[Steamburg]

Enough of Chocolate City; what about the rest of the South? Is it only the Dem's stronghold that was hit by Katrina or is it only a socialist society that can't mend itself? The folks of Chocolate City already vote Blue.Who are they trying to impress? I can hardly wait until the Dims all go down for their spring meeting and the MSM starts harping on the failure of government to help these poor criminals. Even the rest of Louisiana will turn into a red state. Such arrogance.

[sheana]

Crime is up. Schools are overcrowded. Hospitals are jammed.

Sounds like my small "city" in California. Only difference is it is from illegal aliens here, not Katrina evacuees.

[aimhigh]

I'm waiting for the 2006 NOvember elections. I expect the Democrats to demand that NOLA adults be allowed to vote in both Texas and Louisana elections.

[geezerwheezer]

Imagine the nerve of a Houston city official telling the Katrina evacuees to get a job and get busy....are you kidding me? Those deadbeats are going to suck Houston and all the other cities that took them in, absolutely dry! That's the way New Orleans has always been, why do you think they called it "THE BIG EASY!" "Job? What job? We don't need no stinkin' jobs!" is the motto of the Nagin nuthouse gang living everywhere else but N.O. Damn shame too. Send them all packing, and be happy they are gone.

[geezerwheezer]

Imagine the nerve of a Houston city official telling the Katrina evacuees to get a job and get busy....are you kidding me? Those deadbeats are going to suck Houston and all the other cities that took them in, absolutely dry! That's the way New Orleans has always been, why do you think they called it "THE BIG EASY!" "Job? What job? We don't need no stinkin' jobs!" is the motto of the Nagin nuthouse gang living everywhere else but N.O. Damn shame too. Send them all packing, and be happy they are gone.

[i_dont_chat]

My hometown of Houston is as well equipped to handle these problems as any other city. Somebody has got to do it.

Change, evolution, problems-solving -- that's what life is all about. It is our National duty: bring it on!

[layman]

A NO evacuee walks into a Houston bar and orders a beer. A gay customer seated at the bar sees him, then walks over and sits down beside him. They talk quietly for a few minutes ... then suddenly the evacuee jumps up, punches the gay guy in the mouth, throws him out the door, then returns to his seat. The bartender asks, "What did he say that got you so upset?" The refugee replied, "I'm not sure .... it was something about a job."

[sgtbono2002]

Fact is when dope pushers , prostitutes, thieves, pick pockets,and just plain ne'er do wells. go from one place to another, they take their careers with them.

When a city absorbs these folks the Prostitutes, pimps drug Dealers and just plain ne'er do wells that city already has are in for competition and the crime rate has to go up.

Now some of these folks from NO are good decent , hard working people. They will make out wherever they go and they wont cause a problem. Some day when the insurance companies get around to it they will get their homes rebuilt and move back. Unfortunately the low income housing in New Orleans is for all practical purposes gone. No one is going to build a new house and charge the small rent those 100 year old shacks were bringing in. Unfortunately Houston forgot the old saying. "No good deed goes unpunished" The good people of New Orleans will move back and the dregs will probably stay in Houston.

[gitmo]

MSNBC must be running short on carriage returns.

[SkyPilot]

Many cops are struck by the brazenness of the evacuees. "It seems like the face of crime has changed in Houston," said Officer Brandon Brown one night last week as he patrolled the sketchy Fondren area of the city, where many of the arrivals have settled. "It's more tense, more violent." Soon after saying that, he was called to respond to an alleged assault. A New Orleans woman was accused of attacking her boyfriend, whose head she had previously slashed with a shard of glass.

I got a letter from someone who said Houston is turning into a crime pit.

[gitmo]

This article is date 3/13/2006? Very prescient of them.

[gitmo]

When city leaders in New Orleans made comments two weeks ago suggesting that they wanted only hardworking evacuees to return, some Houston city-council members erupted in protest—fearing that politicians in the Big Easy were trying to stick Houston with their undesirables. "We extended an open hand to all kinds of people," says Councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs. "If they want to return home, it's their right." And if they want to stay, she adds, they "need to stand up, get on their feet and get jobs."

There's a simple answer. Cut off the freebies.

[finnman69]

What did Katrina refugees bring Houston.


Sounds like, crime, drugs, laziness, overcrowding, swamping of city services, and a general negative effect.

[wardaddy]

I'm surprised NBC and Newsweek are running with this..

[Mister Da]

Katrina seems to have washed away much of NOLAs less desirable population, many of whom landed in Houston. After such a warm & generous welcome, I doubt they will want to return to NOLA, so Houston may be stuck with them.

I guess Houston can always hope for a hurricane!

[Aggie Mama]

I live in Houston and this article doesn't tell 1/5th of the story. We now have roving bands of solicitors that have infiltrated all of the neighborhoods on the north side of town. They say they'll get paid $50 to clean your carpet. Then they'll spend the next 5 minutes trying to make you feel guilty for living in a nice house.

I finally called the sheriff's office about this (after the 3rd or 4th solicitor) and they said to make sure and call the police every time one of the groups of solicitors are in the neighborhood. The bottom line, they want to get inside your house to see what they can steal. It's the latest Katrina evacuee gift.

There are hospitals along I-45 that are closing down b/c the have gone bankrupt due to our non-paying friends from NO. Most of the scools around where I live are having to deal with serious turf war gang fighting now. It really stinks and I've definitely got "Katrina Fatigue".