Saturday, December 01, 2012

"Enterperneurial City Hall"

Interesting word choice.
Landrieu issued a statement later Friday saying that his administration supported the council's amendments. "As we have noted," he said, "this 2013 budget, like 2012, is going to be a challenge. In 2013, we will continue our strategy of cutting smart, reorganizing and investing. We're going to keep our nose to the grindstone to create a more flexible, entrepreneurial and forward-leaning City Hall so we can get the biggest bang for the buck and deliver the best services we possibly can for our residents."
Maybe he really doesn't understand that jamming all this empty business buzzspeak into his pronouncements implies that we're being governed by money.  But, no, I think he really means that and just thinks we're too stupid to notice or care.  He's probably right about that.

Meanwhile he's helped Mayor Leslie Jacobs privatize our public schools. He's helped Mayor Sean Cummings and Mayor Joe Canizaro turn our city into a luxury condo resort. And he's helping Mayor Kevin Wildes steal civil service protections and benefits in order to create a more corrupt political  crony-based "entrepreneurial" city workforce.

All of these Mayors are getting a lot of "bang for their buck" lately. It's an entrepreneur's dream.

Update: Of course City Hall has been a haven for the "entrepreneurial" class for years.
As a five-year statute of limitations looms, federal authorities are closing in on former Mayor Ray Nagin, unveiling a bill of information on Friday that charges businessman Rodney Williams with bribing the former mayor. Sources with knowledge of the case have said that "Public Official A" listed in the documents is the former mayor.
Mitch has a slightly more polished and phony  (more corporate perhaps?)  style than Nagin did but it's essentially the same.  Frankly I prefer Nagin's honesty though.

Nagin also talked about growing up in a lower middle class family, watching his father work as a custodian at City Hall, attending Catholic and public schools, and eventually plodding a career in business and eventually politics.

"Politics in New Orleans is the dominant industry, so I decided to get in," he said. "Besides tourism, politics dominates everything. I just think it's part of our legacy and our history. Politics is definitely a sport and something that the citizens pay attention to."

Politics and tourism are the dominant "industries." If you look at it this way, Nagin the upstart is really much more the "entrepreneur" than Mitch who just kind of took over the family business.

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