What do you think of New Orleans' Mayor?

Looks either like a Gangsta-Rap-man from da Hood, or a pro football playa !

 

Usually I don't like the "poor me" attitude.

But, in this case, I'd say he was dead on. Time dictated he cut through all the b.s. and I think his frankness got the ball rolling a bit faster.

Also, lack of sleep will let your tongue flow.....

 

While I understand his frustration and his need to strike out, I must ask why he did not utilize the hundreds of buses we have seen flooded on the ground in NO? The following excerpts the city's evac plan and clearly places the responsibility on the CITY.

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/9/4/151327.shtml

 

I dont know, I happen to think he a F**king idiot. Before the hurricane MSNBC tapped into the local New Orleans broadcast where he was shown "joining" the anchors on TV and when the question was posed to him "so Mayor do you feel the evacuation was the correct measure to take" he responded looking rather clueless "I dont know it might be overkill, what do y'all think" (as he turned to the broadcasting team). I was in shock that the Mayor of a major city (minutes before the massive hurricane)turned to the anchors on a local news station to ask whether they thought it was a good idea to evacuate a major city when a potental Cat 5 hurricane was around the corner. I agree that his being candid, direct, and vulgar was necessary at a time like this but I dont think his being so was a product of the situation but rather of his usual stupidity and backwardness. JMO....

 

Big idiot in my opinion. Rather, than going to the media and trying to turn this tradegy into a racial divide, he needs to take some responsibility for the fact that the local government he is responsible for did not do an adequate job of protecting the citizens. Granted, the federal government was way too slow to react, but the local government should have been much more prepared. His rhetoric is only going to make the racial tensions hotter and show a complete lack of professionalism.

It is a sad commentary on his management style and governance when, the day after the storm hits, news camera grews catch on tape two female ON-DUTY New Orleans cops inside a WalMart helping themselves to all sorts of items while looters are stealing TVs and guns.

 

Doesn't this belong in the P&R section?

 

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I think he did the best job possible. He called for a mandatory evacuation before it was clear how bad the disaster would be, this was a risky move that could have backfired, but instead saved many lives. During the disaster, rather than run for higher ground he was there in the city, doing whatever could be done. He made it clear the the world just how bad things were down there, in straight forward no-BS language. I wish all our politicians could be so upfront and honest.

DJ4200GT, I didn't see the comment that you are referring to, but based on what you typed, if he already evacuated, I don't think he cared what the anchors thought, I will chalk that up to banter.

 

Bark, bark, bark.

 

Nagin is a breath of fresh air in politics & New Orleans - is not of the old school LA politics and has cleaned some of the corruption out of the city.

Before you are critical of him think about walking in his shoes.

 

I hate to keep harping on this, but why weren't the buses utilized for evacuation?

 

I’m going to start my response with a digression --

My 81-year old mother lives in Pensacola, Florida. She rode out Ivan (just barely) last year, and two hurricanes so far this year. I called her early Friday morning with the intention of getting her to leave town and head east because Katrina was starting to look very, very bad. As best I can recall the conversation went like this:

Me: “I guess you know why I’m calling.”

Her: “Yes, but I’m not leaving. I haven’t slept all that well these last couple of nights. But I’m too old to get involved in all that traffic. Besides, the forecasters are saying that this storm will head further west towards New Orleans.”

Me: “I was afraid that you’d say that. I just checked on the Internet and the National Weather Service is predicting a Cat 5 landfall around New Orleans.”

Her: “God help those people because they’re gonna need it. They dodged a bullet last year when Ivan turned and hit us.”

Me: “You’re right. If this storm hits New Orleans, it will be very, very ugly. So, again, I can’t talk you into heading to Tallahassee just in case this storm does an Ivan?”

Her: “No, in my experience, these weather people have really gotten really good at this stuff. I don’t think that this storm will hit Pensacola.” (BTW, as a personal note, my father used to fly hurricane hunter planes for the Navy out of Pax River.)

******

Mind you that this conversation took place very early Friday morning. Katrina hit New Orleans 36 hours later. In case math wasn’t your best subject that’s equal to 3 days.

On Friday, President Bush declared a state of emergency for Louisiana and Mississippi.

Around mid-morning on Saturday, the Mayor orders an evacuation of the city. This happens one day after the conversation with my mother.

Saturday afternoon, I watched news clips of the traffic on I-10. For those of you who don’t know, there is only one way in and out of New Orleans – you either go east or west on I-10. I was amazed that they were not using the inbound side as a counter flow lane. It wasn’t too long before I-10 was a parking lot all the way to Baton Rouge and beyond.

Katrina hits Monday morning.

On Tuesday, the levees broke. We started hearing reports of thousands stranded at the Superdome, the Convention Center, and elsewhere throughout the city. There were clips from a charity hospital that everybody apparently forgot about. There were also reports that roughly 2,000 prisoners had been left behind in a jail near the Superdome.

So you make the call:

Who was primarily responsible for calling for an evacuation in a timely manner?

Who was primarily responsible for making sure that there was an orderly evacuation plan?

Who was primarily responsible for making sure that the old and ill would be evacuated in a timely manner?

Who was primarily responsible for making sure that convicted criminals weren’t just dumped on the streets. (BTW, apparently somewhere between 100 to 200 of them ended up in the Houston Astrodome.)

Who was primarily responsible for developing some type of contingency plan in case the levees broke?

And on, and on, and on, and on.

Does the primary burden lie with:

FEMA?
President Bush?
Bill Gates?
Supreme Court nominee Roberts?
The Do Da Man?

Is it possible that the primary burden should rest with:

The Mayor of New Orleans and his staff?
The elected officials of the various parishes?
The Governor of Louisiana and her staff?

It really is a shame, because Mayor Nagin was elected with high hopes. Apparently, he had made a pot full of money in a dot.com or telecom deal before he became Major. The thought was that he wouldn’t steal as much most mayors cause he was already rich. (I’m serious. You have to understand southern politics.)

The sad truth is that everybody was caught napping. Folks, I have lived around the Gulf Coast most of my life. When one of these storms shoots the gap either north of Cuba or through the Yucatan, no matter where you are, you start paying attention because there is only one thing that you can do – leave. There is nothing you can do during a major storm, and there is nothing you can do after the storm. There will be no power, no gasoline, no water, no sewer, no food, no nuthin.

So while my heart goes out to the victims of this storm, and I do agree that the Fed response should have been a lot faster, it is very disingenuous for the Mayor or anybody else to start pointing the finger at the Feds. These folks need to be taking a good hard look in the mirror.

Dale

 

he should run for president.

 

He's an azzhole trying to prematurely cover his butt (as Fish pointed out) with the race card and incorrectly aimed remarks.

"As each day passes, the staggering incompetence of the local government in New Orleans becomes more and more glaringly apparent. From the very beginning, it was obvious that they were either unwilling or unable to enforce order after the hurricane.

Now, it has also become apparent that they had massive numbers of buses that could have been used to get people out of the city before or after the hurricane. Where are those buses now? In the water.

But, the thing that really proves the ineptness of Ray Nagin & Company is the Superdome. They set the building up as a storm shelter, yet they apparently didn't stock food, they had no way to evacuate people from the building, and they haven't even been able to maintain order in the building. Not only are there people being killed in the Superdome, they're stuffing them in a freezer, for God's sake.

It's almost as if they thought they could announce that the city needed to be evacuated, open up the Superdome, and then they were done....

Despite many complaints, I don't think the Feds have been slow to help at all. The reason that perception is there is because the government of New Orleans has been so tragically useless. Anywhere else, the city government would have been competent enough to hold things together at least for a little while, whereas the local government in New Orleans collapsed from the getgo".

And I agree.....this thread belongs in P&R.

 

When did a day turn into 12 hours?

I know that they have had plans for years and the local and state governments occasionally go through the actions of who does what and who is responsible. It went a lot smoother this year than it would have even 2 years ago thanks to practice and finally some cooperation among parishes.

 

The blame for the lack of an adequate disaster plan and the inability to carry one out rests with the mayor. Every city has funding priorities and New Orleans has not placed disaster preparedness at the top of their list...obviously. Blaming everyone else is not the mark of a leader.

 

dr who, apart from your math i agree with every word you said. and it won't be long befor everybody else will realize the same thing - as long as they can take their bush-hater glasses off long enough to see the truth.

but in the end the south will benefit. marke my words, more federal recovery money will be spent in LA, MS, and AL than anywhere else ever before.

the least the local government can do is reduce the crime rate....

 

Well, math never was my strong point. Why do you think I became an accountant?

I agree on the drill point. But what possessed them to abandon that charity hospital, for example? And what about a contingency plan for the flood? Did they think that the levee wouldn't break?

 

you make a good point that i have wondered about as well. i was in naples florida on the friday august 26th, and the weather guys were already saying that if katrina hit NO the storm surge was going to be in excess of 20 feet and maybe as high as 30ft....well the levees are 18 feet....and none of the repair work that was put off was going to raise them by more than 2 feet...so was anybody in NO doing the math on this?

 

peter, thank you for providing me a perfect example of subscription not improving the breed.

 

maybe King Neptune might apply for the job in N.O.

 

He thinks you have no clue,........I tend to agree, if you think the mayor has done a good job. He should accept 50% of the blame for this....disaster. The buses man, WTF?? Here is the way it goes , on the list of WHO is responsible for the people of N.O.

1. The people of N.O., as individuals
2. The Mayor of N.O.
3. The state of Louisiana
4. The Federal Govt.