Ray Reggie shares his thoughts about New Orleans before and after Hurricane Katrina with us –
RRW: Describe New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina?
Ray Reggie: New Orleans, a big small town, filled with great food and a deep bed of all type of music. A city that was utilizing its port as an economic engine and a hub for conventions.
RRW: And shortly after Katrina hit?
Ray Reggie: Stagnant.
Progress and leadership have both lacked since Katrina The increase in crime and the loss of so many establish restaurants and so many of our musicians has left New Orleans with a void.
RRW: What about now? How would you describe New Orleans now?
Ray Reggie: Now, I see in New Orleans, a city that is crime filled. One that has a deep root caring population that is depressed from the lack of leadership. Here we are almost 4 years after Katrina and you can’t go a day without making a reference to Pre-Katrina or Katrina in general.
RRW: What can a citizen of New Orleans do to make a difference?
Ray Reggie: We need to get Richard Pennington, our former police chief back from Atlanta and give him the tools to rid the drug element out of the city. Chief Pennington was one of the best Police Chiefs we ever had. He took a detailed approach to crime reporting and had more “street crimes” active, stopping and questioning people. We are too reactive – we need a pro-active police force to rid the element and get crime of the front page. The citizens of New Orleans need to make their voices heard by writing letters to this effect and possibly petitioning to get back what we feel we need to make our city right again.
RRW: What needs to happen to bring New Orleans back to the city that it once was?
Ray Reggie: The major issues are:
Crime – we need to get a handle on the killings… now.
Education – we are paying $15,000+ per student to educate students in our public schools when the catholic school system offered to do it for $2,500 per student. The LEAP scores and graduation levels in the Catholic schools is significantly better than the Orleans Parish School System . We won’t be able to recruit good companies to relocate or open in New Orleans if the crime if out of control and the school system is horrible.
The real answer is leadership and accountability. We need a sunshine accounting of government spending. Put the checkbook on line! Let’s see who is getting paid out of our city coffers. It’s our money!
We need to utilize the reserved bond money and FEMA dollars to repair our infrastructure. The roads are horrible.
We need to increase the Police force to 1,800 officers and give them the tools needed to do their job. It’s sad that some police districts were still in FEMA trailers until a few months ago! Our priorities are out of line….
We need an honest, smart Mayor, one that is concerned with rebuilding a city and not lining his/her pockets with money or worried about re-election. We need leadership and full disclosure to regain trust and we need it now.
Ray Reggie's Blog 