Tuesday, April 10, 2007

The Ed Blakely Adventure

In which a professional academic carpetbagger capitalizes on disaster for the purposes of resume building.

Blakely


I appreciate Stephanie Grace's understated sense of humor, but I still think she's being far too nice here.
Who was it who supposedly kept those phantom bodies "on the books"? The same "they" that Nagin likes to reference when he speaks to audiences far from New Orleans, or a different set of alleged perpetrators? And, assuming the closely monitored Census Bureau would have to be in on the fix, what interest would the federal government have in helping New Orleans hold on to "certain benefits," at the expense of actual voters?

Blakely's apology did not reference this part of his comments. And that's a shame.

Inaccurate statements to far-flung audiences who have no way of knowing the facts are more harmful than simple mistakes because they exacerbate the stereotype that New Orleans officials are always gaming the system.

Blakely expects to be out of here next year, and even now, he's traveling frequently and juggling obligations unrelated to his job as head of New Orleans' recovery. But as long as he's involved, everything he says reflects on the city, even -- no, especially -- if he's on one of his many trips away.

In a speech in Sydney, Blakely told the audience that by the time he was hired, residents were literally starved for leadership and direction. That's true, which means an awful lot of people see him as the last best hope for getting it right.

That means coming up with a workable plan, which he's hopefully done.

It also means not doing anything to undermine confidence in the city's prospects, among residents or among outsiders who are being called upon to help.

As a short-timer, Blakely's future may not depend on it. But the future of the people he's speaking for just might.


Despite all but pointing out that Blakely is a careerist "short-timer" she still inserts a line that implies his "plan" somehow gets the benefit of the doubt. Why do transparent phonies like Ed Blakely continue to receive such soft treatment from media opinion makers?

The answer I think is indicative of just how fucked up our world is these days. I think it means we've reached a point where despair has overtaken the expectation of concrete societal progress to such a degree that we are more easily moved by symbolism and cult-of-personality than by substance. Take a few minutes and read Jason Berry's cover story in this week's Gambit. Berry interviews veterans of the local civil rights movement about their impressions of Ray Nagin. Nagin's career is a product of the right-wing backlash against the War on Poverty; A backlash which has gutted and abandoned the American urban support system like a flooded house in Lakeview. The following is a very telling passage.

"Nagin comes out of the business community and thinks the private sector has the keys to the kingdom and capacity for the solution," Dr. Rudy Lombard, an urban planner who got his start as a movement activist in Algiers, told Gambit Weekly in a telephone interview from Chicago. "Nagin does not have an accurate perspective. ... The city's needs overwhelm the resources of government.

"Blacks are caught up in the symbolism of having an African American occupy the mayor's office when the resources have eroded," explains Lombard. "They believe that having a black mayor in office is absolutely essential. The circumstances in which the black community finds itself overwhelm the power available to them to control local issues. Urban mayors are less and less powerful because the funds are controlled by the state and federal government."

A partner in a "small investment management company," Lombard visits New Orleans every few weeks.

"I think Nagin is boxed in," Lombard continues. "He doesn't have the kind of personality which can transcend the problems and be effective as mayor of the city. There will be a growing dissatisfaction with politicians in New Orleans. They're going to lose support and the respect of the rank and file because they will not produce the results that are needed. The federal and state government will continue to be callous toward the needs of the poor. The funding streams are just not there."

Nagin, who contributed $1,000 to George W. Bush in 2000, assumed control of a city starved of resources it once had because of ideologues like Bush. How could any mayor bring prosperity to a city with a 30 percent underclass without federal help? Then came Katrina, which sent half of the population into exile, particularly the poor. Nagin assumed the city would receive a huge federal windfall via the Road Home program. As Road Home stalled, Nagin had little in the way of other sources to kick-start the city's recovery.

Nagin touted a "market-driven" recovery, encouraging neighborhoods to work with the City Planning Commission on proposals for redevelopment. The subtle message was that this is no longer a city for poor folk. Nevertheless, poor people continued to return, finding conditions more desperate than before.

Nagin has very little inclination, or "perspective" as Lombard puts it, to put the power of the government to work for the betterment of its citizenry, but he continues to offer.. not quite hope.. but a sense of shallow vindication to the overwhelmingly black and poor population through his flippant personality and bizarre racial politics.

We live now in a self-perpetuating culture of denial. Thus despite the fact that continued American belligerence in Asia Minor can only spread hatred, fear, and death our political climate refuses to let go of the symbolism involved in "supporting the troops" by sending them to pointless deaths. Thus Ray Nagin can sell out a city's recovery and simultaneously serve as a symbolic bulwark against a conspiracy of "they". Thus Ed Blakely can increase his academic rock-star quotient while a (now even more abiguous thanks to Dr. Blakely) number of displaced citizens wait... for what? The next symbolic "sign of recovery"? How much are Jazzfest tickets this year?

Update:
It gets worse. Adrastos mentions this sycophantic and factually inaccurate NYT piece which has a little bit of everything that's wrong with the way this fraud continues to get his ass kissed in the media. I'm not sure if I'm more bemused by the assertion that the "western" half of the city was less damaged than the "eastern" half or by the implication that the real problem in New Orleans isn't the devastating flood so much as it is.. New Orleanians and their damn "attitude."

Newcomers, pioneers willing to put up with the city’s present difficulties, could be the salvation of New Orleans and its future, Dr. Blakely suggested. New Orleans now is “a third-world country,” he said.

“If we get some people here, those 100 million new Americans, they’re going to come here without the same attitudes of the locals,” he said. “I think, if we create the right signals, they’re going to come here, and they’re going to say, ‘Who are these buffoons?’ I’m meeting some who are moving here, and they don’t have time for this stuff.”

I honestly don't know why this guy gets to hop a plane for Australia instead of just being ridden out of town on a rail.

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