On Blakely-Worship

A response to this very biased article by The New York Times' Adam Nossiter. Go read it first. It's only two pages.

I take great issue with Adam Nossiter's continued reporting on New Orleans' so-called Recovery Czar, Ed Blakely. There are indeed some daunting realities on the ground here that were glossed over in the most recent article on Mr Blakely's follies. Let's examine Mr Blakely's roles in handling these realities:

1) There are currently an estimated 1 out of every 25 people in this city that are homeless. Indiscriminate city demolitions of private homes people are trying to gut and rebuild, coupled with the federally-sanctioned demolition of the city's housing projects (for which there are NO concrete plans and contracts for their replacement), and now a June 1 deadline for all residents of formaldehyde-leeching FEMA trailers to relocate themselves will only increase the numbers of homeless people here. Mr Blakely has stayed very, very far from this crisis, something that I would think any urban planner would want to sink his teeth into. Instead of rising to the challenge, Mr Blakely chooses to hide in a pile of red tape.

2) The Orleans Parish public school system was dissolved shortly after 8-29-2005, and the state-run Board of Elementary and Secondary Education is now in charge of the remains of the school district. It has left large numbers of schools to sit in a ruined state for 2 1/2 years, time that could have been spent gutting and remodeling those much-needed school facilities. Mr Blakely, with his moving and shaking reputation preceding him, could have helped get the funds to get schools like the one on St Claude Avenue pictured in the article gutted and reopened. I have not seen a single member of Mr Blakely's staff involved in this aspect of recovery, which I find very strange - won't improved schools be attractive to potential and returning residents of this city, thus hastening its rebirth? Any Recovery Czar would give his eyeteeth to have been responsible for that.

3) Economically, New Orleans is the same as it ever was. Tourism dollars rule. Any attempts to get city government to attract other types of businesses here - perhaps software development, or sophisticated laboratories devoted to reclaiming wetlands, or even proper civil engineering - have not been observed amid the other serious problems the recovery process of New Orleans faces. Mr Blakely has not chimed in with any other suggestions in this area other than the ones he initially came here preaching. There are no cranes in the city's skyline. Any improvements that have been made here have been done by the city's residents themselves, by groups of volunteers who are thankfully taking vacation time out to help in any way they can, or by great organizations such as Kaboom!, which enlists bands of volunteers to erect a playground in a day. I want Mr Blakely to come to more of these events and see what kind of cooperation can exist between all races and creeds in the rebuilding effort - but he instead wants to take bicycle tours of this city and preach patience on our part while he does little.

In conclusion, people like Mr Blakely who are supposed to be all about action will talk a whole lot and, when nothing happens, blame their inertia on everyone but themselves. Mr Nossiter's reporting only exacerbates this problem by focusing on the ineffective buffoon - to use Mr Blakely's own term - and aiding in his blaming of the victims, without much investigation into what is really going on.

In New Orleans, disgust for Mr Blakely is nothing new. A refusal on the part of a New York Times reporter to see beyond Mr Blakely's blather is beyond disgusting. It is reprehensible.

Yeah, I sent this off to the Times, minus the links ( and you can chime in, too, at letters@nytimes.com ). Since this is greater than their publication limit of 150 words, I don't think it'll get published unless they undertake some serious editing. Thank goodness I've got my own blog.

And I would love to know what Blakely gave Mr Nossiter for him to be reporting on the Setback Czar like this. If I could get hold of such a potion, maybe I could maneuver the MSM into paying much greater attention to the NOLA blogosphere.

Update, 1:24 - Oh, and Karen passed this on to me. If anybody has been clamoring for the big box stores to come on in, aside from the Setback Czar, city officials, and entrepreneurs like our mayor and his family, let me know.

Anudder update, 2:08 - The Setback Czar would do well to head out on a drive with Maitri, too.

One mo' time, 2:22 - Dangerblond, a Blakely Tour attendee, chimes in.

Spoke too soon, y'all, 7:19 - Maitri reminds us to follow the money. Blakely is only exacerbating a serious Catch-22 in these parts with his inertia. No projects = no recovery money. The less recovery money needed now = even less money that will come to this region in the future, leading to - few to no projects.