If I were mayor of New Orleans, even if my very best friend said something publicly about the city that was hurtful, untrue and damaging to its reputation, I would denounce my best friend and stand up for the city.
Mayor Ray Nagin needs to stand up for his city. After comments made by Nagin’s handpicked former “recovery czar,” Ed Blakely, were reported last week, Nagin should have been the first person to issue a statement rejecting Blakely’s statements. Among Blakely’s utterances was that white people were waiting to be at the throats of blacks to regain political power and that would lead to race riots. He also proclaimed, while conceding that he was never very interested in his New Orleans job, that the city wouldn’t last another 100 years.
Nagin should have responded that Blakely’s prediction of race riots was thoughtless. He might have mentioned that when Los Angeles had race riots in 1992 because of the Rodney King incident, New Orleanians of all races were dancing together at the Jazz Fest. Since the 1960s, Cleveland and Detroit have also had race riots but never New Orleans.
His Honor could have pointed out that he was first elected with the strong support of white voters and that even in his last election with his reputation already eroded, he received a sizeable Uptown white vote against a white opponent.
He might have added some historical context by observing that when the Louisiana Purchase was completed, New Orleans, the jewel of the purchase, was the first city in the country to have an ethnically diverse population.
Nagin could have explained that many cities, including Los Angeles, Chicago, Cleveland and New York, have in recent years had both black mayors and white mayors and all have done all right through coalition building.
He might have added that no white person will ever be elected mayor of New Orleans without getting substantial support from the black community, and that, in turn, empowers blacks.
He could have said that the black population in New Orleans is not a monolith but a culturally rich community that is diverse within itself including some from old families that trace back to the city’s early years. Voting attitudes differ as much among blacks as they do among whites.
Finally, the mayor might have conceded that, to his regret, Blakely spent too little time in this city to truly understand it.
Instead, Nagin has said nothing.
He might be embarrassed, reasoning that to criticize Blakely would be an admission that his selection of him was a mistake. But everybody already knows that Blakely was a disastrous choice. If Nagin really cared for New Orleans, he would sacrifice a bit of self pride to defend the city.
As for Blakely, he is nothing but a phony academic, one of those who hoped to get prestige from the Ph. D. mill without grasping that succeeding in life requires not a fancy degree but skill. He talks the jargon of rebuilding with expertise but lacks both the ability to manage and the integrity to avoid playing the race card as a subterfuge for his failures.
When Blakely’s selection was first announced, I hoped that there would one day be a statue of him in downtown New Orleans and a boulevard named after him to honor his success at rebuilding the city. Instead he will be remembered as one of the recovery’s hucksters. He didn’t accomplish much, defamed the city, spent little time here and took a paycheck for it.
If ever another area recovering from a disaster considers hiring Blakely, I hope someone makes a call to New Orleans for references. Ed Blakely will be remembered here for a long time, even as the city prospers 100 years from now.
Krewe: The Early New Orleans Carnival – Comus to Zulu by Errol Laborde is available at all area bookstores. Books can also be ordered via e- mail at gdkrewe@aol.com or (504) 895-2266.
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