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Like kissing babies, the congressional delegation’s visit to New Orleans makes for good photo op’s. Almost three years after the big one Pelosi is trying to convince us that the folks in Washington really give a shit. The stories of Pelosi personally helping a couple of individuals get their recovery funds, loses site of the bigger picture of the recovery and the trickle of federal funds getting into the hands of the people. I guess in an election year we should expect to get this kind of attention, after all it’s like kissing babies.

When it comes to paying our fair share for levee protection I think Jindal’s approach is reasonable.

From T.P.

But they continue to deal with other state requests. Gov. Bobby Jindal said Monday that his top priority is to persuade his former congressional colleagues to give the state 30 years to pay its $1.8 billion share of levee construction costs, rather than the three years signed into law last month.

Of course Mayor do nothing thinks we should pay nothing. The pay nothing approach doesn’t help our hand out, welfare reputation that many people around the country have of us. We do need to share in the cost of our levee protection.

From T.P.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin hoped for a more generous arrangement, arguing that the state and local governments shouldn’t have to pay anything for the levee work.

“While I support the governor’s compromise position on federal funding for this protection and appreciate his advocacy, I believe that this city and this region deserve 100 percent federal funding for this flood protection system,” Nagin said.

If you watched any of the television news coverage of the delegation’s visit you will notice that Dollar Bill Jefferson seemed to be in every shot. If he were really interested in the state getting more recovery funds he would not show his face. Seeing that crook asking for more money for the state can only hurt our cause.

From my cynical and jaded perspective I would say, don’t expect great things to come out of this visit. It is a facade by the democratic party who are trying to convince the american people that they are they party that cares.

But it is more attention than we get from the reds who could care less. If you can’t blow it up or kill it those guys could care less.

FEMA and the Nagin administration have come to an agreement to re-sod parks that were used as trailer parks after Katrina. Why does every aspect of the recovery of this city have to be an experience akin to pulling teeth. These are quality of life issues that need to be addressed, the only time they are addressed is when someone jumps up and down like a five hundred pound gorilla.

The Mayor was on his best behavior during his state of the city message. Nothing earth shattering. I am not convinced that the initiatives he announced will help, his track record is pretty bad when it comes to implementation. I did hear him say when he was reffering to the snafued crime camera program, I beleive it was “no more excuses, no more delays” we will see. While I would like to be positive about the city’s recovery, I have no confidence in local leaders to pull it off. You don’t have to drive around very much to find parts of town that look a lot like they did right after the storm. I was really hoping that he would say something really stupid.

Celcus at Some Came running seems unimpressed.

I took this picture a week or so ago, it is a prime example of a failure to deal with blighted property in the city of New Orleans. There are people who are living next to this place that looks like it is about to fall down. As we approach the third anniversary of the storm and the subsequent Federal Flood, blight and abandoned houses are still the norm in the city. Our foot dragging government continues to be ineffective in dealing with the problem. There is a public safety issue here that was demonstrated last week when a seven year old child drowned in an unsecured swimming pool of an abandoned house in Eastern New Orleans. While our city leaders eat high on the hog on the taxpayers nickel, citizens are losing their lives and their quality of life to government neglect.

A friend at work reported that she would be coming in late today. Her home was being delivered to her New Orleans east lot. Her original house was destroyed during Katrina, since then she has moved two or three times including a stint in a FEMA trailer. It has been a hard road for C. getting insurance and road home money lined up, ordering her modular home, getting the pile foundation built. Through it all she has rarely complained, and never talked about leaving.

Yesterday her daughter was in the office after school, the smile on her face said it all. She was so happy that after two and a half years that she was very close to having her own room again. It is people like C. who have driven the city’s recovery. I often wonder if I would have had the same fortitude had I been in the same boat.

UPDATE:

C’s house did not arrive this morning the axle on the trailer that was carrying the house broke. It should arrive Thursday.

Yesterdays Times Picayune report on the Mayors accoplishments or lack thereof at the mid-term point in his second term. I thought the article was kind of easy on the cable guy. Of course I am extremely biased when I talk about the Mayor, I have never forgiven him for his lack of leadership imediately after the storm. Considering the lack of a workable disaster plan, and the mayor hiding out in the Sheraton after the storm, I lost respect for the man at that point. Since then he has not done anything to change my mind. From his snail like approach to recovery, to the fact that he can’r keep his foot out of his mouth, you wind up with an administration that only seems to care about it’s political image and not the citizens of the City of New Orleans. I continue to hold my nose as he finishes out his term, hoping that in the next election we can elect someone who has the skills and the passion to improve the quality of life of the citizens who have made great sacrifices to return and rebuild. Meanwhile the administration continues to sign contracts that cost New Orleans more than simular contracts across the country. When asked to be accountable the mayor hides behind his staffers who he “delegates” the responsibility of running the city. The recovery of New Orleans continues to be driven by the citizens who have returned, in spite of the roadblocks that City Hall places in their way.

I took a day trip to the Gulf Coast today to soothe my soul a little bit. The last time I was on Hwy 90 was in June of 2006. A lot of it still looks the same, major development such as Casinos and some Hotels seem to be popping up but there are still a lot of vacant lots over there. The Highway is being repaved and the beaches are being worked on.

The Mississippi Gulf Coast has never had the prettiest beaches but they have looked better than they do now.

There are still quite a few reminders of Katrina around, the Oak trees are still struggling to recover.

A little further down the road I stopped and hiked the few miles of trails called the David Bayou Trail which is part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore.

The Visitor Center is currently in a temporary building the new Visitor Center is still being built. Since it has been two years since I have been here I thought I would see more progress along the beach front. I shouldn’t be surprised, it looks like parts of New Orleans, and those of us who live here know how slow the progress is going in certain areas of town.

The trade summit taking place in New Orleans seems to be getting under some peoples’ skin. The closed roads and traffic jams have been quite the incovienience to those who live and work here.. I have managed to avoid downtown and everywhere else that has been disrupted by the visit of the president. Which is good since my mood today would probably have me MF’n all over town.

I found this quote by Bush on the recovery to be uninformed.

“You can see hope in the fact that people are absolutely determined to make it better than it was before,” Bush said. “For all of you who contributed to the resurgence of New Orleans, I want to thank you on behalf of a grateful nation.”

Number one I don’t see the city being rebuilt better than it was before, we have managed to maintain most of the bad qualities that the city had before the storm. The other thing I don’t believe is that the nation is grateful to those of us who have returned. If you read or listen to the opinions of many around the country when they speak of New Orelans they are resentful.

With all of the federal aid that has come to New Orleans, it hasn’t been enough to fix police, or firestations, The roads continue to disentegrate, every federal dollar that the city has received has been a torturous process that is a kin to pulling teeth with a pair of pliers. While parts of the city have recovered fairly well, mainly the parts that weren’t hit that hard. The hardest hit areas are still a disaster area.