Mr. Blakely Went To Algiers

I took it upon myself to check out Dr. Ed Blakely’s when he came to Algiers’ Oliver Perry Walker High School library last Wednesday. Even back when I was a paid journalist, I wasn’t much of a hard news man so I was mostly there for the experience rather than to “cover” the event. Now here it is a week later and I’m just now posting it.

Talk about broke news!

Hey, it’s Fess.

I pulled in to the parking lot and a bunch of folks of mixed races and ages were all arriving at the same time and getting out of their cars and walking in the same direction. Never having been to OPW’s library, I followed them.

I walked up next to a woman and asked if she was heading to the library and she said she was going to the meeting and she was just following the guys in front of her. I checked them out and was able to determine they were certainly going to see Blakely so we just followed them into the library and sat down. I went up front.

Blakely was already speaking to the people gathered there even though the meeting had not officially started. He was discussing acquisitive prescription laws and blight bonds (a subject I have some interest in). Apparently, they are encouraging people to pursue acquiring blighted property. He went on to say the city needed to be sure blighted houses and lots that were given over to organizations were not allowed to fall back into blight like some properties in his neighborhood have. He didn’t elaborate which ones or which groups acquired them.

A couple students who I believe were the editors of the O. Perry Walker school newspaper got the meeting officially started. One student welcomed everyone in English and the other repeated what he said in Spanish. The latter spoke Spanish very well and when he finished a lady in front of me said, “I’m glad someone’s learning something.”

One student stated he was also running for class president and James Carter found the impromptu politicking to be humorous.

Then Carter got up to speak, stated that Algiers was facing mainly infrastructure issues, made it known that he was demanding Algiers not be left out of the loop, and introduced Blakely.

Blakely began by saying he wanted to talk about how the recovery process was organized and how Algiers fit into it.

He then began speaking about blight again and said it occurs “when people aren’t communicating with one another and working hard to ensure that all citizens are involved and there has to be an official, recognized process.”

He went on to say the city has to ensure that everyone is safe in all parts of the city. Public safety starts with the community, no matter how big or small. When he was a kid, “when I walked down the street, and if I thought I was going to drop something on the street, Mrs. Jones would say ‘Hey! Eddie! Pick that up!’ And if I didn’t pick it up I was in her house. And the last thing I wanted her to do was call my mamma.”

He then said that everybody needs to care for everybody and gushed over the speech made at the beginning of the meeting by the O. Perry Walker Students. He was right. They were good kids.

“These are young men you would want to have as your own sons right?” he said. “That’s the kind of men we want in every place in the city. So we are going to have to work at that.”

This was an example of a lot of the rhetoric that was being bandied about this meeting. I’m all for inspirational speeches, but I really want to see action at this point.

Blakely then went on to stress the importance of good schools and hospitals and said at his age he thinks about being near good hospitals all the time.

He then moved on to infrastructure and this is the part of the meeting where he talked about how the recovery mattered to Algiers, discussing what would happen rather than what needs to happen.

“We are going to do a lot of infrastructure work in this community,” he said. “We’re going to do streets and roads and gutters and so on…but I am really concerned that we do this right and what’s underground is the best stuff.”

I can tell you right now that on the 800 block of Pacific what is underground is not the best stuff, ditto for the 700 block of Opelousas.

“If we have to pump 200 percent of our water to get 100 percent, that is not the best results,” said Blakely. “If we can not get optic cable to our door, that is not the best results. So this tragedy may create some opportunities for us to talk about the best infrastructure for the future.”

I’d love to see the New Orleans recovery infrastructure planned for the future. Let’s start with Cat-5 levees and coastal restoration to protect that infrastructure? And let’s maybe have a charter that states, “By 2010 we need to be here. By 2020 we need to be here.” I’d like that.

Blakely then went on to say that New Orleans’ economy needed to be diverse and there were three keys to that economy, one of which he has been working on the last few days and that is bio-medical companies.

“You will hear, hopefully soon, that we will be able to put together a deal to get the VA hospital downtown. I have been working on that very hard because it is very important to get LSU and the VA downtown, that’s where they are supposed to be.”

He then said that we need to get the airports and port systems work for us and we are in the best place in the world for that.

“Mother nature couldn’t have designed a better place for that,” he said. “Below us we have Latin America … and they are the second fastest growing middle class in America and middle class people consume items, particularly finished goods, and they want to buy American. Now we just can’t have this stuff float down the river and bypass us. … we have to make coffee and sell it to Starbucks and not have it just run right past us and then we buy it from Starbucks. So we want to be in a place where we can produce and move goods.”

I whole-heartedly agree with him on this. The port is a gold mine.

He then stated that because we are a media center, we produce the medias of the world. He said he hears jazz from New Orleans all over the world. He said music was one of New Orleans’ biggest exports.

I’m not sure but I think he was insinuating at this port that the music and arts needed to be utilized as an economic booster to the region. He didn’t say that exactly but it seemed to be like he was heading in that direction because he said there were three things that would boost the economy and was talking about food, music and media after he discussed the port and medicine.

He then said his wife and everyone he knew ordered him here after the storm and that he was here “to make sure that this is a better place than it was, not just the same place, and keep the richness, the variety and culture. We have to have balance.”

He said we need to use the best materials in the rebuilding process that are green, will last and are in the best style to last for the future “using architectural styles not imported from California, but originated here.”

He said the last 15 months have been the neighborhood’s planning process and he has stacks of ideas that he and his staff went through and attempted to single out the common elements in all of them to see that were the things they needed to know about the recovery. Then he went through them and drew circles on the maps and asked himself if he had to rebuild the city, where would he start?

He insinuated that Algiers wasn’t necessarily a priority due to projects that were started before the storm (Federal City) and the extent of our damage.

I agree with that and think my neighborhood can help itself. I wouldn’t refuse money but I wouldn’t be outraged by a limited involvement in the recovery plan.

Blakely said he and his team designed the plan, checked with the planners, checked with the community groups, and checked with everyone and announced the plan.

Within the plan, 40 percent of the funds go to 17 seriously damaged areas, the rest goes citywide.

“Of that 60 percent is bonded 260 million dollars. A very significant portion of that is going to come “(Algiers) way,” said Blakely. “We are going to do Kabel, MacArthur, Berkely, Patterson, on and on, Holiday, Whitney, Woodland, etcetera, there’s a long list of streets, drives and so forth, DeGaulle …we’re going to do this … this is the city’s money, not federal money. This is going to start within the year.”

I like this talk. Saying what’s going to happen, when it’s going to happen. What can be expected, not what needs to happen if.

There was then an exchange between Blakeley and State Representative Jeff Arnold about the bond money, weather it was new or old and weather the bonds had been sold yet and what the ratings would be. Blakely said it was old bonds and they have not been sold yet and he wasn’t sure what the rating would be.

Blakely then said Algiers needs to create the right mix of libraries, schools, coffee shops and shopping centers that will drive private investment.

“Now, you have an advantage here,” he said. “One is that damage here wasn’t so sever. You have a population here that is strong. You have income here so building on this stage is a little easier than it is in the Ninth Ward and such.”

He then said that would be encouraging more private investment, building shopping centers up into better places so they are stronger and look nicer. Those investments would come from city, not federal, money.

“We are hoping to get another 325 million dollars. A lot of that would go towards housing across the city and reinforcing second mortgages and things that bring more and more of our citizens back.”

He then said the city also needs to look at building more rental housing to get renters back.

He said we haven’t got a lot of money to rebuild with and New York received 20 billion dollars in the first two weeks “and they’re still crying.”

He said New Orleans has an opportunity and a challenge. The challenge is too make a little money go a long way. The opportunity is to fix the things that needs to be fixed and improve well into the next century and get ahead of the curve with good, solid repairs and not “patch jobs.”

No patch jobs. I like that. No duct tape.

Then the city has to decide how to build things together, smart planning for the future, not just rebuild.

He then said that he and his 17-person staff had a tough job and that not everyone was going to be happy all the time. But we all need to push to do better so everyone could be happy.

He then took questions from the audience.

My voice recorder didn’t catch this section as well as i would have wanted it to.

One gentleman asked how the city can get people off the streets and into service and contractor jobs and everybody got behind him. He wanted to know when Blakely’s plans would filter into the community and create jobs and job programs for young men.

Blakeley said New Orleans was going to be one of the largest construction projects in the world and there would be a lot of job opportunities here.

Jeff Arnold guy got up again and asked another question that was out of the range of my voice recorder but if my memory serves me correctly it had to do with a letter he recently wrote to the Times-Picayune that I think was critical of Blakely. I’m not sure about this question. My citizen journalism skills need some touching up.

I went to Arnold’s Web site to see if the letter was printed there and it didn’t look like it had been updated in quite a while. Hey Jeff! (holds hand to face in the form of a phone) Call me!

The most entertaining part of the questions was when Jackie Clarkson got up and asked why Algiers didn’t get money first and then expounded on who she was and what she had done for the community. Carter had to interrupt her and ask that Blakely be allowed to speak. Again, I apologize for not having information on the content of the question and Blakely’s answer but if it was significant, I am sure I would have remembered it.

Later on, after Blakely thanked us and departed, Carter was talking about a program he and Oliver Thomas were working on and had to interrupt Thomas from talking to Clarkson in the back just so OT could get recognized for his program. Funny stuff.