forgotston.com

Today’s quote comes courtesy of a New Orleans resident writing an op- ed for the Toledo, Ohio newspaper:

Louisiana politicians would steal a hot stove and come back for the smoke.

The op-ed piece goes on to report about reality in New Orleans.

People in New Orleans are lamenting the articles that are being written, literally, around the world about New Orleans almost two years after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers flooded the city. The one common denominator in all the reports is the LACK OF PROGRESS in the recovery and rebuilding.

Whether we want to believe the reports, they reflect the view of the city as others see it. All the PR, spin and branding by the local officials cannot overcome the perception of the reality as others see New Orleans.

Rather than living in constant denial, people in New Orleans would be much better served by accepting that whether one finds such conditions acceptable, those in the rest of the world don’t find them so. If we really want people to come back to New Orleans, the problems as seen by those who don’t live in the city, must be admitted and fixed.

I keep hearing people refer to a “celebration” of the 2nd Anniversary of Katrina. As one who was wiped out by the failures of our government at all levels on August 29, 2005, I see nothing to “celebrate” about that horrible day.

If anything needs to be done on August 29, 2007, it should be a day when all government officials in LA put in a double-shift fixing something in the city that is broken. That would be something to celebrate.

C.B.

Uncategorized CB 8:00 am

The story about a small town in LA not having a police car would be humorous if it was a episode of “The Andy Griffith Show” and about Mayberry. However, this story is about a small town in a state that just spent over $60 Million in a $33 Billion budget on all manner of pork barrel projects for local governments.

C.B.

Uncategorized CB 9:26 am

In a story in Saturday’s Daily Monopoly by Watchcat Robert Travis Scott, LA’s economic development guru, Mike Olivier
makes the following statement:

“Naturally, it is disappointing to hear that a former employee acted unethically because we have worked so hard in recent years to grow a new industry that can benefit all parts of our state,” Olivier said.

What Olivier fails to mention is that the “former employee” was an active employee under his supervision when the employee pocketed $65,000 in bribes.

In a classic understatement Olivier claims his employee “acted unethically.” He committed a FELONY!

How’d he know?

Olivier goes on to say:

Department of Economic Development Secretary Michael Olivier said the agency has improved oversight and has worked with the Legislature to pass a new law adding safeguards to the process.

Interesting that Olivier said his agency has “improved oversight” and gotten the lege to “add safeguards” when this crime was just revealed on Friday morning.

It begs the question of how could Olivier have fixed a problem that he didn’t know existed until after the lege had adjourned?

It all makes one wonder what else is going on under Olivier’s nose as he travels the world at our expense to recruit new businesses while our existing businesses are being ripped off.

In any case, Olivier’s responses sound like typical bureaucratic butt-covering.

C.B.

Uncategorized CB 8:00 am