Liberty's Blog: The Mayor and Admiral Disagree

Sunday, September 18, 2005

The Mayor and Admiral Disagree

Nagin is telling the folks in the French Quarter and in the Garden District to come on home. While Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen isn't so sure that this is a good idea.

Mayor Ray Nagin defended his plan to return up to 180,000 people to the city within a week and a half despite concerns about the short supply of drinking water and heavily polluted floodwaters.
Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen, head of the federal disaster relief effort, said Saturday that Nagin's idea is both "extremely ambitious and "extremely problematic."

I understand that they both have different opinions because they both have different motivations and perspectives.

Admiral Allen wants to get his work done quickly and efficiently and get out of there as soon as he can. As folks move in, priority's change and those areas with people in it will change the priority's. Folks needing electric and water, or health services could take priority over clearing the and cleaning up the most devastated parts of the city. Disease outbreaks could change the whole focus of the recovery operation.

Mayor Nagin wants his city back. New Orleans, is out of money and it is incapable of generating more. The Federal government is pumping lits of money into the city, and will probably bail out the city government, but he needs cash flow now. Without people in his city, he won't be able to justify funds to run a city with no people. Not only that, he needs to pull off having an election in November. This not only involves having voters, but the poll workers and personal. The most important thing that Nagin understands is that he needs people to do the real clean up and construction that is required. Before anyone can even start rebuilding there needs to be food water and gasoline. The small businesses that supply the basic needs is the basic corner stone to recovery. They need to feed and supply a workforce. Nagin needs to get small businesses in the French Market/Quarter and the Garden District up and running as soon as possible.

What seems to be happening though, is that there is no communications between the Nagin and Allen. A meeting is planned for Monday. I would think Nagin could have waited until after the meeting before announcing the repopulation.

Allen, who planned to meet with Nagin on Monday, said federal officials support the mayor's vision for repopulating the city, but he is concerned about the mayor's timeline. "Our intention is to work with the mayor ... in a very frank, open and unvarnished manner," he said.