Bush: New Orleans still struggling after Katrina
U.S. President George W. Bush (C) makes remarks on Gulf Coast recovery at the Louisiana National Guard Jackson Barracks, in New Orleans, Louisiana, on 20 August 2008.Opinion
20 August 2008
By Richard Lardner
President sees signs of progress in a city still struggling to recover
CRAWFORD, Texas-President Bush says he sees "hopeful signs of progress" in New Orleans three years after Hurricane Katrina's devastation, while acknowledging the city is still struggling to recover.
Bush travels to New Orleans and nearby Gulfport, Miss., on Wednesday after appearing at a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Orlando, Fla. The White House on Tuesday released an advance copy of a speech he plans to deliver in New Orleans.
This latest visit to New Orleans will be Bush's 11th since Katrina's 140 mph winds pummeled coastal areas and caused hundreds of billions of dollars in damage.
The president's Gulf Coast stop comes nine days before the actual third anniversary of Katrina.
The Bush administration's bungled response to Katrina led to a torrent of criticism, especially from the black community, which claimed race was a factor in the slow pace of recovery operations.
The Katrina backlash came as sectarian violence in Iraq was escalating. The result was the lowest approval ratings of Bush's presidency.
In his speech, Bush says $126 billion in disaster recovery aid has poured into the Gulf Coast, allowing schools, businesses and homes to be rebuilt.
"There is still a lot of work to do before this city is fully recovered," Bush says. "And for people who are still hurting and not yet back in their homes, a brighter day might seem impossible. Yet a brighter day is coming and it is heralded by hopeful signs of progress."
Yet, the nearly dozen trips and the money hasn't erased the image of a leader who failed to react at a critical moment.
"It's defined him a great deal in the public's mind," said Thomas Mann, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.
"That, along with the war in Iraq, are really the pivotal events in his political demise," Mann said. "First impressions have ways of becoming lasting ones and certainly that was the case with Katrina."
Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., said in an interview with The Associated Press that the recovery in New Orleans was far from complete and key projects won't be finished without more federal money.
"It's not the quantity of the visits; it's the quality of the visits," Landrieu said of Bush's upcoming stop.
Landrieu accused the Federal Emergency Management Agency of being too tightfisted.
The agency acts "more like a supercharged comptroller's office than a supercharged recovery office," she said.
In New Orleans, Bush will speak at Jackson Barracks, the state headquarters for the Louisiana National Guard. The 100-acre base straddles the city's Orleans and St. Bernard parishes, two of the areas hit hardest by Katrina, and has been undergoing a $210 million reconstruction.
The property contains a large collection of historic buildings, including antebellum homes that overlook the Mississippi River.
Rebuilding the barracks was viewed as strategically important. The facility and the thousands of people who worked there are an economic engine for the city.
"If it's left abandoned, certainly that isn't helpful to the redevelopment of either of those heavily damaged neighborhoods that surround it," said Wade Ragas, a New Orleans real estate consultant.
The White House agreed this month to give Louisiana 30 years to repay $1.8 billion for levee improvements in the New Orleans area. The money initially was to be repaid by 2011. But state officials said they needed 30 to avoid hurting a still-recovering economy.
~~~~~~~~~~~
New Orleans: A City Crippled by Tears
It is further being found, while in the news or not towards the manner of minimal housing being put up, for example the reported Brad Pitt donation project, that it is more in contrast to permanent refugee housing; to the further eviction of countless residents that it was found to be living in very unhealthy trailers, with many wondering where they will go.
To a reminder, of some families that got there repairable homes demolished; because someone had a paper glitch.
New Orleans healthcare is people in an assembly line scenario; while standing over crowded in the rain or the few that is lucky to get regular doctor appointments, so many would rather try over the counter medicine or hope it goes away.
While healthcare may have improved, mostly from foreign donations, which has been overwhelmingly appreciated, for many feel their may not have been almost no healthcare at all; if had not been for foreign aide. Healthcare, still has a long ways from not looking like a third world country.
Could anyone pay $900 up, for an apartment that is in more need of a condemned notice, than an occupant, while it is admitted that some minimal newer housing is going up or is available; the majority of Katrina survivors can not afford to live in them, due to the high rent. For the majority of Katrina survivors are shaking hands with the poverty miser on any given day.
As to what Bush considers a business boom, his economic problem is in New Orleans also, with the everyday store sells, to going out of business signs; popping up on any given day or the average city dweller just can not afford to go to many of these businesses.
As for tourism, the many curiosity seekers are still coming, along with the numerous activities with an attempt of different organizations trying to do there part in helping not just the recovery, but letting anyone outside of New Orleans know; that the city is still here.
As to some of the effects of the cities crime problem, can be found to be caused from poverty or desperation from such conditions; for this tends to be one element of what creates crime.
As for New Orleans, looking up in the future, maybe in a hundred years or to other problems still occurring in this historic city; one could write another countless book.
Note:
After U.S. President George W. Bush gave his speech in New Orleans, it is the general consensus he ran with his speech in hand like the Roadrunner being chased by Wiley E. Coyote.
20 August 2008
By Richard Lardner
President sees signs of progress in a city still struggling to recover
CRAWFORD, Texas-President Bush says he sees "hopeful signs of progress" in New Orleans three years after Hurricane Katrina's devastation, while acknowledging the city is still struggling to recover.
Bush travels to New Orleans and nearby Gulfport, Miss., on Wednesday after appearing at a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Orlando, Fla. The White House on Tuesday released an advance copy of a speech he plans to deliver in New Orleans.
This latest visit to New Orleans will be Bush's 11th since Katrina's 140 mph winds pummeled coastal areas and caused hundreds of billions of dollars in damage.
The president's Gulf Coast stop comes nine days before the actual third anniversary of Katrina.
The Bush administration's bungled response to Katrina led to a torrent of criticism, especially from the black community, which claimed race was a factor in the slow pace of recovery operations.
The Katrina backlash came as sectarian violence in Iraq was escalating. The result was the lowest approval ratings of Bush's presidency.
In his speech, Bush says $126 billion in disaster recovery aid has poured into the Gulf Coast, allowing schools, businesses and homes to be rebuilt.
"There is still a lot of work to do before this city is fully recovered," Bush says. "And for people who are still hurting and not yet back in their homes, a brighter day might seem impossible. Yet a brighter day is coming and it is heralded by hopeful signs of progress."
Yet, the nearly dozen trips and the money hasn't erased the image of a leader who failed to react at a critical moment.
"It's defined him a great deal in the public's mind," said Thomas Mann, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.
"That, along with the war in Iraq, are really the pivotal events in his political demise," Mann said. "First impressions have ways of becoming lasting ones and certainly that was the case with Katrina."
Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., said in an interview with The Associated Press that the recovery in New Orleans was far from complete and key projects won't be finished without more federal money.
"It's not the quantity of the visits; it's the quality of the visits," Landrieu said of Bush's upcoming stop.
Landrieu accused the Federal Emergency Management Agency of being too tightfisted.
The agency acts "more like a supercharged comptroller's office than a supercharged recovery office," she said.
In New Orleans, Bush will speak at Jackson Barracks, the state headquarters for the Louisiana National Guard. The 100-acre base straddles the city's Orleans and St. Bernard parishes, two of the areas hit hardest by Katrina, and has been undergoing a $210 million reconstruction.
The property contains a large collection of historic buildings, including antebellum homes that overlook the Mississippi River.
Rebuilding the barracks was viewed as strategically important. The facility and the thousands of people who worked there are an economic engine for the city.
"If it's left abandoned, certainly that isn't helpful to the redevelopment of either of those heavily damaged neighborhoods that surround it," said Wade Ragas, a New Orleans real estate consultant.
The White House agreed this month to give Louisiana 30 years to repay $1.8 billion for levee improvements in the New Orleans area. The money initially was to be repaid by 2011. But state officials said they needed 30 to avoid hurting a still-recovering economy.
~~~~~~~~~~~
New Orleans: A City Crippled by Tears
While the picture says two years after Katrina, there are numerous properties; that still looks just like this today.
By HRM Deborah
In New Orleans, Bush did speak at Jackson Barracks and while the above article gave the highlights of his speech and some opinions, Bush’s speech was found to be just another usual Bush Texas version of sweep New Orleans under the carpet speech and tried to make it appear that the city is doing well.
What made it a distraction to listen to Bush’s speech it must be admitted, that his ever increasing signs of alcoholism, mainly what appears to be a form of dermatitis on his face, to other increasing signs of this sever self affliction.
Nevertheless, subtracting Bush’s blind eyes, one will see what appears to be the forever devastation of post Katrina scares where ever one cares to look and the severe hardships on the majority of the cities residents.
It is further being found, while in the news or not towards the manner of minimal housing being put up, for example the reported Brad Pitt donation project, that it is more in contrast to permanent refugee housing; to the further eviction of countless residents that it was found to be living in very unhealthy trailers, with many wondering where they will go.
To a reminder, of some families that got there repairable homes demolished; because someone had a paper glitch.
New Orleans healthcare is people in an assembly line scenario; while standing over crowded in the rain or the few that is lucky to get regular doctor appointments, so many would rather try over the counter medicine or hope it goes away.
While healthcare may have improved, mostly from foreign donations, which has been overwhelmingly appreciated, for many feel their may not have been almost no healthcare at all; if had not been for foreign aide. Healthcare, still has a long ways from not looking like a third world country.
Could anyone pay $900 up, for an apartment that is in more need of a condemned notice, than an occupant, while it is admitted that some minimal newer housing is going up or is available; the majority of Katrina survivors can not afford to live in them, due to the high rent. For the majority of Katrina survivors are shaking hands with the poverty miser on any given day.
As to what Bush considers a business boom, his economic problem is in New Orleans also, with the everyday store sells, to going out of business signs; popping up on any given day or the average city dweller just can not afford to go to many of these businesses.
As for tourism, the many curiosity seekers are still coming, along with the numerous activities with an attempt of different organizations trying to do there part in helping not just the recovery, but letting anyone outside of New Orleans know; that the city is still here.As to some of the effects of the cities crime problem, can be found to be caused from poverty or desperation from such conditions; for this tends to be one element of what creates crime.
As for New Orleans, looking up in the future, maybe in a hundred years or to other problems still occurring in this historic city; one could write another countless book.
Note:
After U.S. President George W. Bush gave his speech in New Orleans, it is the general consensus he ran with his speech in hand like the Roadrunner being chased by Wiley E. Coyote.Labels: Bush, Katrina New Orleans, United States
posted by HRM Deborah of Israel and the Messenger of Peace at 11:56 PM
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