Posted on 07/31/2002 1:25:37 PM PDT by mikenola
It's the hottest time of the year in New Orleans, but the weather can't match the sizzle surrounding Mayor C. Ray Nagin, who has knocked this famously easygoing city off its barstool and has become an overnight folk hero for his efforts.
On July 22, not yet three months into his administration, the new mayor ordered a lightning raid on the city's Taxicab Bureau, arresting more than 80 employees and cabbies (including his own cousin) on bribery and related charges, and shutting the agency down. Its head was led out of city hall in handcuffs. When Lilliam Regan, the director of the city agency that oversees the Taxicab Bureau, called a press conference that afternoon to defend her workers, Nagin's men walked in front of the TV cameras, told Regan to pack up her things and get out of city hall. She was fired, and later arrested.
Calling his anti-corruption crusade "a battle for the heart and soul of New Orleans," Nagin, 45, vows that this is just the first step in what will be a sustained effort to rid municipal government of graft and sleaze. Nagin, a Democrat and former top executive of a local cable company, made his first-ever bid for elected office this year, conducting a largely self-financed campaign that emphasized economic development, and promised voters a new style of city governance.
Nobody expected the political neophyte to be so forceful, and so soon. Last Monday's blitzkrieg of the Taxicab Bureau has made Nagin the No. 1 topic of conversation all over town ("There's definitely bloodlust to see more city officials handcuffed," says one observer), and shot the new mayor's popularity through the roof.
"It doesn't shock the people of New Orleans to find out that there's all this corruption," says city columnist Clancy DuBos. "What shocks them is that someone is keeping their promises."
What a difference a day makes. Prior to Bloody Monday, Nagin was off to a weak start. Says Louisiana political analyst John Maginnis ,"His administration was starting to look like Jimmy Carter's: good intentions, but no real know-how to get things done. The city council was blocking his appointments. Suddenly this happens, and now he's the 800-lb. gorilla."
"I'm surprised that anybody, not just Ray, was able to do it this quickly, but I think it's a measure of how rampant and blatant the corruption was," says DuBos, chairman of the weekly newspaper Gambit. "A brand new mayor who had never held political office was able to come in, spot the problem or get tipped off on it, gather the evidence and do the raid, all within 75 days. That's pretty amazing."
Not everybody in New Orleans is pleased. Nearly all of those arrested in last week's sweep are black. Some are grumbling that Nagin, who is himself African American, is picking on poor black folks to score points with his white supporters, particularly in the business community. Even Nagin backers are saying that to be truly credible, the mayor has to go after bigger fish than a bunch of taxicab drivers.
The biggest fish of all is former mayor Marc Morial, who was forbidden by term limits from running this year. It has long been assumed that Morial would wait out Nagin's term, and try for a comeback in four years. That's all in doubt now, as Nagin openly attacks Morial's administration for being lax on corruption. Meanwhile, Morial is put in the awkward position of having to publicly support his antagonist's popular crusade while proclaiming his own innocence.
It's early yet, but people can't help wondering if Morial, scion of a powerful black New Orleans political family, will ultimately face corruption charges. The feeling is that longtime District Attorney Harry Connick, a key figure in the city's political establishment for decades, would not indict Morial or his top allies. But Connick is stepping down after the November election, and with anti-corruption fever running high among New Orleans voters, a political door is open to an ambitious lawyer willing to sign on with Nagin's crusade. Among the announced candidates, James Gray, a black, Harvard-educated lawyer who is well-respected in legal circles and who has few ties to the city's political machines, is suddenly the man to watch.
But many players in the city's business and legal community are still laying low, waiting to see what Nagin's next move is before they openly declare for him. He faces powerful institutional enemies who could outwit and outlast him, and make life hell for his supporters. "It's like when the Berlin Wall started to fall, and only a few people crawled on top to look over," says a lawyer. "Everybody else is hanging back for now to see if the East German border guards shoot them."
Behind the dramatic headlines lies a fascinating, and indeed hopeful, sign of bedrock political change: the emergence of the black middle class as a distinct power player in municipal politics. New Orleans is a majority-black city, with African-Americans making up 64 percent of the electorate. Nagin was elected with 58 percent of the total vote in the April runoff, which amounted to about 80 percent of the white vote, and 44 percent of the black vote.
"If you look at the areas where Nagin did very well in the black community, it was in those middle-class areas," says Joe Walker, the mayor's pollster. "The black middle class has been developing for some time. This is probably the first time where they've been a principal force in the election of candidates."
"This has changed the dynamics of race in the city," says Maginnis. "Morial relied on the black lower class for votes and support. There never has been enough of a black middle class to make a difference in city politics. They're more conservative and business-friendly, and when you put them together with the whites who share their values, come pretty close to being the majority of the city."
History is not on the new mayor's side. The last big reform mayor New Orleans had, Chep Morrison, came into office in 1946 riding a wave of hope and expectation that he would be able to clean up the graft at city hall. He started strongly, but fell into the same morass of sleaze, patronage, and cynicism that swallows up so many Louisiana politicians. It mustn't be forgotten that the same Morial administration now under fire drew national headlines for cleaning up the infamous New Orleans Police Department.
For now, businessmen both inside and outside New Orleans are delighted by the news from city hall, seeing it as the first step in turning around the Crescent City's banana-republic image, and rescuing its moribund economy. City Councilman Jay Batt, a successful Republican businessman elected two years ago as a pro-business reformer, says the city's reputation for corruption is so bad that there's nowhere to go but up.
"Is there a downside to what Ray's doing? No," he says. "We need to let everybody know that we're ready to do business the clean way. No shakedowns. No special favors. The Taxicab Bureau is just the tip of the iceberg from what I've been told. Stay tuned for the next ten days, is all I can say."
When Lilliam Regan, the director of the city agency that oversees the Taxicab Bureau, called a press conference that afternoon to defend her workers, Nagin's men walked in front of the TV cameras, told Regan to pack up her things and get out of city hall. She was fired, and later arrested.
I don’t know much about this situation, but that’s just classic.
Should have had Sandman chase her off stage with his broom.
Last I heard, there's a black woman from New Orleans on death row in Louisiana, awaiting execution for the murder of a black New Orleans cop during a botched holdup at a restaurant where the cop was moonlighting as a security guard.
Oh yeah -- the perpetrator on death row was an off-duty cop at the time of the murder, too. If that doesn't tell you everything you need to know about New Orleans . . .
Unfortunately for her, she didn't know there was a girl hiding in the freezer who identified her as the shooter.
They can't kill her fast enough for me.
Well, what do they expect? Most of the city employees are black, so it stands to reason that most of those nailed for corruption are going to be black as well.
I'm going on memory here, so it might be a bit shaky, but that's Antoinette Frank.
The part I'm having trouble with is that I seem to remember that during the murder investigation, Frank's father was discovered buried in her yard, and they found out that she murdered him too. I can't find any reference to that incident on Google, so I may be mistaken.
Does anyone else remember that?
"If you look at the areas where Nagin did very well in the black community, it was in those middle-class areas," says Joe Walker, the mayor's pollster. "The black middle class has been developing for some time. This is probably the first time where they've been a principal force in the election of candidates."
Ping - for your list.
Oops, I thought this was going to be an article about Teddy Kennedy. My bad!
someone always has to play the race card...
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