New Orleans Residents Are Bailing Out

snopes · #1 09 February 2007, 06:42 AM

New Orleans is a city on a knife's edge. A year and a half after Hurricane Katrina, an alarming number of residents are leaving or seriously thinking of getting out for good.

They have become fed up with the violence, the bureaucracy, the political finger-pointing, the sluggish rebuilding and the doubts about the safety of the levees.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...DGE?SITE=FLTAM

hambubba · #2 09 February 2007, 01:22 PM

This is how the sheriff gives a news conference.

And you wonder why people are bailing... It's really sad.

RickRS · #3 09 February 2007, 02:08 PM

This quote is telling:

Quote:

As of Feb. 5, Road Home had taken 105,739 applications and resolved only 532 cases, granting $33.8 million. At the current rate, Road Home would take more than 13 years to complete.

I heard that on the network news this past week (NBC, I think) and thought "only 532?!?!" The bad thing is that those that have the means will leave, just like during the hurricane, leaving the poor to fend for themselves against the criminal elements.

Griffin2020 · #4 09 February 2007, 05:05 PM

After reading the article in the link, I do not see an issue with his using the rifle as a prop in the news conference. Am I just thick? Please edumacate me.

Buckle Up · #5 09 February 2007, 05:45 PM

I don't have as much trouble with the rifle as a "prop" as I do with the sheriff's quotes, such as:

Quote:

“I’m not targeting blacks. I’m targeting bad guys,” he said Tuesday. “At the end of the day, everybody realizes that most of the people we will be targeting will be black.”

hambubba · #6 09 February 2007, 05:57 PM

Lee and his officers have been in the spotlight before, for nearly the same thing; namely, they were accused of "racial profiling" for a policy of stopping cars with black males in predominantly white neighborhoods. The crime rate in those neighborhoods had gone up, and they were taking steps to correct it.

Lee calls 'em like he sees 'em. He's not a racist, but he is frank on where the majority of the crime problems are coming from. I tend to agree with his approaches, but there is a line where it is "profiling", and it's very, very gray in New Orleans.

ham "and that was not a pun" bubba

Horse Chestnut · #7 10 February 2007, 02:54 AM

A couple of weeks back, when they released the latest research on global warming, our local paper printed a graphic showing the current southern coastline of the US, with redrawn lines indicating how high the water levels would rise. New Orleans, along with the rest of Louisiana gulf coast, was completely under water.

I love New Orleans, and have spent many happy times there, but in my eyes, it is a dying city, and sooner rather than later, it will be completely lost to the sea. People would be smart to take what money they can for their destroyed property and leave with their memories.