There was a morning, during the winter following the flood, that I was driving my fiance and a co-worker to drop them off at work. Some local incident had just occurred and I can’t remember what it was exactly. Maybe it was “Chocolate City,” maybe it was a murder, I don’t remember. My fiance and I were lamenting it back and forth and the co-worker, a native, said something I’ll never forget.
“Honey that’s the way it’s always been and it isn’t ever going to change.”
The words struck me hard. She said it like I was well, a buffoon, for being astounded. I never felt more like an outsider.
Perhaps her words were uttered in a state of exasperation over the aftermath of the storm and the blunders leading up to it? Then why did I hear it again and again at various jobs over the years? Why did I sense it day after day even before the storm when I spoke out to folks about the crime and the corruption?
I know there are many good people here willing to make a difference. Sacrificing so much for a vision. They live all around my neighborhood. I also communicate with them via my site and theirs. I read about them in the paper.
I also know there seems to be a prevailing state of learned helplessness that permeates many more, like this lady in my car.
Like it or not, there are a bunch of buffoons leading the city in so many areas.
It takes a buffoon to allow the city to become overrun with criminals. It takes a buffoon to steal millions of dollars from schools while kids can’t afford books. It takes a buffoon to lower a dangerous criminal’s bond so he can be bailed out by a bondsman for a few hundred dollars. It takes a buffoon to play the race card to get reelected for job security. It takes a buffoon to allow a criminal to get walk free when you can’t locate the cop to testify against him (even though he’s listed in the phone book and has lived in the same location for years). It takes a buffoon to run late for a meeting then get caught on the freeway (er, interstate) speeding through traffic with a blue light on the dashboard and asking the cop who pulled her over, “Do you know who I am?”
And it takes a buffoon to vote for these people as well.
I’m sorry if some people are offended by Blakely’s words. I’m not. Like my neighbor Josh (born and raised in the city) said, “If you are offended by that statement, it means you are one of the buffoons.”
Now, is Blakely some Rudy Guiliani-type figure that’s going to single-handedly revitalize the city? No.
Is he the only official that has shown any sort of leadership and movement in a forward direction since the flood? As far as I see it, yes.
It’s the leadership y’all. We have none. They are the most uninspiring school of fish I have ever seen.
The city council, the governor, the mayor, the police chief and the DA have been trained on how to properly react to situations they should have acted on in the first place.
I like to think that Nagin is a wonderful scapegoat. Another part of me thinks if Mitch Landrieu couldn’t beat that bumbler in an election perhaps he wasn’t the best man for the job either. That’s beside the point.
What is the point is that I am detecting some talk around the Nola bloggers that Blakely should just get the hell out and that really concerns me. Perhaps his ideas aren’t perfect. City planning and reconstruction doesn’t sound like it can be. But we absolutely need to stick with this guy. It took Nagin a year and some change to get him in here. In that time many citizens have settled elsewhere and have become comfortable.
Our time is short. The window of opportunity to make our dream a reality is closing. Many people around the country don’t care anymore.
With three long years left in Nagin’s second term, the Road Home program on shaky ground, the murder rate on track for more than 200 and basic needs and services not being met by the city government, what hope is there for someone who loves the city?
There is hope for the future.
But there is something else afoot here. And it’s something that I have also detected from some of the locals quite a bit.
They are a bit xenophobic.
Which may explain the uproar over not only Blakely’s comments, but also his very presence in the first place.
But the fact of the matter is that cities do need population to survive. I know so many people who would love to live here but the sheer turmoil of the place keeps them away. These people aren’t going to destroy the city. They will infuse it with rich new threads. Or at least they would if they weren’t frightened away by the buffoonery.
I’ve had my personal experiences with xenophobia. I went into them with some detail before. But basically, when new ideas are put forth in many discussions I’ve had, my thoughts have been dismissed with a statement similar to, “You just don’t understand how it is here.”
Like when I suggested how ludicrous it was that no one sent their kids to public schools.
I don’t understand how it is here. I don’t want to. Everybody seems to be in agreement that it’s fucked up right?
So who was around while it was getting that way? David Duke, the Morials, the Longs, Edwin Edwards and…everyone else.
That’s an incendiary statement I know. But consider it payback to the guy at Molly’s who told me I should “leave (his) city.” He had the nerve to tell me and my neighbor (a native of the West bank) that we didn’t have business voting in the mayoral election (he was voting for Nagin). Then he decided that he had some sense of entitlement to his opinions because he had “504 – MSY” tattooed on his lip.
He was a buffoon.
Of course all this hoopla surrounding Blakely reminds me of another outsider who came down here and tried to make a difference, Anthony Amato. Why was Amato was driven out of town? Because he threatened the establishment. Know what it was specifically? Because he wanted to bring in outside auditors to investigate school board finances.
Xenophobia indeed.
Nobody wants to see New Orleans turned into Disney World or even Branson. I really don’t think that’s on the table. But what so many people are having a hard time dealing with is that the flood erased some things forever. 1,464 people were killed. We can’t go back and pretend that never happened.
Some of New Orleans’ citizens have resisted change for decades. Then one day in August of 2005 it was forced on them whether they wanted it or not.
Let’s not let buffoonery rob us of the vision we all share.
Let’s make sure this Blakely cat walks the line as well.
Now if we could turn NOLA into Bronson, I’m all for that.
“Let’s make sure this Blakely cat walks the line as well.”
OK, I’m in. I respect your opinion. I respect that you can state your case without responding sarcasticaly to those of us who percieved it differently. I’m willing to admit I could be hyper-sensitive….I’m willing to give the man a chance because I want what is best for Nola. BUT – I still say if he didn’t intend the “buffoons” comment to include us citizens, he wouldn’t have apologized, but clarified. But, OK, I’ll give him a chance because the leadership we’ve had is a joke.
One helpful adjective is “provincial.”
“Clannish” is also a good one.
“Deluded” is sporadically on target, especially when used in combination with either adjective above.
Varg, I think you said what I’ve been somewhat inarticulately trying to say in the comments sections of a handful of blogs. And don’t think your take is such only because you’re an “ootlander”; my Dad’s family stepped off the boat in New Orleans in 1852 and we’ve never left.
Hey, in some circles around here, 1852 STILL makes one an outsider. That has GOT to change. Such crap just doesn’t (pardon me) hold water anymore, period.
That was a beautifully written and reasoned post, Varg. Well done.
“Hey, in some circles around here, 1852 STILL makes one an outsider.”
Ain’t no doubt about that…LOL. I’d be about as welcome at the Pickwick Club as would be the Rutgers women’s basketball team…..
And at least 1852 was early enough to fight for the losers in the “late unpleasantness”. LOL
So my great-great-great-grandfather got a chance to be trotted out as a Minie ball target to try to salvage the right for the Pickwick Clubbers’ great-great-great-grandfathers to continue to own slaves. Who undoubtedly held more value in their eyes than did G-G-G-Grandpappy Juan…LOL.
I think what’s being lost here is the fact that Ed Blakely is.. just another buffoon himself.. and arguably a worse one. It’s not so much the object of the criticism that I find objectionable, it’s the hypocrisy of Blakely who is here to:
1) Further his academic reputation regardless of material success or failure.
2) Enable the Nagin admin to pretend something competent is emanating from it.
3) Apparently.. if the outline of his redevelopment plan is to be believed.. confiscate property from the poor and the flooded and use it to generate capital to be distributed amongst developers and profiteers.
But we are “buffoons” so we have no right to talk.
Finally, I am continually amazed at whatever aspect of human nature exists that allows some people to mistake boisterous pomposity for competence. I don’t understand it but the Blakelys of the world seem to trade on it.
To point number 1: Everybody who has a career does that. They all work on their reputations. They also do other things. but it is safe to assume that hunter S. Thompson was doing the same thing when he wrote “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.” Ditto for architects, doctors, lawyers. most distinguished careers.
To point number 2: There hasn’t been a shred of competence from the administration anyway. Nagin can’t run for reelection so there is no silver lining to his incompentence. He is simply doing damage, damage, damage at this point. If Blakely comes in and achieves something, Nagin wouldn’t be fooling anyone by taking credit for it. Especially considering their seemingly chilly relationship. and if it works, I don’t care who takes credit for it really.
To point number 3: How long are dilapidated properties expected to be left to ruin? That’s an honest question. There are blight laws in effect right now in New Orleans. How long will flood damaged houses be left to ruin with no forward motion? 5 years? 10 years? Forever?
To the pompousness, I guess people just long for someone who is at least attempting truth. People hate to be lied to and they hate the party line. Blakely could be an egomaniac, who cares? Is he telling the truth? And about this buffoon thing, he is as it relates to (yes, i said it) city politics.
I think he’s telling lies in the manner of one who affects to speak truth. It’s the worst way to lie. It’s salesmanship… phony as the day is long.
I wholeheartedly agree with your answer to point #1 and consider it indeed an indictment of all such individuals you have cited.
Great post, Varg.
One thing you left out: there is no choice anymore.
Perhaps we once had options, an A, B, C, or something else. But the recovery is now, for whatever reason, a zero sum game. If Blakely goes, there will be no second recovery Czar. If his planned recovery projects do not work, there will not be a second try. If the city can’t get it through it’s head that it has to accept somethings that are new to it, there will be no recovery.
My “outsiders” take is that as nepotistic, corrupt and ineffective local and state government agencies supposedly are, “locals” tend to practice complient criticism. The same nebulous practices that keep the old politics in place also seem to afford locals certain liberties they are not willing sacrafice.
I do not put 100% faith in any politician, but I agree with Varg’s sentiment, “If Blakely comes in and achieves something… and if it works, I don’t care who takes credit for it really.”
Whoa! A Romy politics comment? What the?! And hey, she’s right.
Yeah, but I type-oed ‘sacrifice’
DANG!
If you update Firefox, it has a form spell check. Saves me a lot.
I came to this discussion belatedly, but I very much agree with your take, varg. I love celsus’ point about this being a “zero sum” moment, as well.
The hell with Blakely….Romy’s been holding out on us!! Grrrrlllll…………
I think g-bitch has my sentiment – New Orleanians are provincial and clannish. We love that we are different, and we don’t want to see things a different way because it could potentially mean sacrifice (a la RoRo). The truth is most things in New Orleans were broken long ago (public education, government, criminal justice, public health, etc.). Now is the time that these things must get addressed for better or for worse. It seems to me that if New Orleans is going to survive as a modern American city (or even a Louisianian(?) city), it should come out for the better. I also agree wholeheartedly with your take on the buffoonery. Thanks for a great post.