The Most Important Person in New Orleans

The Most Important Person in New Orleans
May 9, 2007
New Orleans, La.

Family and Friends--

Ed Blakely strides into places quickly with never much more than a quick shake and a glance.

Magazines have called him the “Master of Disaster.” Others refer to him as the New Orleans’ recovery czar. And after controversial comments of his were printed in an April edition of the New York Times, some called City Hall and asked that the guy take a hike.

He’s Dr. Edward Blakely to be exact--the most important man in the Big Easy.

When he walks by you quickly, perhaps the 70-year-0ld is envisioning what New Orleans could look like 20 years from now. Or maybe he’s thinking about a grand plan to raise $1.1 billion by June. But he might just be human, searching for the coffee pot or a lavatory.

If he is a mere mortal though, many New Orleanians hope Blakely has a dash of magic hidden somewhere.

What the New York Times called an ace up his sleeves, Dr. Blakely began his mutual courtship tonight with Tulane University, one of New Orleans Universities, which are a huge asset to the City, he says.

Unlike neighborhood meetings where emotions and tempers flare and end in occasional tears, the crowd of about 3o academics seemed unusually calm. In neighborhood meetings, the residents ask for his help.

But tonight, “I need you” he said to Tulane deans and professors. “Especially, law, architecture and environmental programs.”

Blakely says that the City of New Orleans is receiving no money from the state and federal government for his efforts. When he said that, the breath of the room slowed, almost halted.

When asked if the future of New Orleans should be a 2008 Presidential issue, Blakely said. “Absolutely.”

No one running for President in 2008 can afford not to come to New Orleans he said. But, “we won’t let a politician in here without writing a check first.”

Poltico-photo-ops in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast have gone on long enough he says.

Blakely has been at the center of many major American disaster rebuilds. Most notably 9/11.

“Mr. President, we don’t want you here without your money,” he said to George W. Bush in Post-9/11 New York.

The same will go for Post-KATRINA New Orleans and the 2008 winner.

But will Tulane step up in these fragile and infant rebuilding days? Will professors and deans band together with Dr. Blakely or make decisions with only Tulane in mind?

Rumors and water cooler speak at Tulane generally carry the tone that the belatedly appointed Dr. Blakely is recreating the past. President Scott Cowen was chairman of the first rebuilding plan proposed by Mayor Nagin’s “Bring New Orleans Back” commission.

“Are those documents collecting dust?” Cowen probably wonders. When I asked Dr. Cowen if he was coming to the meeting with Dr. Blakely, he politely responded that he’d be out of town. If I remember correctly, he ended the interaction with,

“I’ll call him (Blakely) when I need him.”

Dr. Blakely, influential in the rebuilding after 9/11, the San Francisco World Series Earthquake and the 1991 Oakland fire may have the soothsayer vision of a 2027 version of New Orleans swirling in his central lobes.

Critics say he’s late.

But in the Crescent City, the clocks are always a little slow.

Best,

Robert

If you are a member of a University who would like to participate in the rebuilding of New Orleans email me at rxfogarty@yahoo.com. The Office of Recovery Management would like to see many American higher-education institutions aid the local Universities in the recovery effort.

Photos Courtesy of Rebecca Mann, City of New Orleans.

New Orleans' Inconvenient Truth

For The Children Literacy Program
May 3, 2007
New Orleans, La.

Family and Friends--

The people in room 213 have what you want in lawmakers.

Passion. Clarity of thought. Action.

It’s too bad they’re in the fifth grade.

At Banneker Elementary, students are penning letters to Louisiana Congressman Bobby Jindal about the daily erosion of the Louisiana wetlands, which serve as a natural protection from hurricanes and tropical storms for New Orleans.

“I think that we need the wetlands because it slows down the hurricanes that are coming our way,” 11-year-old Alvin says. “We don’t want to have the Gulf of Mexico to be right next to us.”

Ten-year-old Thaddeus wants Coastal Erosion and its threat to be a 2008 Presidential issue.

Dear Senator Barack Obama,

“I don’t want the Gulf of Mexico to be in the Ninth Ward because that is where I’m from,” he wrote.

“I was here for the hurricane and I live in the lower ninth ward and I had to swim in 22-feet of water.

I lost my step-little-sister in the flood. My little sister was only four-years-old.

We lost everything. See, this is why we need to save the wetlands.”

The hour before, the AmeriCorps team had a discussion/yelling contest about Coastal Erosion using New Orleans'
Times -Picayune writers Bob Marshall and Mark Schleifstein’s three part series, “LAST CHANCE: The Fight to Save a Disappearing Coast” as a reference.

Marshall and Schleifstein say that wetlands the size of three football fields are lost every day. What was once a 70 mile buffer for New Orleans from the Gulf of Mexico is now 30 miles. By 2040, at current rates, New Orleans will be a coastal city according to experts.

They say we have 10 years to fix the current erosion dilemma before it passes the point of no return.

“We’ll just have to put up a huge floodwall,” AmeriCorps member Jeff Swartz said intentionally mimicking the "laissez le bon temps rouler" attitude often used to describe New Orleanians.

“After reading LAST CHANCE,” another said “I was wondering why we are rebuilding in the low-lying areas...in 10 years will this all be for naught?”

Michael Pizzolatto, our AmeriCorps supervisor at Tulane and life-long Louisianan stopped the conversation. He had the “I have something to say and you all better listen” face.

All over the country pundits and critics of New Orleans say not to rebuild. They say it’s too dangerous. But only 50
percent of New Orleans is below sea level, he said.

“What about Miami?" The entire city is only three feet above sea level at it's highest point with no natural hurricane protection, he said.

When they say not to rebuild New Orleans, pundits conveniently forget or do not know that New Orleans ports are the life-force in American exports and imports.

Do they say, “The largest port tonnage-wise is between New Orleans and Baton Rouge?”

Or, “Twenty-eight percent of the US Energy supply comes from SE Louisiana?”

“No,” he said with one of those “I’ve been frustrated by this for a long time” looks.

The AmeriCorps team talked about the Tennessee Valley Authority that was a part of FDR’s New Deal. How in the 1930s without the luxury of 21^st century technology, but with massive man power and post-World War Era dollars solved major ecological problems including flooding and erosion.

“But we’re in a war,” another AmeriCorpsian said.

To stop Coastal Erosion and block the Gulf of Mexico from moving in as New Orleans’ new next door neighbor, a serious federal commitment is needed.

We’re talking “How much do they want?” numbers.

One-hundred billion dollars would be a good start. If not, we can always build that big wall.

It would be a shame to see New Orleans' youth lose their homes in another storm.

"Can you please give us the money to fix the wetlands?" Alvin asked.

Best,

Robert

To view LAST CHANCE: The Fight to Save a Disappearing Coast, a Three-Part Series in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, click here:

Erosion images by Ted Jackson of the Times-Picayune.

http://www.nola.com/speced/lastchance/t-p/index.ssf?/speced/lastchance/articles/day1.html