Cow tipping

Mitch Landrieu has come to overturn your sacred cattle.

Landrieu vows to fight against ‘sacred cows’

The list of groups and individuals that Mayor Mitch Landrieu is feuding with seems to grow almost weekly: the sheriff, a pair of federal judges, the police unions, the firefighters union, the taxi drivers, the judges at Civil District Court, the clerk at Criminal District Court, the heirs of Edward Wisner, the local NAACP, etc.

 At a meeting of the local Rotary Club this week, Landrieu recalled that it wasn’t always this way.

 As a member of the state Legislature and then as lieutenant governor, he said, “My reputation was one of a guy who was really easy to get along with, someone that was a consensus builder, someone who always tried to get to ‘yes,’ no matter what.”

 Landrieu had to acknowledge though, “As mayor of New Orleans I have developed a reputation recently — evidently — for being a fighter,” adding, “I want to talk about that for a second.”

If the gathered Rotarians expected an olive branch to follow, they were disappointed.

“There are certain things that are really worth fighting for, and they’re fundamentally important to the future of the city,” Landrieu said. If he’s going to hand City Hall to the next generation of leaders in better shape than he found it, it’s going to require “slaying sacred cows — and there are many of them in the city of New Orleans.”

So, to be clear, police, firefighters, cab drivers, these are all, in the Mayor's mind,  "sacred cows" he will have to "slay" (cows apparently need slaying now... like dragons)  in order to protect The Future. 

Know, also, that if you are believed to be harboring any cows in your home, Mitch may send his knights in there to slay them too.

The rules give code inspectors the go-ahead to be on the lookout for structures with rodent infestations, tall grass, rotting wood and defective plumbing. Efficiency rental units that don’t include cooking appliances and refrigerators, bathroom floors that aren’t made of a “smooth, hard, nonabsorbent surface” and properties with “substantial” peeling paint and cracks can also draw citations.

The ordinance gives inspectors with the Division of Code Enforcement the ability to enter any land, structure or premises they have “reasonable cause” to believe is in violation of the code and it empowers hearing officers to order demolition at an initial hearing.

“These revisions are long overdue and will allow us to increase efficiency and create stronger, more flexible enforcement options for all properties, including substandard living conditions in occupied properties,” Landrieu said in a statement. “My priority is to provide a strong quality of life for all New Orleanians as we continue to make progress toward reducing the number of blighted properties in the city.”

Poor orelderly homeowners can't always afford to keep up with the "peeling paint." And there are, of course, scores of quirky apartment buildings in New Orleans that still offer affordable rents.  But these are sacred cows now and the Mayor's Boutique Strategy dictates that we have them at least put out to pasture if not "slain" altogether.

Anyway there's bound to be a glut of ground meat on the market soon.