Mayor Ray Nagin speaks out

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin may be the most recognized mayor in the country. Since Hurricane Katrina ravaged his city one year ago, he has been in the national and international spotlight. And while he has taken a lot of heat for the way some things were handled prior to, during and after the storm, Nagin has defied the critics by not only winning re-election, but also the support of a majority of the city's residents and business community. During a press conference to announce the reopening of the city's first swimming pool since Katrina, Nagin fielded several questions from EBONY and other media.

One year after Katrina, do you feel good about where the city is right now?

Feeling good is a relative term. I feel that we are making progress. It's incremental progress. We have to keep pushing ourselves, both government and residents, to accelerate that progress. I'm hoping pretty soon we're going to hit a tipping point where all the change is very visible and people start to feel better about what we are doing. I think we are close.

Where does the city stand in the recovery process?

I have been working behind the scenes to bring a lot of different players together to fine-tune our planning process. We started out going in a direction with "Bring Back New Orleans." We thought FEMA was going to fund the neighborhood planning process. It didn't. The council got the planning process going in some of the most devastated areas. Now we have the Rockefeller Foundation that is coming forward. We are trying to put together a process that, at the end of the day, will deliver a master plan.

How much input will you seek from residents?

We have neighborhood groups that feel very empowered about what their communities are going to look like in the future. I do not think that it is government's role to specifically tell people where they can and cannot live. I think homeowners and neighborhoods should go through a process where they are empowered and come to an intelligent decision. And that's what's going on in this city. And I'm very comfortable with that.

What do you say to those people who say that the city is moving too slowly?

Everybody says, "Why is it taking so long?" This rebuilding of New Orleans, I would rather get it right than to do it too fast. My guiding principle is that the neighborhood and the residents should drive the plan and process. I don't want to see a top-down process because New Orleans is so unique and so distinctive with its various neighborhoods, and the neighbors know it the best. It's only nine months [in July] since 80 percent of our city was under water. As I look at New York, and see what they have done, it's five or six years later [since 9/11], and they are still planning to reconstruct the World Trade Center. There's no manual. There's no precedent for this. We really don't know if we're going too fast or too slow. I know that I'm comfortable because neighbors are driving the process.

What's the responsibility of the National Guard as it patrols certain areas of the city?

The National Guard is fanned out in the non-occupied and the less-occupied parts of the city. We now have the presence in the occupied areas of the city where we are starting to make a difference in curbing crime in those neighborhoods. I'm getting great feedback from every area of the city.

At this point, what's being done for the children of the city?

As part of our 100-Day Plan, we want to improve the quality of life for our community as we continue to go through this recovery. Our children are our future. We all know that one of the most important contributions we can make as a community is to deal with our young people and make sure that they have options. A good education and healthy youth development are the keys to giving our kids a better future. As we continue to recover from Hurricane Katrina, we wanted to make a specific commitment, as we come to the anniversary date, that we had options for our kids. We have summer programs. We have Operation Reach, which will give our children education activities, and cultural activities. We have tried to get as many programs up and running as possible.

COPYRIGHT 2006 Johnson Publishing Co.
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