>They gave us Katrina relief; now they're going to fix the economy.
>
>Joanna
But there was no intention to fix New Orleans. That wasn't simple incompetence, it was to some degree managed negligence.
Catastrophic economics The predators of New Orleans Mike Davis
>Not surprisingly, some advocates of a whiter, safer city see a
>divine plan in Katrina. "We finally cleaned up public housing in New
>Orleans," a leading Louisiana Republican confined to Washington
>lobbyists. "We couldn't do it, but God did" (13). Nagin boasted of
>his empty streets and ruined neighbourhoods: "This city is for the
>first time free of drugs and violence, and we intend to keep it that way."
>...if New Orleans, as many bitter exiles now believe, was allowed to
>die as a result of governmental incompetence and neglect, blame also
>squarely falls on the Governor's Mansion in Baton Rouge, and
>especially on City Hall on Perdido Street. Mayor C Ray Nagin is a
>wealthy African-American cable television executive and a Democrat,
>who was elected in 2002 with 87% of the white vote (3).
>
>He was ultimately responsible for the safety of the estimated
>quarter of the population that was too poor or infirm to own a car.
>His stunning failure to mobilise resources to evacuate car-less
>residents and hospital patients, despite warning signals from the
>city's botched response to the threat of Hurricane Ivan in September
>2004, reflected more than personal ineptitude: it was also a symbol
>of the callous attitude among the city's elites, both white and
>black, toward their poor neighbours in backswamp districts and
>rundown housing projects. Indeed, the ultimate revelation of Katrina
>was how comprehensively the promise of equal rights for poor
>African-Americans has been dishonoured and betrayed by every level
>of government.
http://mondediplo.com/2005/10/02katrina