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Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 5014
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 26, 2007 - 09:23 am: | 
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Nagin tells Black Press, 'Tragedy is Still Not Over'
By Hazel Trice Edney, NNPA Washington Correspondent
March 26, 2007
WASHINGTON (NNPA) - New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, declaring "the tragedy is still not over", has called on Black newspaper publishers to use the Hurricane Katrina disaster to expose racial motives in the slow progress in New Orleans and all of urban America.
"Keep the message going. Tell the story about what's really happening. Relate it back to what's going on in your community and let's collectively come together and build a national agenda of what we need to do about urban cities," Nagin said. "The tragedy is still not over. Katrina was one thing, but 1,700 people lost their lives. And now, in the city of New Orleans, because of the stress and the weight of broken promises, people are dying every day."
Nagin was speaking as the "NewsMaker of the Year" award winner during the 2007 Black Press Week celebration of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, a federation of 200 Black-owned newspapers.
NNPA Foundation Chairwoman Dorothy Leavell says Nagin was chosen as this year's top award winner, in part, because of the need for the Black Press, in its 180th year, to focus attention on social and economic injustices still prevalent in New Orleans and in cities across the nation.
The suffering is great and the needs among Blacks are particularly vast, says Nagin. He largely focused on the so-called "Road Home Program", a federal grant of up to $150,000, earmarked for homeowners to rebuild.
"People who should have gotten grants to rebuild their lives and their homes, particularly senior citizens, are still waiting on their checks," he says. "Twelve thousand people are eligible and 3,000 have gotten their checks."
Nagin was broadly criticized last year when he said God wants the pre-Katrina 67 percent Black and 28 percent White New Orleans to return to being "a chocolate city". Louisiana Recovery Authority estimates the city is now about 47 percent Black and 43 percent White with only half its former population.
Though Nagin apologized for the "chocolate city" statement, he maintained last week that he believes racist attitudes are currently controlling the monetary distribution into the city.
"They can't hold this money back much longer, 'cause it's starting to hurt other folk. Y'all know what I'm talking about," he hinted to the nodding audience. "So, they've got to let it loose."
The racial disparities extend past the rebuilding fund, Nagin says.
"There's a health care crisis in the city of New Orleans because they closed down Charity Hospital, so poor people and Black people can't get health care where they need to," he says. "Our public education system was taken over by the state and earlier this year, they had children on waiting lists trying to get into public education. They had over a million dollars worth of obligations that they owe the city of New Orleans to rebuild our water systems and our sewer systems. The fight is not over."
Nagin is not fighting alone.
After the new Democratic Congress - in its first 100 days agenda - and President Bush, in his State of the Union Address - both failed to mention Hurricane Katrina, U. S. Rep. Maxine Waters, chair of the House Committee on Financial Services' Sub Committee on Housing and Community Opportunity, took up the fight.
"I've worked out an arrangement with HUD (Housing and Urban Development) to repair 3,000 of the public housing units right away, so the people can come back from Dallas and places where they're living," says Waters. HUD had planned to demolish the units and take up to five years to rebuild them. The public housing units had been almost totally occupied by African-Americans.
Waters says she is also helping to remove the bottleneck holding up the "Road Home" funds. "I'm going in to find obstructions to and impediments to moving that money that we had already given," complications that she attributes to conflicting policies between the federal, state and city governments.
Up to 200,000 city residents still live outside New Orleans as managers of the Unified New Orleans Plan last week estimated a total $14 billion would be needed to restore the city, nearly doubling the Road Home plan, just for rebuilding homes.
But, the news isn't all bad.
Among independent donors, from the beginning, the New Orleans tragedy drew donations of money, goods and talents that far surpassed the giving within the first 10 days after Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the Dec. 26 Tsunami put together. The monetary donations to official relief agencies had surpassed $500 million within a month after the hurricane.
Volunteerism is still rampant as even students from across the country, including those from Howard University, again participate in an "Alternative Spring Break" to help clean up and construction and major Black organizations and churches are holding conventions in the city.
Nagin also announced the return of the July 4th weekend Essence Festival, which relocated to Houston after Katrina.
Harry Alford, founding president and chief executive officer of the National Black Chamber of Commerce, who introduced Nagin as "the greatest Mayor in the United States," is among Black organizational supporters of New Orleans who has remained committed to the city. Having sat on the prestigious "King Zulu Float" during this year's Mardi Gras Festival, the NNPA Foundation board member, pledged unwavering support to New Orleans and lamented "decades and decades of malfeasance and cutting corners" by the Army Core of Engineers.
Help from communities around the nation, public and private, is what has sustained hope for New Orleans citizens, Nagin says.
"I thank the many cities and states across America for treating our people with respect and taking care of our people," says Nagin. "This is our moment to take a tragedy and turn it into something special for growth and opportunity, not only among the gulf coast, but throughout America."
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Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 4204
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 26, 2007 - 09:39 am: |
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Why does he expect this crisis to be over? When Katrina first hit, officials indicated that it would take 5-10 years to recover. Possibly longer. It will probably be another 15-25 years before New Orleans and surrounding areas are back to normal, and that's only if no additional hurricanes/disasters strike.
Meanwhile, Nagin needs to focus on relevant and meaningful permanent improvements. Feel-good events such as the Essence Festival are nothing more than temporary band-aids.
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