Posted on 02/04/2006 11:57:40 AM PST by Ellesu
There comes a time when reasonable people are forced to step back and take a long, hard look at the facts of a matter, reexamine their connection with that matter, and determine if they are handling it correctly. This is such a time for the president and the Congress, with respect to the New Orleans matter.
Until now the approach has been, “What Katrina has wrought, the government(s) will make right.” It turns out that Hurricane Katrina wrought problems last August that have hardly been touched, much less handled correctly. Five months after the fact, 80 percent of the people who lived in New Orleans pre-Katrina do not live there now…they have not returned to a city that for all practical purposes was totally devastated and remains so. It hasn’t helped that New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin recently relieved himself of remarks that can only be accounted as racist. He said, “This city will be chocolate at the end of the day. … This city will be a majority African-American city. It's the way God wants it to be.” He can be forgiven for lack of sensitivity as a private citizen, but as the top official of New Orleans he laid bare wounds that could have been healing. This is especially true in light of the fact that most of the New Orleans evacuees who have returned are white and/or wealthy, or both. They are business people, executives, professionals such as teachers, and folks who just have enough property left and money to maintain it and their existence. Nagin only added to his error by continuing, “How do you make chocolate? You take dark chocolate, you mix it with white milk, and it becomes a delicious drink. That is the chocolate I am talking about.” This probably was supposed to mollify disgruntled whites – if any actually care – but this could be said for practically all the cities in the country.
Nagin is annoyed because a huge segment (39% at last remembrance) of the black evacuees from New Orleans have indicated that they do not plan to return. These people are probably not property owners and so have no interest in trying to live in wrecked housing that will remain wrecked for a very long time in a city that could go under the water again, in any case. Having lost everything once, they would be expected to make every effort to avoid losing everything again. It’s doubtful that much, if any, of their possessions was insured. Many, if not most, are on various types of government welfare and have discovered that they can collect checks no matter where they are.
With the water levels of Lake Pontchartrain and the canals that cross the city always to be well above that of the lawns and streets – and at roof-level in some places – of those of their former living-spaces and businesses, the evacuees, especially having no assurance that a Katrina-like catastrophe won’t happen again, feel well-advised to simply stay away. For that matter, the city is actually also sinking, making the physical side of the problem even greater. In addition, New Orleans has a record of being unbelievably unsafe criminally with a government steeped in corruption. In Houston, where 150,000 New Orleans evacuees are said to still be living, the murder rate increased by 25 percent last year and is already 50 percent above last year’s rate at this time. Coincidentally, the crime rate in New Orleans plummeted post-Katrina and is only now picking up again.
With the recent announcement that more than $100 billion in federal money is now earmarked for Katrina relief efforts, the bulk of it going to New Orleans, this outlay by the federal government to benefit a tiny fraction of the nation’s populace and industry seems an unseemly waste. Relocation is eminently more sensible for the people and/or businesses and certainly more reasonable for the government. Relocation is already taking place and it’s being subsidized by the government in the form of rent-paying, funds for schools, etc., for people who have no desire to head back into a cesspool, in the first place. Restoring the city to any kind of previous condition, if at all possible, will take years and years, probably decades. Indeed, one could hope that the city would not be restored to that condition, in the first place. Encouraging people to live in a “bowl” completely surrounded by water well above their heads and held back by levees actually deteriorating from the bottom up is practically criminal.
Since much, if not most, of the water damage occurred as a result of the deterioration of the levees and not the wind, even considering the fact that the city was hit with at least a Category-4 hurricane instead of the Category-3 type, which it was claimed the city could withstand, there is no reason to believe the city will ever be safe again, nor has the governments involved even said that it will. And the notion that the money so earmarked at this point, as is the usual case with government regarding estimates in the face of inevitably predictable cost overruns, will actually do the job is just that – a notion. The actual facts, on the basis of past history, indicate this is like throwing money down the proverbial rat-hole.
Ironically, the people who have entered New Orleans to do the dirty, cleanup work are Mexicans who are willing to live in squalid conditions for the good pay. Mayor Nagin has strongly indicated that these people are not welcome. One wonders if he is most interested in the Mardi Gras atmosphere of old, which demands the services of people who do low-paying work to keep in business those who make millions in the tourist trade. These are the folks such as the people who clean the schools, hotels, resorts, office buildings, hospitals, or work in stores or wait tables and do other low-paying jobs who no longer want any part of New Orleans.
It’s unfair to say the president was grandstanding when he appeared in the region in the aftermath of Katrina and indicated that New Orleans would be restored. Perhaps he thought it could be but had no way to know that the huge number of people who had been forced out had no desire to return. It’s fair to say, however, that he was wrong and that he had no clue as to the long-term problems involved. Restoring New Orleans without guaranteeing its safety is unconscionable, and there’s no way to govern Lake Pontchartrain, as well as the aging levees.
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin A Racist?
----By HIS comments out of HIS mouth, yes. It would seem so. And let me clarify, this is just MY opinion based on the mans' actions.
Racist is a strong word to throw around, but it does seem like he's got a problem with this issue.
It seems that N.O.'s focus is on returning to the way it was. Well, the way it was can best be described as a corrupt, immoral slop bucket. I would think a more progressive approach would be to use this as an opportunity to make N.O. a changed and better place.
http://www.knoe.com/fullstory.php?id=1208
"polling places may be in monroe, lafayette, alexandria, baton rouge, places where evacuees are. I think there'll at least be a bill looking at that -- maybe even Houston and outside the state."
I really feel that his biggest problem is a drug habit.
I don't know if Nagin is a racist or a realist. His stance against illegals has been one of the things I agree with him on. He does see the writing on the wall, if illegals flood the workforce there, they will drive down wages, and deteriorate working conditions. Illegals will also be a burden on social services. They can and do take jobs away from Americans and that is a fact. I don't see where that is racist, illegals are illegal and I admire him for not wanting NO to fall into the trap of cheap, illegal labor. I have no idea if his reasoning is caused by "racism" or common sense, but I am tired of people who think someone is a racist because they don't support illegal labor in this country.
You'd rather have native welfare recipients who do nothing but steal, do drugs, and commit murders ?
I don't like illegals either, but they can't be worse than many of the folks who were already there.
The rate of home ownership to non-owner occupation in the Lower 9th Ward was 58%:42%. So, a 60:40 ratio is right on the money. That was one of the highest rates of owner occupation of any neighborhood in the city and higher than the city overall. I have not found exact numbers broken out for other neighborhoods.Also accurate is the statement that they have found that those government checks keep right on a comin' ... and have followed them wherever they have gone.
Many people ... white as well as black ... have had enough of New Orleans. One can hardly blame them for that. These folks do not see their "glass" as even half empty ... it is completely empty ... and shattered beyond repair for them. I can feel only compassion for these folks as they begin anew elsewhere. They are the old New Orleans of the past. I can only wish them well in their new endeavours.
On the other hand, one can have only admiration for those brave souls who are intent upon rebuilding their lives in New Orleans. Many see struggles ahead ... and others see only opportunity in New Orleans. These are the folks who see their "glass" as half full and are intent on filling it to overflowing. Three cheers for these stouthearted, brave souls! More power to them! They are the hope for a new and better New Orleans in the future.
I find it hard to believe the entire native population of NO are theives, drug addicts, and murderers. Many of them had to be doing blue collar work before the hurricanes.
If you think stealing, drug addiction and murder along with many other crimes you can think of won't be there with the illegal population you are very uniformed.
The only thing Nagin cares about is Ray Nagin.
Is he bringing his family back from TX. to chocolate city?
Nagin is not worried about illegals, he is worried his constituency won't come back and he won't be reelected!
There have been persistent hints and whispers and innuendo about this from the very beginning, when he holed up in one of the hotels, and because of his erratic, to say the least, behaviour.But ... is there anything substantive upon which to base such an opinion? Just wondering.
If we clear out all the illegals, the welfare recipients will ahve to take those jobs. Good thing on two counts.
Further confirmation in my mind that the vast majority of racism in America today is blacks who hate whites, not the other way around (though I don't deny that there is some of that).
Maybe this is a good place for urban homesteading.
What is he, Willy Wonka?
Nah, he is just a good old-fashioned race baiter and a complete fool.
Yes illegals can be worse, and will be worse, those of you who don't think so are in for a rude surprise.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.