N.O. Votes for Mayor today

[MrsKreamer]

Having grown up and lived most of my life in NOLA, I feel I have to speak up.

Those poor kids you are referring to learn at a very early age, how to boost cars, snatch your purse and pickpocket. That is getting off easily. You are lucky to come away from the projects with your life and I am talking about in the daytime.

If you happen to be a different color from those living in the projects you have little chance of coming out of the projects unhurt or dead.


All children deserve to live in safe areas and go to good schools but the parents need to help themselves as well as their children. The government and charities can only do so much. Just my point of view.

 

[LuvDuke]

I live in a New Orleans suburb. My family is still trying to recover. The stress level is unbelieveable. Everything we have, all of our retirement plans, are in our home. Right now in my neighborhood you cannot sell houses. Everything is in limbo.

If I could have voted, I would have voted for Nagin. Landrieu, nor any of the other candidates who ran, had any concrete plans for how to fix things AND prepare for this hurricane season. Nagin didn't either, but at least he knows where we are at. Yea, Nagin made mistakes. As did our governor, and the federal goverment. It is not one person. The government has FEMA trailers stationed in different areas of the country, paying to house them, but not getting them to people who need them. The people whose homes are fixed cannot get the used trailers picked up. You would have to live here to fully get it. FEMA is the biggest problem we have, and have had from the day the storm hit. Plus let's not forget the Corps of Engineers who KNEW the levees were totally inefficient. I want out so bad I cannot tell you. But we are stuck. Our fate is out of our hands. We just sit back and watch this hurricane season. It will make or break us.

Like someone else said, it is very easy to criticize. Walk in our shoes. (And I am one of the lucky ones).

I have and it's called "Hurricane Charley". Our area still hasn't fully recovered and Charley was half a hurricane in that there was very little flooding. But, slowly, many of our neighbors have come back and some never will.

We've got a problem of what to do with the elderly and lower income who lived in the trailer parks. Many of them can't return to their homes because the park was sold and at a premium price to a developer. They can't afford to buy a new place as the prices went sky high. They literally have nowhere to go. We're working on it here by insuring some affordable housing.

One thing that has been proven as I read/listen to the various comments is the old agage "Talk is cheap". Everybody is an expert on "Monday-morning quarterbacking" going into great detail how someone should've lived their lives. It's irrelevant because they didn't and you still have a problem. Others use the opportunity to get on their crusade of "personal responsibility" as as if the people who've lost everything didn't do everything right, but got screwed anyway by their insurance company, contractor, etc. Talk is, indeed, cheap.

Hang in there. Life will slowly get back to normal and there will be a time when you'll look at your old neighborhood and are thankful for the miracle. We still say here that anyone who wasn't here on August 14, 2004 will never understand that our area's rebuilding and rebirth was a miracle.

Best of luck to you.

 

[mylilnikita]

First let me say that I know what it is like to have stuff destroyed by a hurricane and even have a tree fall into my room with me in it. My life has never been the same after that. I know what it is like to wonder when everything is going to be normal again, when is the house going to be fixed, when can I go back to work, when will kids go back to school. But stuff can be replaced, if you have money, after you cut through to insurance stuff because they don't want to pay or take their time getting to you then not liking what the first insurance appraiser stated the cost was to fix the house so you have to wait for another one to come out, not to mention that everyone becomes a contractor and people in a city nearby still almost 3 years after Isabel hit are still in Fema trailers because of insurance or so called contractors leaving them to fend for themselves. I know 3 people who had everything destroyed, houses cars so I know how lucky I am being able to live in the other part of the house.
Everyone in Katrina made mistakes from Nagin, FEMA-who sucked when Isabel happened too, to the government, but to not have a plan to get the people out who could not get themselves out just so they could die in their homes, or the convention center fiasco, I wouldn't vote those same people to be around for the next disaster.
After Isabel, we were able to get emergency food stamp cards for people who lost food and other requirements had to be met. There was no real plan so they were telling residents to go to 1 place, then they put it in the paper to have 2 places, well I went to the 2nd place, a social services satellite office and the guy told us to go back home because we weren't going to get anything from them. Well some people left, but I wasn't one of them. We called every news station in our area, we called our council woman and told her if she doesn't help us, she wasn't getting re elected. A couple hours later, the same guy who told us to go home was holding the door open for us so we could get processed and then the city wised up and extended the days so the rest of the people who were turned away could get them.
It is funny to me that all these residents were bussed back in to vote, but they couldn't get bussed out before the storm. Nagin is a very attention getting, if his hands were tied, I wish he had been telling the goverment before the hurricane right there at the press conferance, "come help us get our residents out now."
I wish all of you luck getting your lives back together as well as your homes.

 

[DopeyRN]

I know that there is a perception that all the people in the dome and at the convention center were there because they were left stranded by their government. It is simply not true. We have been through this so many times, have been told to evacuate. It gets old, and some people start to believe they don't NEED to go. Many, if not most, of the people you saw were there because they CHOSE not to leave. "My neighborhood has never flooded before". There were people on tv before the storm saying "I'm gonna ride it out, and if I have to, I'll go to the dome". Nagin said the dome would not be open, but there came the point where he had no choice but to open it. People simply did not believe this would really happen. Some refused to leave their houses after the waters started rising. The government can only do so much, then the burden shifts to the individuals. Were there people who truly had no transportation to leave, yes there were. But not to the extent that the media has portrayed.

Here's praying for a safe season for everyone, because they are predicting another rough ride.

 

[vital]

WOW

The "criminal element" can be found in ALL neighborhoods. Not all people living in the projects are criminals.

I guess the kids from the projects don't deserve to live in nice,safe areas or attend good schools. Poor kids.

Come to my city (Jackson, MS) or speak to anyone who lives in Baton Rouge about the crime statistics since the storm. Car jackings have gone up 173% here as well as other crime. We have inherited a LOT of the criminals. There's no one left to prey upon in New Orleans so they have gone elsewhere. I've been to New Orleans several times since the storm and have never felt safer. I agree that the KIDS from the projects deserve a nice safe area and good schools but their older siblings have already been brainwashed by the street thugs. It's a shame, but it's reality.

 

[arminnie]

Many, if not most, of the people you saw were there because they CHOSE not to leave.

That is SO true - plus it is also true of a lot of people that did not go to the Dome or convention center. I know many people who did not evacuate - and I'm not talking about medical staff and first responders. The people that I knew who did not evacuate for the most part lived Uptown - the sliver by the river that did not flood.

Of course there are many decent people from the projects, but unfortunately the projects had become a no man's land and even the police were afraid to go in there. Two days before Katrina, I discussed with friends that I would NEVER go to the Dome if I had stayed. It is a miracle that things went as well as they did.

If someone has seen the number of abandoned cars left in the city they would realize that thousands of people could have left in those cars.

The majority of those who died were elderly. Most of them had lived through Betsy (1965) and Camille (1969) and thought that was the worst that could be thrown at them.

Crime in Houston is a nightmare. The school officials have publicly stated that they have never come across such hardened criminals at such a young age - and Houston has it's own inner city problems.

We have a lot of evacuees in Arkansas, but there has been relatively little if any impact on the crime rate. It seems like everyday I meet someone (a cashier or other worker) who has come from New Orleans or the Gulf Coast.

 

[MrsKreamer]

I know that there is a perception that all the people in the dome and at the convention center were there because they were left stranded by their government. It is simply not true. We have been through this so many times, have been told to evacuate. It gets old, and some people start to believe they don't NEED to go. Many, if not most, of the people you saw were there because they CHOSE not to leave. "My neighborhood has never flooded before". There were people on tv before the storm saying "I'm gonna ride it out, and if I have to, I'll go to the dome". Nagin said the dome would not be open, but there came the point where he had no choice but to open it. People simply did not believe this would really happen. Some refused to leave their houses after the waters started rising. The government can only do so much, then the burden shifts to the individuals. Were there people who truly had no transportation to leave, yes there were. But not to the extent that the media has portrayed.

Here's praying for a safe season for everyone, because they are predicting another rough ride.

I still remember hearing about the traffic jam getting to the Dome on the radio. They said CARS were lined up for a good 2 miles trying to get the the Dome's parking lot.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

The only thing that concerns me is that those who rode out Katrina and survive--there are some nuts who won't hesitate to do that again. (just like some nuts who did that with Camille).

Hope all is well. At least the nutcase who had the picture of Disneyland on her webpage passing it off as NOLA didn't win. That wasn't Landrieu (Sp?) was it?

 

[zipuzee]

As someone whose lived in New Orleans all my life, I wanted to throw in my two cents. Regarding the criminal element, unfortunately this is been going on for so many years, that it will take years to correct. Parents (and I use that term very loosely) don't care what their kids are doing, and refuse to cooperate with the schools to see that kids are in class and getting decent grades. Not all parents, but enough of them to perpetuate the cycle. You see these kids 14-16 yo getting arrested for murder and the police show a rap sheet a mile long, and the parent yelling that my kid is a good kid. I'm sorry that this crime problem has spread to other parts of the state and to other states. But the good news for all you out of towners is that the criminal element is finding their way back home.
Regarding evacuations, I said several years back that some plan was needed to help people leave, from transportation to providing shelters in other areas of the state. I know from personal experiece, that not everyone has the financial means to stay at a hotel for several days on end. There was a short time in our life when there was no savings to fall back on, and we were truly struggling.
Regarding the flooding, had the levees been built correctly, the damage from flooding would be substantially reduced. I know that my home suffered only minor roof damage until the levees failed.
Regarding the election, well, time will tell. I frankly was unimpressed with any of the candidates and voting was a dificult decision.
But, I'll tell you this: this city will come back. It will not happen overnight, but will be slow and take years. I watch progress being made on a weekly basis. More houses getting cleaned up, torn down or renovated. Schools, churches, businesses, all slowly coming back. Our aquarium will reopen on Friday. And if you live out of town, come visit and pass a good time!!

 

[razamataz]

Come to my city (Jackson, MS) or speak to anyone who lives in Baton Rouge about the crime statistics since the storm. Car jackings have gone up 173% here as well as other crime. We have inherited a LOT of the criminals. There's no one left to prey upon in New Orleans so they have gone elsewhere. I've been to New Orleans several times since the storm and have never felt safer. I agree that the KIDS from the projects deserve a nice safe area and good schools but their older siblings have already been brainwashed by the street thugs. It's a shame, but it's reality.

I also live in the Jackson metro area and I have to agree. Jackson had enough of its own crime problems, before Hurricane Katrina. I am amazed every time I turn on the local news.

 

[DopeyRN]

Lisa, I am pretty sure the person with the Disney pics was Cynthia somebody...cannot remember her name. She didn't do well in the primary election, possibly because she was arrested and went to jail for doing something wrong (I hardly listen anymore).

Zipuzee, very well stated.

 

[zipuzee]

Lisa, I am pretty sure the person with the Disney pics was Cynthia somebody...cannot remember her name. She didn't do well in the primary election, possibly because she was arrested and went to jail for doing something wrong (I hardly listen anymore).

That would be Kimberly Butler Williams, our illustrious (and thankfully former) clerk of court.

 

[MrsKreamer]

Ms Butler went to jail for contempt of court. She was found in contempt because she wouldn't allow someone into the flooded evidence room to secure the evidence. Oh and she compaired her 3 day stint in orleans lock-up to the plight of Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King.

 

[DopeyRN]

Yes...this is why I am tending to avoid the news more and more. I do believe I have post traumatic stress disorder LOL...made worse by the fact that I am in healthcare which is a nightmare here and am doing mandatory overtime.