What's Wrong With New Orleans?

A lot, apparently.

This article does a decent job focusing on the problem that existed BEFORE Katrina - though some have been exacerbated after it struck.

Tulane University criminal instructor Ronnie Jones makes an interesting implication:

"Before Katrina struck on August 29, 2005, there was little public pressure to do something about the number of murders, which peaked in 1994 with 425 killings.
"But Katrina hit hard the poor neighborhoods where the murders usually occurred, and brought the criminals closer to wealthier, often mostly white, areas, Jones said."

The juxtaposition of those two sentences makes it seem as if the poor communities of New Orleans were apathetic to the crime around them - only AFTER Katrina hit, and crime migrated to the "white" areas, was any outrage expressed publicly.

Does anyone else find this odd?

The article lays blame to the following for New Orleans' demise: poor police work, inept prosecutors, a local government that hasn't taken action, drug use, broken families, overall poverty, and the education system.

WOW - is anything right in this city?

One would think that people would use an event like Katrina to revamp all that is wrong, as the devastation of Katrina practically left a blank slate...but the city, with more than half its population displaced with no intentions of returning, is STILL in shambles almost two years later.

So where to start with the blame game?

I start and end with Ray Nagin - who was inexplicably re-elected.

Nagin has stepped in it a few times in the Katrina aftermath. He attacked NYC rebuilding efforts after 9/11 when confronted with his own shortcomings in the New Orleans clean-up efforts. From CBS News:

"On a tour of the decimated Ninth Ward, Nagin tells (CBS Correspondent Byron) 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.'"

Okay, Mr. Nagin. Let's be fair. One city is cleaning up from the worst terror attack on American soil, and the other is cleaning up from a hurricane, one for which it was ill-prepared.

Which city should we give a little bit more leeway to - New York City, or New Orleans?

I thought so.

Before this swipe at NYC, however, he strangely characterized his own city as "chocolate," on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, no less. According to the article, here's his rationale for using the term:

"'How do you make chocolate? You take dark chocolate, you mix it with white milk, and it becomes a delicious drink. That is the chocolate I am talking about,' he said. 'New Orleans was a chocolate city before Katrina. It is going to be a chocolate city after. How is that divisive? It is white and black working together, coming together and making something special.'"

"How is that divisive"???...well, maybe when you're trying to explain things like THIS:

"'I don't care what people are saying Uptown (a predominantly white section of town) or wherever they are. This city will be chocolate at the end of the day,' he said. 'This city will be a majority African-American city. It's the way God wants it to be.'"

God wants New Orleans to be black - according to Ray Nagin.

Again, this fool was RE-ELECTED.

We already know that Nagin ignored the city's official evacuation plans for hurricanes, and now it appears he's doing nothing to dispel the reputation of his city. His "100 Day Plan" since re-election accomplished essentially nothing, and he tried to take credit for what actually was done, when he did not have a hand in doing it...

Ray Nagin is the reason New Orleans is in its sorry state. Let's hope the city smartens up and gives this guy the boot...real soon...