Posted on 09/02/2005 7:43:23 AM PDT by areafiftyone
The leadership skills of New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin have been put to the ultimate test this week, a test some critics say he is failing as his storm-ravaged city descends into chaos, violence, looting and despair.
The New Orleans Times-Picayune's Web site has become a clearinghouse for residents of the Crescent City to communicate with their neighbors, and many are taking the opportunity to express frustration with their mayor. "Where are you?" one person asked on the Web site. "Be a man and take care of your people."
Another person said he liked Mr. Nagin but wondered, "Where is command central? Can we get some sort of plan, any plan, other than busing the refugees from dome to dome?"
Mr. Nagin, a former cable TV executive, was elected three years ago at the age of 45 after promising to reverse the city's reputation for corruption. Now, he finds himself saying things about his city that he never could have dreamed possible.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
"many are taking the opportunity to express frustration with their mayor. "Where are you?" one person asked on the Web site. "Be a man and take care of your people."
Another person said he liked Mr. Nagin but wondered, "Where is command central?"
"New Orleans Mayor No Giuliani"
EXACTLY!!
This mayor and governor are incompetent! They're expecting and depending on the federal gov't to do EVERYTHING for them, including the work they should be doing themselves.
WHERE are you Mayor? I haven't seen you working in your shirtsleeves helping your people. Where is your command central?? Get out of Baton Rouge and get down to New Orleans.
Bush has to
1]Put someone in charge to take over
Ah Mayor, you're there. Maybbe YOU could set up a command and control center. It worked very well for Rudy on 9/11. If I remember correctly he had it done within hours.
Nagin should be removed from office immediately. I've never seen such a poor job of leadership. I never once saw him in a video giving aid and comfort to his constituent's. I never saw him in a news clip showing forceful leadership.
All I ever heard of him was "We in a world of sh*t. Its George Bush's fault" Give me a stinkin' break.
"We need 500 buses, man!"
Mayor Ray Nagin
What he should be saying is that the execution of the city's evacuation plan was an abject failure and he bears primary responsibility for that failure. Man.
the twin towers was a cake walk compared to this.
As a New Yorker, I've got two words for you -- unfortunately, I can't say them here.
Action needed. Put somebody [Rudy?] in charge, reporting directly to the President.
And tv sets.
The residents didn't want to go. They were ordered out and they didn't leave. To much of an inconvenience or whatever reason. I agree that the busses should have been moved to high ground. So they could be using them now.
An astute politician as president would have publically asked Hillary Clinton to go there and personally take charge. :)
Holy shi'ite Batman! There's got to be at least a hundred unused busses. The NO mayor is dumber than a rock not to have utilized that transportation resource for evac.
Had they employed NG with rifles pointed at them, they wouldn't have had a choice.
That may be, but the principle remains the same. Immediately after the towers came down, Guliani was right in the middle of things. I remember seeing video of him walking down the street, pointing out what needed to be done, giving orders, leading from the front.
Political Grandstanding? To be sure. But, it also provided what people in dire straits needed - a leader. When a strong leader grabs the flag, jumps in front, and says 'Follow Me', people tend to fall in line behind him (or her).
Contrast this with the emotional handwringing of LA governor (advocating prayer to help? Nice thought, but troops would be better). And, the corruption and dithering of NO's mayor and police force, and you arrive in the situation that we're in today.
I can't imagine that no one thought to mobilze water to relief points, given days of warning. No one thought to mobilize buses before the storm hit. Incredible.
ex-snook, I agree... " Bush has to 1]Put someone in charge to take over..."
Bush needs to push back from his desk, lift his body up from his chair, get on a jet and go directly to the area of the problem and lead from there. If his starched-shirt, clean-suited FEMA syncophants in Washington can't follow then they should be fired.
It was quite obvious that the idiot mayor was incompetent and the governor of LA was just as bad. After day one, FEMA should have moved their operations into or extremely near the troubles.
This hands-off management of Bush is not playing out very well with the biased media. I don't consider Bush to be the cause of the problems. It was clearly the idiots who stayed behind in the city, the weak mayor, the governor, and now in the later days FEMA's lack of direct bypass around the mayor and the governor.
After the incompetence of the mayor and governor was apparent, it became the federal government's problem to step into this disaster, which now has national ramfications. On day two or three, there should have been vigorous direct management by the federal government.
I think Brown (FEMA) is covering for a host of errors (by the locals mostly) and I hope he gets a chance to explain where these terrible errors occurred.
Hoppy
Point taken, but then the threads here at FR would be reading 'Government forces Innocent Citizens from homes at gunpoint'. Sometimes there are no winners. :-(
that's silly. There were days and days to prepare for this. In NY, it was a surprise attack. There could have been anarchy that day, but instead there was order. Strong leaders create order. Weak-kneed losers like this NO mayor create chaos. This is an un-precidented challenge, but his dude is clearly not up to it.
There's the bad choice and the "worse" choice.
Exactly. I tend to take the opinion that, unless there's a reason you can't obey a mandatory evac (medical, family care/job responsibilities, not enough time, etc) then you're resposible for your situation. You pays your money and you takes your chances.
Translation: Front man for a set aside monopoloy.
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