it was Edwards, Morial ,Nagin, Jefferson,and Kathleen. I'm so damn upset! :angry: The whole state of Louisiana is a laughing stock to the rest of the nation.
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  • 4 weeks later...

I think that it is time that Mayor Nagin is recalled he is a disaster. He is a cancer to the city of New Orleans I think I think that he is the worst thing that happened to NeW Orleans. Some in New Orleans are trying to get a petition going to send it to D.C . I'm sorry but, Blanko , Eddie jordan,and NOPD Chief Warren Riley all need to step down we all in the stale of louisiana need to do something about this . I schools are among the worst, crime is horrible, and I think that we don't have the leadership. Corporations are leaving residents are moving away , I hope that I am wrong but, it will continue unless we make a change in polotics. When chief Pennington was here we still had crime but, I don' that it was this bad. Do we really want a change in this city/state?

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Rather new on the boards, so hello and sorry to just barge in the conversation but even though I'm in Baton Rouge, my hubby is from New Orleans, we visit every weekend and might possibly move there in a year so we try to keep abreast of everything going on.

I am not impressed with Nagin, but I wasn't impressed by many of the other mayoral candidates either. I can't believe William Jefferson was voted back in. I also think Blanco is botching the rebuilding process and, with the help of Nagin and all the other incompetent and or corrupt politicians, they've thoroughly convinced the Feds that we can't be trusted with as much money as other states can.

Louisiana is at the bottom of all the lists... education, safety, disaster preparedness, health, etc. And I'm tired of it. I love this state and I love New Orleans and I want them to rise up and be at the top of some lists for a change. I think the only way this could happen is just to start over. New Governor, new mayor, new plans for crime, education, rebuilding, etc.

I've heard talk that Blanco won't run again and some talk about a possible call for her to step down. Does anyone know if there's any validity to these claims?

Well, we can rag on Nagin and Blanco all we want, but is there anyone you believe could get the job done? How does everyone feel about the arrival of Ed Blakely, the "recovery czar"?

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Rather new on the boards, so hello and sorry to just barge in the conversation but even though I'm in Baton Rouge, my hubby is from New Orleans, we visit every weekend and might possibly move there in a year so we try to keep abreast of everything going on.

I am not impressed with Nagin, but I wasn't impressed by many of the other mayoral candidates either. I can't believe William Jefferson was voted back in. I also think Blanco is botching the rebuilding process and, with the help of Nagin and all the other incompetent and or corrupt politicians, they've thoroughly convinced the Feds that we can't be trusted with as much money as other states can.

Louisiana is at the bottom of all the lists... education, safety, disaster preparedness, health, etc. And I'm tired of it. I love this state and I love New Orleans and I want them to rise up and be at the top of some lists for a change. I think the only way this could happen is just to start over. New Governor, new mayor, new plans for crime, education, rebuilding, etc.

I've heard talk that Blanco won't run again and some talk about a possible call for her to step down. Does anyone know if there's any validity to these claims?

Well, we can rag on Nagin and Blanco all we want, but is there anyone you believe could get the job done? How does everyone feel about the arrival of Ed Blakely, the "recover czar"?

I was all for Bobby Jindal first time around. If Blank-o doesn't step down Bobby should have a great shot at deposing her next time. I think he would make a far better impression on the country. He is far more intelligent and crisply articulate.

Crime in Nola is unbelievably out of control. The sub-culture of the inner city is way beyond out of control. It seems to be more of a behavioral problem than a law enforcement problem. The thugs killing each other is one thing but the doctor's wife that got killed last week is heartbreaking.

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"The thugs killing each other is one thing but the doctor's wife that got killed last week is heartbreaking."

Not meant to be a commentary on the main thrust of your post, sgray, but your last sentence could be used as a perfect example of how we've gotten to where we are now. For way too long noone (well, not nearly enough people, particularly those with the ability to help make a difference) in New Orleans cared if "the thugs (were) killing each other", as long as they left "the rest of us" alone and stayed in the parts of town "where they belonged". We never saw, as other more-thriving cities have, that combatting the conditions that breed such "thugs" was something worth throwing the full weight of our efforts into. Lousy public schools? Who cares? We don't send our kids there; they go to private and parochial schools where they're insulated from the "underclass". And since we've built a tourism economy and based it mainly on low-paying service industry workers, I suspect that some of the "power brokers" in New Orleans didn't see a steady supply of under-educated workers who'd be willing to accept low wages for hard work as necessarily being a bad thing. As long as they stayed in "their" parts of town, and stayed out of "our" parts of town, things were cool to a lot of New Orleanians. They didn't buy into that "rising tide lifts all boats" business that other cities like Atlanta and Charlotte ascribed to, so they didn't see doing whatever it took to radically improve the public school system to the point that they would feel comfortable with sending their kids into the system for an education as being desirable....again, much as it is in other more progressive and more successful cities. So instead of a largely educated work force that looks attractive to prospective employers looking for a location for their businesses, we have an uneducated work force meaning employers foot the bill for more extensive training costs, and the costs of higher employee turnover rates as they go through large numbers of "unsuitable" employees trying to find good workers. The employers for higher-level fields also must figure into their compensation packages tuition costs for private schooling for their employees' children, as they certainly won't get top-flight employees willing to enter their children into the public system.

So basically our not-necessarily-benign neglect of public education for too many decades has come home to roost. And while this isn't necessarily the forum to get into it, when the discussion of how to reverse the fallout from that neglect is started, we have to make sure not to ignore the elephant in the room that is race.

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  • 1 month later...

NEW ORLEANS - New Orleans is a city on a knife's edge. A year and a half after Hurricane Katrina, an alarming number of residents are leaving or seriously thinking of getting out for good.

They have become fed up with the violence, the bureaucracy, the political finger-pointing, the sluggish rebuilding and the doubts about the safety of the levees.

"The mayor says, `Come back home. Every area should come back.' For what?" said Genevieve Bellow, who rebuilt her home in heavily damaged eastern New Orleans but has been unable to get anything done about the trash and abandoned apartment buildings in her neighborhood and may leave town. "I have no confidence in anything or anybody."A survey released in November found that 32 percent of city residents polled may leave within two years. University of New Orleans political scientist Susan Howell, who did the survey, said more will give up if the recovery does not pick up speed.In fact, figures from the nation's top three moving companies suggest more people left the area than moved into it last year. "People are in a state of limbo. They're asking, `Is it worth it for me to stay? Is it worth it to invest?' If you don't feel safe, from crime or the levees, and you see destruction every day when you drive, it becomes discouraging," Howell said. If there is an exodus, it could mean more than just a shrunken New Orleans. It could mean a poorer city, financially and culturally, and a more desperate one, too, since the people likely to leave are the most highly educated and younger. Mayor Ray Nagin and Gov. Kathleen Blanco have urged residents to return under rebuilding plans with names like Bring New Orleans Back and Road Home. The mayor has warned that the recovery will take a decade and has urged people not to give up hope. But New Orleans' population appears to have plateaued at about half the pre-storm level of 455,000, well short of Nagin's prediction of 300,000 by the end of 2006. And in many ways, it is a meaner city than it was before the hurricane. New Orleans ended 2006 with 161 homicides, for a murder rate higher than it was before Katrina and more than 4 1/2 times the national average for cities its size. After starting 2007 with practically one killing a day, the city has at least 19 slayings so far this year. The criminal justice system is in disarray, with public defenders so overworked and witnesses so reluctant to testify that the courts are revolving doors, putting criminals back on the street. Mistrust between police and the public is running high, in part because seven officers were arrested in a deadly shooting during the chaotic aftermath of Katrina. Nagin and Police Chief Warren Riley announced a plan last month to crack down on crime with checkpoints and the putting of more police on the beat. For Jennifer Johansen, it is too little, too late. Johansen's neat yellow house in New Orleans Irish Channel is for sale, and the nurse, who returned to the city after Katrina, hopes to be in Seattle before spring. The gunfire she used to hear until about a month ago made her uneasy about watching TV in her living room, and she yearns to live in a vibrant, safe city."I kept thinking, things would get better. But it just took too long for a response from the city, the mayor, the police chief, to address the increased crime," she said. Louisiana demographer Elliott Stonecipher said: "You get the sense talking to people on the ground in New Orleans that a lot of people are right on the edge. They're just about to the point where they believe they have to decide." Blanco's Road Home program, born 10 months after the storm, has been vilified by politicians and civic leaders as too slow to distribute $7.5 billion in federal aid to buy out homeowners or help them rebuild. As of Feb. 5, Road Home had taken 105,739 applications and resolved only 532 cases, granting $33.8 million. At the current rate, Road Home would take more than 13 years to complete.

Sen. David Vitter (news, bio, voting record), R-La., called Road Home a debacle. In hopes of jump-starting the neighborhood rebuildings, the mayor has put in place a gap-loan program to let homeowners borrow on their promised Road Home grants.City, state and federal officials have traded the blame over the slow distribution of relief aid. So far, the federal government has earmarked about $750 million for infrastructure projects. The state homeland security department, charged with distributing the money, has given out only about half that. The governor said the city has been slow to complete the paperwork.

It was that kind of back-and-forth that prompted Ken White and his wife, Kathy, to give up and move to New York last year. "We came back a month after the flood and thought about what we could do to stay and rebuild, but it became apparent to us it would take a long time and be very difficult," said White, who was director of emergency psychiatry at Charity Hospital when Katrina hit. "We were appalled by the ineptitude of government on all levels." Gregory Hamilton, a longtime resident of eastern New Orleans, said he plans to stay, but is frustrated, too. "Everybody wants to follow the recovery. Nobody wants to lead the recovery," he said. Some frustrations are rooted in the persistent widespread damage as well as the lack of a comprehensive rebuilding plan. On many streets, newly rebuilt houses stand amid empty, decaying ones. In many neighborhoods, there are still heaps of smelly debris and FEMA trailers in front yards. "Literally, if you want an aspirin in those neighborhoods, you have to go across the parish line or to an unflooded area," said Al Palumbo, a real estate agent. A $14 billion rebuilding proposal is making its way through city government, and Nagin has appointed a recovery czar, Ed Blakely. But there is no tible for implementation of a master plan, and no assurances the money will be there for it. Blakely said he believes it will cost at least three times the $14 billion estimate to restore the city.

Brian Nolan, a photographer who moved to South Carolina after the city's failed levees left his home in Lakeview under 11 feet of water, said he did not believe the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' assurances that floodwalls have been improved. "After the storm, we were all pumped up to build a new house, but we lost that dream," he said. Blanco, on a lobbying trip to Washington, said Thursday that she has received commitments from Democratic leaders that the recovery of the Gulf Coast will be a "front-burner" issue. Blanco also said that she, the mayor and several parish leaders have agreed to work together to break the "bureaucratic nightmare." Demographer Greg Rigamer said that pressure on Road Home and the appointment of a recovery czar are positive steps, but that city must do more to rebuild schools, its health care system and housing to keep people here and bring others back. "With every passing month," said UNO sociologist Rachel E. Luft, "it's less likely people will come back."

I can understand some residents' frustration with the crime and slow rebuilding process, so in a way I can't blame some of them for leaving and possibly not coming back. I'm gonna rep New Orleans until the day I die but after a major disaster, one would think N.O. would intensify its rebuilding efforts. There's money out there & the city government doesn't want to gobble it up & if they do, they move like snails in completing the paperwork. Putting myself in Nagin's shoes, I would be gobbling up as much money as possible in New Orleans' rebuilding process. I'd jump on the money sources IMMEDIATELY. It's been roughly a year and a half since Katrina and yet the 7th & 9th Wards look like 3rd world countries (What the news didn't tell you is that many of the downtown wards were devastated just as bad, if not worse than the 9th ward). In order to get people coming back, they must be able to feel safe. I applaud the anti-violence marches but they can only do so much. Better police relations, strong leadership and community support will severely put a dent in crime. One of the main reasons why crime has N.O. in a vice grip is that the residents won't put heat on the thugs & drug dealers. Criminals thrive in neighborhoods where residents turn a blind eye to their illegal activities. Thugs & drug dealers don't want heat where they set up shop and if they know they'll get resistance from citizens, they'll take their activity elsewhere where there's little to no opposition. I'd make a good New Orleans mayor :shades:

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