Mayor Nagin packs a little fudge into the dark abyss of my soul...

[merimask]

I'm looking forward to Chocolate New Orleans with great anticipation!

Do you think Ray Nagin will opt for a plain old run of the mill milk chocolate New Orleans, not unlike a Hershey bar? I'm hoping, considering the sizeable donation I (and many like me) made after the Katrina disaster that Mayor Nagin will go whole hog. None of that cheap dime-store chocolate for mister Nagin! I want to see a Godiva chocolate New Orleans with a creamy nougat center. I'd like the option to enjoy a mocha bon-bon New Orleans with perhaps a touch of hazelnut. And since I'm open-minded, why not a white chocolate truffle New Orleans...just so no one is left out? No crappy "Russel Stover assortment" New Orleans please, Mayor Nagin (it's cheap and tacky, and that waxy stuff plays hell with America's digestive tract, if you know what I mean).

No, I envision a bright Althea's chocolate tomorrow for the Big Easy. God wants it that way, and Ray Nagin is God's hand picked Oompa Loompa of love. Who needs massive urban development and a cogent plan for the future of a city on the brink of dissolution, when a sweet sugar fix could whisk all our cares away faster than you can say "melts in your mouth, not in your hand"? I'll be there with a gleam in my eye and hope in my soul.

Comments

waitaminute

[karenebl.livejournal.com]

I saw this the other day and since there were more important issues to consider I let it ride until now.

When I heard what he said I read between the lines.

You know there are developers out there just rubbing their greedy hands together waiting to cash in on "God's urban renewal". I am terribly afraid that New Orleans will come back as a condoed, gentrified whites only pretend New Orleans, something that will only remind people of what it used to be.

What I heard the mayor saying was that New Orleans was and always should be a city with a large share of people of color. That is part of its culture.

What they should be doing is bringing in urban planners with experience in affordable housing and use the process as a model of how government can be a force for good in people's lives.

Unfortunately that's not likely.

sigh,

Re: waitaminute

[merimask.livejournal.com]

"...I am terribly afraid that New Orleans will come back as a condoed, gentrified whites only pretend New Orleans, something that will only remind people of what it used to be."

I got that too, (in all seriousness), and yeah, I knew what he really meant with his statement.

It just rubbed me the wrong way for a few reasons. Here's why.

New Orleans, as it was pre-Katrina, was a ~terrible~ place for poor people in general and black people in particular. 62% of the residents were black, and a frightening 85% of those were living at or below the poverty level (1999 New Orleans Census of Housing and Population; based on city statistics). The city has consistently rated one of the highest crime rates for cities of at least one million residents, same for homicides, same for drug-related crimes. More money was spent on the penal system than on education in 2003 (Dellums Commission).

So, to say "bring the Black community back to New Orleans because New Orleans needs to be Black", without a clear plan that addresses the problems of urban crowding, poverty, extreme job loss, high crime rates, and anemic funding for education doesn't seem like sound reasoning to me. A large number of former Black residents of New Orleans are scattered all over the country and I bet many of them would rather stay where they are. New Orleans wasn't so good to them.

The "chocolate" thing. It makes for a fun sound byte, sure. But it's a trite, pithy thing to say when the city's infrastructure was so badly neglected for so many years that this mass relocation has allowed many former residents of New Orleans to experience urban communities all over the country that actually work, for the first time. The Orange County Register writes of Black Katrina refugees that are actually considering staying in Utah (Utah!! Where only one percent of the population is Black) because they have found more job opportunities there, better living conditions, and better educations for their children.

Meanwhile, wealthy developers, landowners, and politicians rush to serve eviction notices for displaced minority residents and plan to rebuild New Orleans--minus the city’s poor and Black residents (according to November's issue of "Socialist Worker"). That, I think, is the problem to be addressed. And not with cute "chocolate" metaphors.

Bringing the poor Black community back to New Orleans without offering them better options for living, working, educating and raising families is like rebuilding the city while neglecting the levees. Sooner or later, there's going to be another disaster.