Nagin Brings It
On 60 Minutes Byron Pitts interviews Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans.
"On a tour of the decimated Ninth Ward, Nagin tells Pitts the city has removed most of the debris from public property and it’s mainly private land that’s still affected – areas that can’t be cleaned without the owners' permission. But when Pitts points to flood-damaged cars in the street and a house washed partially into the street, the mayor shoots back. "That’s alright. You guys in New York can’t get a hole in the ground fixed and it’s five years later. So let’s be fair."Good point Ray.
3 comments:
Though it's sometimes hard to interpret tone of voice on the web, I'm hoping that we're in agreement on the complete insensitivity and disrespect Mayor Nagin is showing the families of the 9/11 victims (and all New Yorkers) by referring to ground zero as "a hole in the ground."
Politicians like Nagin get elected because they market themselves as "one of the real people." Unfortunately, once elected, I think politicians need to be held to a higher accountability of their public speech than everyone else. Nagin seems to disagree. How did he even get re-elected? I found myself agreeing with a radio show the other day that was claiming that he did the best he could during and immediately after Katrina, but he should have stepped aside come election time for someone with better qualifications to actually REBUILD the city. Does he really have the skill set for a project of that magnitude?
Sorry. rant is over.
Kenny, point well taken. Nagin should have said something like,
"The WTC site is just 16 acres that has the technically simple task of building a building and making a memorial. Five years later there is still nothing, and that's in NYC. So a whole city that's been destroyed is going to take some time."
I think the fact that there is nothing going on down at the WTC is absolutly disgracefull, Nagin just called us out on it. Developers, insurance companies, politicians, and even the various 9/11 organizations themselves have so clogged and derailed the process for the site, that it looks like New Orleans could very well be rebuilt before there is anything but a hole in the ground at the WTC site.
Who would have thought that after the amazing and even heroic effort made to clear the site of the debris (which only took a year) and respectful handling of the bodies, that there would still be nothing down there after five years. They even unceremoniously removed the corner stone of the Fereedom Tower that was placed at the site in 2004, and returned it to storage out in NJ. Absent during the removal were the politicians, dignitaries, and power brokers that were on hand for the placing of the cornerstone in 2004.
Let's be crystal clear here. I think Nagin was making a fair comparision to the monumental effort it is to clean up an entire city vs. a few square blocks. The language and tone he used is what I take issue with.
I have absolutely no faith in Mayor Nagin to make any real progress in New Orleans. Let's not forget that he turned down an offer from one of the largest auto-crushers in the country to remove all the abandoned cars from the streets and even pay New Orleans $100/car, giving the ravaged city $5 million. Nagin refused the offer, claiming the city could do the job themselves. Well, of course they couldn't and it has ended up costing the city $23 million, when they could have made $5 million. Good job building your chocolate city Mayor.
But now, was your post even about Mayor Nagin, or just the WTC?
Post a Comment