Last night was the last major address by New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. It was his annual “State
of the City” speech and it was quite a spectacle with Gospel choirs,
multi-media presentations, movie actors, a lavish spread of refreshments, and
giveaways for all of the guests who attended.
Interestingly, the crowd was mostly members of the media
and the Nagin administration who had to attend. Very few regular citizens took
the time and trouble to attend the extravaganza at the Mahalia
Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts. Alert for the news media: it
may be an interesting public records request to investigate how much tax money
was used to organize this event.
The purpose was mostly to bolster the ego of Mayor Nagin and allow him to present the best possible
case for his two terms. Nagin is fighting for a better legacy, but that quest
should not be funded by the taxpayers. There are innumerable other projects
that could have benefited from the funds wasted on this speech.
Last night Mayor Nagin described a city on the threshold of
greatness, ready for its “ Atlanta moment.”
Nagin touted a slew of accomplishments and claimed that much progress had
been made during his seven year tenure. This view is in marked contrast to the
opinions of most people who have watched the Mayor’s bizarre and embarrassing
behavior, especially since Katrina. On www.Abc26.com,
a web poll indicated that 87.5% of the respondents believe that New Orleans is worse off after seven years of Nagin.
In this speech, Nagin blamed extremists in the media for
creating division and negative views of New Orleans
; however, the real culprit has been Nagin. The Mayor has created racial
division by comments such as “ Chocolate City ,”
and has clearly been a dividing force, not a uniting one. He also has invited
derision by making comments such as the high murder rate helps get the “brand”
of New Orleans out in the media. In introducing the “Vagina Monologues” to New
Orleans , Nagin famously claimed that he was a “vagina friendly” Mayor. And the
list goes on and on, but Nagin is unwilling to take responsibility for his
comments and actions and continually blames others for the damage he has
caused.
Throughout his years in office, another trademark of Mayor
Nagin has been his propensity to announce “big” projects that never get
fulfilled. For example, he has talked about selling the airport, creating a
downtown jazz park, turning Canal Street into a
Las Vegas gambling strip. Last night, Nagin boasted of signing a “firm letter
of intent” for the city to pay $7.3 million to buy the 21-story, 351,000 square
foot Chevron building located in the CBD at the intersection of Gravier Street
and O’Keefe Avenue .
He wants to move City Hall to the new location and demolish
the present structure to create a huge urban park.
While it may be a good idea to move City Hall, it is not a good idea to place
it in the heart of the CBD where it will not be easy for citizens to access
important city offices. Parking will be a nightmare and citizens will be forced
to park in garages or take their chances on the streets, where vicious meter
maids will be waiting to issue parking tickets.
If this is a plan to issue more parking tickets
and bring in more revenue for the City of New Orleans
, then it is brilliant, but it is certainly not an idea that is in any way
“customer friendly.”
Hopefully, this will be just another one of Nagin’s ideas
that are proposed but never implemented.
