Ray Nagin: Idiot Extrodinaire
Is Ray Nagin trying to shove support away from New Orleans?
One could be forgiven for mistakenly thinking that he is, given his attack on New York City, to be aired on this Sunday's edition of 60 Minutes.
From the CBS News article:
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."
So in a response to questions about how long the cleanup of some of New Orleans' less fortunate areas, Nagin decides to attack New York for how long it's taking to rebuild a site that was strewn with debris and dust everywhere, but was cleaned up quickly.
If these were independent comments from Nagin that had not come in response to questions about his city's efforts and were taking swipes at politicians for not coming to a quick consensus about what to do with the World Trade Center site, Nagin would have hit the nail on the head.
But this was an attack to draw attention away from the fact that large swaths of New Orleans have remained untouched. Nagin may have further insisted that it was a legal problem, of having to seek the permission of the owners who may no longer be in New Orleans, or, possibly, may no longer be of this world.
The entire nation has shown its support for the people of New Orleans and has shown its outrage at the government for its continued incompetance in dealing with the situation.
By attacking the people of a city that has not only shown its support but has also been the victim of incompetant government actions (or inactions), Nagin is only hurting his own city. Instead of asking for more assistance from Americans that care, Nagin attacks them.
"Let's be fair?" Fine, let's be fair.
Delays have come at the hands of the slow process of the politicians and the political wrangling over what should be at the site. Not to mention that there has been many, many opinions come forth from the people of New York about what to build there, if anything. These processes take time, especially since we want a lasting solution that can satisfy public needs and public desires. Security concerns also have to be addressed as well as financial, further slowing the process.
The political fighting over the site has dragged out this process longer than it should have and that is a perfectly valid criticism to make on its own merits.
The question posed to Nagin was one concerning the lengthy cleanup effort of large parts of New Orleans. So let's compare the cleanup that led to this "hole in the ground" to the efforts to clean up New Orleans.
New York wasted no time in cleaning up the site. It was a process that lasted through nearly a year, but it was done. Although questions about dust still continue, the massive pile of rubble and much of the dust has been cleaned and the site was prepared not only for the restoration of PATH train service, but also in preparation for the rebuilding effort.
Meanwhile, one year after Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans, Mayor Ray Nagin is interviewed in front of a collapsed house, seemingly untouched in the year since the hurricane and the flood.
The area that needs to be cleaned is larger than the debris and the dust that came from the three collapsed towers in New York covered.
However, the New York cleanup effort also had overlapped onto the private properties of many and had disrupted a major part of the area. Yet it was done.
When Nagin is asked about the destroyed cars and buildings that encroach public property, he does not explain why there have been delays. He does not make appeals for help if the city's resources cannot handle the cleanup in a timely and safe manner. Instead he attacks and compares apples and oranges while doing so.
What happens if some people are so turned off by Nagin's antics that they do not further support the efforts of the city? Will Nagin attack them further for retreating in response to his jihad to everyone but himself?
How can Nagin claim to be serving the people of New Orleans if he is attacking those that are helping?
Perhaps Nagin never thought about such questions. Perhaps he thinks that by attacking New York, he can win support for himself and his efforts.
With his cries of divisive policies playing a role in the catastrophic response from the government, how can he claim to be any better when he is biting a hand that is feeding the city?
Here's a suggestion to Ray Nagin: Come up with a solution to expedite the cleanup and the eventual rebuilding. Then, with your spare brilliance, come and rebuild the World Trade Center site and plaster your name in giant letters to tower above Downtown Manhattan.
Unfortunately, there may be some that will be turned off to further spending their time and money on New Orleans because of Ray Nagin. And the people of New Orleans can list his name at the top of the list of officials that failed them.
One could be forgiven for mistakenly thinking that he is, given his attack on New York City, to be aired on this Sunday's edition of 60 Minutes.
From the CBS News article:
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."
So in a response to questions about how long the cleanup of some of New Orleans' less fortunate areas, Nagin decides to attack New York for how long it's taking to rebuild a site that was strewn with debris and dust everywhere, but was cleaned up quickly.
If these were independent comments from Nagin that had not come in response to questions about his city's efforts and were taking swipes at politicians for not coming to a quick consensus about what to do with the World Trade Center site, Nagin would have hit the nail on the head.
But this was an attack to draw attention away from the fact that large swaths of New Orleans have remained untouched. Nagin may have further insisted that it was a legal problem, of having to seek the permission of the owners who may no longer be in New Orleans, or, possibly, may no longer be of this world.
The entire nation has shown its support for the people of New Orleans and has shown its outrage at the government for its continued incompetance in dealing with the situation.
By attacking the people of a city that has not only shown its support but has also been the victim of incompetant government actions (or inactions), Nagin is only hurting his own city. Instead of asking for more assistance from Americans that care, Nagin attacks them.
"Let's be fair?" Fine, let's be fair.
Delays have come at the hands of the slow process of the politicians and the political wrangling over what should be at the site. Not to mention that there has been many, many opinions come forth from the people of New York about what to build there, if anything. These processes take time, especially since we want a lasting solution that can satisfy public needs and public desires. Security concerns also have to be addressed as well as financial, further slowing the process.
The political fighting over the site has dragged out this process longer than it should have and that is a perfectly valid criticism to make on its own merits.
The question posed to Nagin was one concerning the lengthy cleanup effort of large parts of New Orleans. So let's compare the cleanup that led to this "hole in the ground" to the efforts to clean up New Orleans.
New York wasted no time in cleaning up the site. It was a process that lasted through nearly a year, but it was done. Although questions about dust still continue, the massive pile of rubble and much of the dust has been cleaned and the site was prepared not only for the restoration of PATH train service, but also in preparation for the rebuilding effort.
Meanwhile, one year after Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans, Mayor Ray Nagin is interviewed in front of a collapsed house, seemingly untouched in the year since the hurricane and the flood.
The area that needs to be cleaned is larger than the debris and the dust that came from the three collapsed towers in New York covered.
However, the New York cleanup effort also had overlapped onto the private properties of many and had disrupted a major part of the area. Yet it was done.
When Nagin is asked about the destroyed cars and buildings that encroach public property, he does not explain why there have been delays. He does not make appeals for help if the city's resources cannot handle the cleanup in a timely and safe manner. Instead he attacks and compares apples and oranges while doing so.
What happens if some people are so turned off by Nagin's antics that they do not further support the efforts of the city? Will Nagin attack them further for retreating in response to his jihad to everyone but himself?
How can Nagin claim to be serving the people of New Orleans if he is attacking those that are helping?
Perhaps Nagin never thought about such questions. Perhaps he thinks that by attacking New York, he can win support for himself and his efforts.
With his cries of divisive policies playing a role in the catastrophic response from the government, how can he claim to be any better when he is biting a hand that is feeding the city?
Here's a suggestion to Ray Nagin: Come up with a solution to expedite the cleanup and the eventual rebuilding. Then, with your spare brilliance, come and rebuild the World Trade Center site and plaster your name in giant letters to tower above Downtown Manhattan.
Unfortunately, there may be some that will be turned off to further spending their time and money on New Orleans because of Ray Nagin. And the people of New Orleans can list his name at the top of the list of officials that failed them.
posted by Will at 12:20 AM
1 Comments:
Some cities are missing their idiot, while it seems that New Orleans re-elected theirs, and I say that as a resident of Louisiana.
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