NEW ORLEANS — By his own admission, Ray Nagin did not campaign for mayor of New Orleans in 2002 as the leader best qualified to manage the worst natural disaster in U.S. history. But, ready or not, fate slapped precisely that burden on the shoulders of this man, who turns 50 in June.Nagin can be certain that when he asks voters to give him a second term this April, leadership in times of crisis will be the theme of the race.
The nation would never contemplate Mayor Nagin — nor even know of him — had it not been for Hurricane Katrina.
The flood waters destroyed homes, businesses, community and life. The pictures of poor and desperate people stuck in the city during the days following the hurricane moved an entire nation. A bungled White House response and complete meltdown of order was broadcast across the world.
Nagin’s tirade on a local radio station, complaining about the pitiful federal response to the disaster, was replayed constantly in the days following the storm. A full three days after Katrina passed through, the mayor told a radio interviewer, “I’ve been out there, man. I flew in these helicopters, been in the crowds talking to people crying, don’t know where their relatives are. I’ve done it all, man, and I’ll tell you, man, I keep hearing that it’s coming. This is coming, that is coming. And my answer to that today is BS, where is the beef? Because there is no beef in this city.“
The water has receded. The reconstruction has begun. And the mayor still has a penchant for the attention-grabbing quote.
His Martin Luther King Day promise last month to make sure New Orleans remains a “chocolate city” — a reference to the racial makeup of the town — has fueled the flames once more.
Evidence of the remark and its controversy sat on his large desk in his City Hall office. A candy bar wrapper labeled “Chocolate City” — meant as a gag — sat on his desk.
Away from the hot-button sound bites, the mayor speaks plainly about his duty, or the duty of any mayor to any city during a crisis, for that matter.
Nagin learned the hard way that with a federal government run by people who have scant respect for the power of government to help people, assistance is slow to come.
“We’re not waiting on the cavalry this time,” he said Thursday afternoon when speaking of how New Orleans would deal with another massive hurricane.
Nagin says he foresees three years of hard rebuilding followed by perhaps seven more of less intense work.
His short-term redevelopment plans expect a much smaller city, in population, than it was the week before Katrina landed. He expects parts of the rehabed city to give off “a European funky, New Orleans” vibe.
Nagin says local politics are changing, or at least they should.
Out should go an emphasis on baby-kissing and glad-handing. In would come a search for the best politician to get citizens out of harm’s way when completely cut off.
“As other communities look at their leaders, they will look not only at what they will do in the sunshine but what happens when the clouds come and it starts to rain,” said Nagin, a Tuskegee graduate who worked in the corporate world before his 2002 election.
Good advice from a man who’s seen the clouds, the rain and a cataclysmic flood that strands thousands of an area’s mostly poor residents and eats away at a city’s core.
Listen to Ray Nagin, all would-be mayors and governors. He bears the calluses that come from the fulfillment of Rudyard Kipling’s famous line, “If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you.”
— Bob Davis
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