DENVER -- As killer storm Gustav threatened the Gulf Coast three years after Hurricane Katrina, Black Voices caught up with New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin before he left the Democratic National Convention earlier than planned.In an interview Tuesday, before Gustav becoming a threat to the Gulf Coast, the Barack Obama superdelegate said the Big Easy is a "tale of two cities" right now.
"New Orleans is still a city in recovery," Nagin said. "Our economy is very strong, but we still have many, many challenges. We still have toxic trailers in our community, we have about 2,800 of those. But if you come downtown and to the French Quarter you will have a wonderful time in our city."
Forecasters are warning that Gustav is picking up steam and could slam into the Gulf Coast as a major hurricane early next week. New Orleans is making evacuation plans. Gustav was not an obvious threat when Nagin and I spoke on Tuesday, but today his press official told us that the mayor left Denver Wednesday, two days ahead of schedule, when he got word of the ferocious storm bearing down on the Gulf Coast. ...
New Orleans has more restaurants now than pre-Katrina, Nagin says, and most of the major businesses are back at this point. On the other hand, largely black communities like Lakeview and the Lower 9th Ward have have not been rebuilt.
While unemployment is low, for a city at 75 percent of its original population, Nagin says housing has been a major problem. Affordable housing is hard to come by there because of supply and demand. People are paying double what they used to or more.
One priority is bringing relocated and displaced locals back home and getting them jobs.
"We do this on a daily basis," Nagin says. "We have offices in relocation cities that do outreach and support to bring them back."
So the obvious challenge is, even if you can get a job, where can you afford to live? Nagin said that new rent-stabilized apartments and homes are being built.
A number of events addressed the Katrina aftermath at the convention this week in Denver, including a fundraiser and concert dinner for post-Katrina causes as the convention opened. Various policy meetings also took place and a roundtable discussion focused on the failure to implement an effective recovery program in the Gulf Coast region after Katrina.
Meanwhile, Nagin says he is very comfortable with Barack Obama as president.
"We've talked about the needs of New Orleans," he says. "And I'm confident that when he is in office he is going to support us to complete the restoration of New Orleans."
Friday marks the official Katrina anniversary. Bodies that have not been identified by DNA will be laid to rest, he says. Friday evening a candlelight vigil in Franklin Square was expected to bring out thousands of people.
More Katrina Coverage
+ Nervous New Orleans Eyes Killer Storm
+ Katrina Memorial Taking Shape
Comments: (31)
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By: starboard on 8/28/2008 6:46PM
Is there anything of value in Nawlins left to loot?
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By: Tired of poor me attitude on 8/29/2008 9:22AM
3 years and still living in free trailers. Proof some people will not get up off their Butts and help themselves. God forbid our history relied on this attitude to settle the West. Your wagon blows over and then you look for someone to GIVE you a new one. The Europeans after the war rebuilt their cities and homes with NO Economy. Amazing, the idea of self reliance is SO dead in New Orleans and inner cities. Nagin the incompetent, is still in power. A corrupt, inadequate empty suit or as my Grandmother would say, "he is nothing but a fart in a bottle"
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By: mahanny on 8/29/2008 9:41AM
Nagin and the governor Landaui are the ones at fault for the disaster of NO. They had busses ready to move peole out of the city but these two had to give the orders which they did not. Both were too busy playing politics with the lives of these people in the city. Put the blame where it belongs. Nagin knew he was running for re-election and he used this tyring to put the lbame on someone else. He wanted to be mayor so step up to the plate and own what mess you created.
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By: Don on 8/29/2008 9:37AM
Tired - Don't worry, Obama will take care of everything and send the bill to the successful Americans who didn't sit on their butts looking for a free ride.
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By: paul molbert on 8/29/2008 12:32PM
yo don there is no or has there ever been a governor
of louisiana by the name of landaui
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By: mplastered on 8/29/2008 10:55AM
Go to any Dem run city and see what you get. Slums and poverty. Will they ever get it?
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By: Dottie on 8/29/2008 11:12AM
N.O got FEMA money, free trailers to put people while the levees were fixed and the City could be fixed to some sort of normal. Nagin sits in his lofty city hall office, livin large and absolutely damn nothing is being done by the city of New Orleans to clean itself up. There is STILL trash on the streets, no effort to clean up or fix up by either the city OR the citizens. No one wants to lift a finger to help themselves. Everyone is "still" being a Katrina Victim but everyone forgets Mississippi was also hit when N.O. was and everyone turned to and fixed what was broken....Why can't N.O. do it? Have to look at what they aren't doing in LA/N.O to help themselves and stop looking to the government for the root of all their evils..at some point they have to accept their own responsibility for a city that is STILL trashed with no city efforts to fix anything. Have to STOP blaming the government and ask the HARD questions about why nothing is being done in the home place. What you doing Nagin...besides nothin
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By: Darrell on 8/29/2008 11:29AM
Listen the whole reason that New Orleans was put in this position in the first place was the sub- standard levee system. The actual hurricane would not have cause this exstensive damage and loss of life otherwise. As far as the victims there helping themselves that is the only way any type of rebuilding has taken place the promises of the present administration have gone to a large part unfullfilled. So lets not blame the victims for this one . If our government can go to the other side of the planet and help over there ,sometimes putting its nose in where it is not wanted, it can very well rise to the occasion when one of its own cities is in trouble. In the days to come we may get a perfect chance to see just how well the governments has been at rebuilding down there. A new storm looms out there and if the city takes another direct hit those so called rebuilt levees could give way again because this government was not concerned enough to build a levee system that would hold back the water from storms of any magnitude. Yet our Corp of Engineers has been involved in building exstensive systems in places like the netherlands which face the same below sea level concerns as New Orleans just research it and look at those levee systems.
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By: Monette on 8/29/2008 12:28PM
$10 Billion a month for the war in Iraq ?? How much per month is spent for the war in Afghanistan ???
WELL just consider this Americans if the federal government would do a massive rebuilding of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast for let's say a paltry $75 BILLION. Think about all of the jobs that would be generated and how viable the economies of the Gulf region would become !!!
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By: Don on 8/29/2008 1:26PM
yo paul molbert - Where did I say there was? You see the name under what someone says? That means that's who said it.........idiot!
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