|
Obama sees hope, skepticism in New Orleans
2009-10-16
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AFP) - Barack Obama, in hurricane-torn New Orleans for the first time as president, vowed not to forget the wounded jazz city, but faced some skeptics wearied by broken government promises. Obama on Thursday toured a rebuilt school in the impoverished ninth ward, which bore the brunt of Hurricane Katrina's storm surge four years ago, then tackled some blunt questions at a town hall meeting with local residents. The president vowed not to repeat the "failure of government" seen after Katrina lashed the city in 2005, whipping up a murderous floods which swamped 80 percent of the metropolitan area, leaving tens of thousands homeless. "The government was not adequately prepared, and did not adequately respond," Obama said. The botched government response to the storm became an emblem of incompetence which ex-president George W. Bush was never able to shake. Obama vowed a Katrina-like disaster would not be allowed on his watch. "I promise you this, whether it's me coming down here, or my Cabinet or other members of my administration -- we will never forget about New Orleans," Obama said at a town hall meeting at the University of New Orleans. "We will not forget about the Gulf Coast. Together we will rebuild this region and we will build it stronger than before." Obama's comments mirrored those of government and congressional leaders after the storm, but many locals feel their city returned to neglect, once it faded from global headlines. When he opened the meeting to questions, Obama was asked by one man why federal money was still sluggish in flowing to New Orleans. "I mean, I expected as much from the Bush administration, but why are we still being nickeled and dimed in our recovery?" the man said. One nine-year-old boy, Tyren Scott, tapped into the angry political mood in the United States, so different from the euphoria which greeted Obama's election nearly a year ago. "I have to say, why do people hate you? They supposed to love you. God is love," Tyren, from Paulina, Louisiana asked. Obama, appeared tickled by the question, saying "hey, that's what I'm talking about," adding "I did get elected president, so not everybody hates me now... I got a whole lot of votes." Obama reeled off a list of actions for the hurricane-hit Gulf Coast taken by his administration in nine months in office, including the appointment of competent officials, and the release of 1.5 billion dollars in funding that had been caught up in red tape. The president said government action was helping to rebuild roads, bridges, and restoring schools and had dramatically reduced the numbers of people who are still in temporary accommodation four years after the storm. Some questioners brought up the fate of Charity Hospital, the largest medical facility for the city's legions of impoverished citizens, which has remained shuttered since the storm after a funding row. Natalie Holden, 49, a local banker, who lost her roof in Katrina, said she was encouraged by Obama?s knowledge of the dispute. "It was encouraging to know they understand our situation," she said. New Orleans woman Eola Magee, whose home was destroyed by floodwaters during Katrina, said she hoped for more robust federal government action to speed up the recovery and to clean up local government. "You get tired of looking at run-down homes -- and the corruption," she said. Large areas of New Orleans remain deserted, tens of thousands who left after the storm have yet to return, and many people have no permanent accommodation, shut out of their rotting homes. Some experts fretted that Obama should have spent longer than the four hours or so he was in New Orleans before he left to fly to a political fundraiser in San Francisco. "I do think they are mismanaging the theater of this thing," said Tulane University history professor Lawrence Powell. Powell said, "it's not like coming to Omaha (Nebraska). He's playing into this image of a rock star and it's disappointing because I think he's a deeper person than that." Peter Scharf, professor of public health at Tulane, added: "Being better than George W. Bush is not an accomplishment in New Orleans. According to the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center, the population of New Orleans stood at 311,853 in 2008 -- down 172,821 people from 2000. Most of the population loss took place after Katrina.
| 
