New Orleans is gearing up to mark the 10th anniversary of the Hurricane Katrina disaster that flooded almost 80 percent of the city and killed more than 1,800 people.
Mayor Mitch Landrieu announced May 28 the Katrina10 program to showcase NOLA's long-term resilience planning and comeback from the storm that cut the city's popluation from 485K to 230K in the weeks that followed. The event kicks off Aug. 29.
The politico celebrated NOLA's effort to tear down blighted/damaged houses, escape from bankruptcy in 2010 and credit upgrade this year, police reform, historic low murder rate, drop in homelessness, improved schools and $1.6B investment for parks, playgrounds and better streets.
He hailed the city's return to about 95 percent of its pre-Katrina population. Landrieu didn't sugarcoat NOLA's long-standing problems of crime, education, income inequality and infrastructure.
He promised to be NOLA's PR ambassador during the upcoming months to spread news of the city's comeback and the need of other urban areas to adopt disaster-mitigation programs.
Meanwhile, former Mayor Nagin, the face of Katrina, is serving 10 years in federal prison in Texarkana, Tx., for bribery and fraud that he committed before and after Katrina.
I was in New Orleans last week and can attest to the huge Memorial Day weekend crowds that jammed clubs, bars, restaurants, streets, street cars, cemeteries and museums.
A must see: "Purchased Lives: New Orleans and the Domestic Slave Trade" at the Historic New Orleans Collection on Chartres St. It's there until July 18.
Landrieu calls NOLA "one of the world's most authentic cities." He got that right.
New Orleans celebrates its 300th anniversary in 2018. You can bet NOLA will be better than ever.
The ridiculously high prices Americans are paying at the supermarket might influence how—or if—they vote in November.
At a moment in history when there are so many conflicts among peoples here and abroad, let us put our differences aside and celebrate this wonderful season in a spirit of togetherness.
The news announcing the death of Henry Kissinger, the last of the prevaricating politicians and so-called statesmen who stole my future and that of thousands of other young Americans, got me thinking about Walter Cronkite.
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