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Posted on 12/07/2005 5:11:25 PM PST by caryatid
In a brewing dispute over next year's Mardi Gras, the hotel and tourism industry on Wednesday spoke out against Mayor Ray Nagin's suggestion that hotels donate a portion of their profits from Mardi Gras to help refugees return to the city.
Darrius Gray, the head of the Greater New Orleans & Lodging Association, belittled Nagin's suggestion, saying hotels have been losing money since Hurricane Katrina and are in no position to hand out money.
"Profits are hard to come by these days to tell you the truth," Gray said.
Nagin made his comments on Tuesday after a news conference, but did not specify how much he thought hotels should contribute. The mayor's press secretary and communications director did not immediately return messages.
The mayor also said the city's hotels could do more for the refugees scattered throughout the country by putting aside a quarter of their rooms for refugees.
Gray said hotels are doing their part already and that between 25 percent and 30 percent of hotel rooms are occupied by people with Federal Emergency Management Agency housing vouchers.
J. Stephen Perry, president of the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau, lashed out at the mayor for suggesting that the tourism and hospitality industry has not done enough to help the city recover.
Perry said hotels played a key role in the early days after Katrina hit when they were able to provide housing to recovery workers by bringing in potable water and generators.
"Many of the hoteliers were on the ground when water was lapping down Canal Street and parts of Poydras (Street), and I'll tell you, they'll be here forever," Perry said.
Perry attacked Nagin for what he called his "fractured message." He challenged Nagin to send a more positive message to the country about the viability of holding Mardi Gras and enjoying the city for its touristic value.
"There's frankly no more patriotic message in America than to come and enjoy the most unusual, authentic, historic, walkable city on this planet -- New Orleans," Perry said.
Whether to hold Mardi Gras next year has become a highly emotional and politicized issue in recent weeks because groups of refugees have threatened to protest celebrating Mardi Gras while so many people are displaced.
The city has agreed to hold a truncated Mardi Gras, but questions over parade routes and policing remain.
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Mon, we gotta have rooms fo' mah votuhs!
Gimme, Gimme, Gimme,...
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Like they would ever leave the room once they got in there.
Hehehe. Nagin just can't help himself; he's stuck on stupid.
Well Mr. Gray things are kinda tight with federal mopney too. We really dont have enough to help Mississippi, Alabama, Louisianna and pay for a war the UN bill Foreign aid, the Tsunami, The earthquake in Pakistan, Yeah Federal funds are getting kinda tight too. Maybe we should just forget New Orleans like you and your hotel friends are doing.By the way those FEMA vouchers, arent they good for money? and what kind of discount are you giving for FEMA to put people into your rooms when no tourists are coming?
Business hasn't even found its feet as yet in NO and Nagin is alreay lining up people to steal from them. Pray, why doesn't this felow resettle in Jamaica, where he spent his paid-for vacation recently.
Gotta get those voters back on the plantation.
"There's frankly no more patriotic message in America than to come and enjoy the most unusual, authentic, historic, walkable city on this planet -- New Orleans,"
Hmm--walkable or did he mean "swimable".
Make the drunk guys pay taxes on the hoochie beads they give out...hell you can support everybody on those
Nagin is pathetic. I bet he is willing to use the school buses to go out and gather his voters back in.
The whole point is that the hotel people are struggling to get by right now just like their fellow locals. While they're probably seeing some income from the feds, they're probably still seeing a fraction of what they were making before. Plus, it's probably going to be dicey for years to come how many tourists they're going to see.
What Nagin is suggesting would be like demanding more Tsunami victims make donations to Tsunami victim funds.
This ought to be interesting.
For a while, one of the NO krewes was negotiating to parade here in Mobile, but that fell through...Don't know why.
Its part of the Liberal creed. Freely spending other people's earnings.
I have this feeling that Nagin is asking this money from hotel chains. I doubt many of these hotels are privately operated, although some may be. But it sure wouldnt hurt Radisson or Holiday Inn or some of the bigger chains to kick in a couple of bucks. They made plenty when the people of New Orleans stopped in their joints during the evacuation. I imagine every Holiday Inn for 200 miles was filled to the bursting, and I doubt they gave discounts. Also the United States treasury is hurting right now too But they expect the rest of the country to kick in.
I read this last night at the New Orleans paper and I thought "Just how stupid is this clown?"
Yeah Ray....business is simply booming there...lets shame them into bringing back people who have no place to live and no job.
Never have I seen such a transparent disply of self service.
He must be absolutely panic stricken.
First his "casino" out of the box idea blew up in his face and now this.
Go back to selling cable installations or whatever it was you did for Comcast Ray. You arent making it as a municipal chief executive.
After they get done cleaning up the pi** and trash from the rooms, we'll hear talk about tearing the hotels down.
Oh come on! This is a liberal Mecca. You didn't think you were off the hook just cause you paid the fat taxes did you?
The hotels and motels are already donating a huge amount to the city, and not a part of profits, but a big chunk of gross receipts, figured before any expenses are deducted:
it's called the "lodging tax"...
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