NAGIN’S DEADLY SINS
Updated 8/26
Absence
Ray Nagin has repeatedly taken opportunities to further his political career at the expense of his city by taking unnecessary trips and speaking engagements rather than by performing his duties here. In his absence, New Orleans continues to suffer. It would be better for both his political career and the people of New Orleans if he simple executed a commendable tenure and recovery.
New Orleans looking to strengthen relations with Jamaica
Nagin a no-show for budget vote; spokeswoman says she didn’t know the mayor’s whereabouts this week
Nagin to travel to Panama this weekend
Does Mayor Nagin want to be Mayor Nagin?
Nagin’s schedule: Some say it’s lacking, others say it’s normal
Waste
Ray Nagin abuses and wastes city revenue and taxpayer’s money by hiring incompetent officials, abusing expense accounts, bringing in outside experts to do his job, botching city services. These blunders have cost the city of New Orleans millions of dollars and diminished our faith in city government and quality of life.
Price no object in N.O. car-removal
Acting tech chief to relinquish job.
City mistakenly demolishes couple’s newly bought home
4 Investigates: Questions surround NOAH contracts
Inanity
Ray Nagin has on several occasions presented himself with less dignity than is suitable for an elected official of stature, most notably, threatening citizens with physical violence but also including calling other U.S. cities “dirty” and referring to the site of the World Trade Center as “a hole in the ground” that still wasn’t fixed.
New Orleans Mayor Takes Swipe At NYC
Mayor Ray Nagin Criticizes Philadelphia as being Dirtier Than New Orleans
Mayor of New Orleans: “I Am A Vagina-Friendly Mayor”
Impotence
Ray Nagin promised a crowd of 5000 angry multi-racial protesters that crime would be his number one priority in January of 2007 and has yet to significantly reduce lawlessness. This is his most blatant shortcoming.
New Orleanians March to Protest Crime Wave
New Orleans officials announce major crackdown amid crime wave
Violent crime wave intensifies in New Orleans
Crime a blues refrain for New Orleans
Nagin calls N.O.’s dangerous image a “two-edged sword”
Murder Rate Rises in New Orleans
Concealment
Ray Nagin has not provided the transparency promised in both his election and reelection campaigns by (either through intent or incompetence) blocking records requests and accusing journalists of damaging the recovery. This “bait and switch” technique squarely addresses the desire among the citizens of New Orleans for honest government and directly manipulates it for gain.
City attorney should not expect IG to tip his hand
Contract secrecy a city blemish
Who’s trying to stop the Inspector General from doing his job? Why all the road blocks?
Nagin accuses TV reporter of “Hurting the Recovery” by revealing fraudulent government program
Discord
Ray Nagin, in the aftermath of a racially and politically charged disaster, with his city still being repopulated, divided black and white neighbors with his infamous “Chocolate City” speech and racial pandering during his reelection bid. This is our most emotional charge against him as the racial issues of this city need to be worked out among its people for the sake of good will and not an opportunistic politician for the sake of reelection.
Evoking King, Nagin calls N.O. ‘chocolate’ city
Nagin apologizes for ‘chocolate’ city comments
N.O. mayor asks for help getting absentee vote out
Cronyism
Ray Nagin allegedly funneled money into the pockets of friends, family and political donors directly or through political influence. This is his “greed” sin.
Yachting by N.O. official raises questions
Nagin family’s company got deal with Home Depot
City Council begins to examine NOAH
Storm work deals go to inside players
Any more suggestions please comment below. Help a brotha out. Thanks to BSJD and BRC for helping out so far.
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Nagin’s racial pandering goes far beyond the old MLK day speech. I have a rather hot-headed post about DeBerry’s column last Saturday cooling in the Drafts queue to see if I still want to say it, but in short: Ragin is not afraid to play the race card to his benefit.
You’re playing the game of conflating the man with the office, V. That’s also what the race card does. This is totally about the incompetence or worse of a man who is unable to perform as required. There is no excellence in recovery save for a few elite businessmen and companies; therefore it will not bother them when we ask the recovery be spread around to others in their places.
I think we need to draft a basic Indictment of Nagin. Most of us could dash it off in 15 minutes. Then we need to go back and find all the links to the read round work a handful of the NOLA bloggers have done (Moldy City and Zombie in particular) to flesh it out. Then we should all post the damn thing when it’s done on the same day.
What I was thinking was make a hundred or so copies and hand them out downstairs at his little event. Let me think of one more thing here and it can be called Nagin’s Seven Deadly Sins…
Excellent idea. We should definitely run with it, and post it all over the place.
Great idea. I’ll be checking back here shortly for the “cleaned up” version to post on my website. Thanks.
[...] I have added some links to “Nagin’s Deadly Sins” but I still need some help adding media sources to back them up. I know you guys can think of [...]
It amazes me that people who care enough to red up and blog still think Nagin was a good mayor until Katrina — I recently saw an intelligent blogger write that Nagin would have been a great mayor if not for Katrina. Not that he seemed like a good mayor before Katrina, but that he would have been a great mayor. I didn’t pay much attention before Katrina (I cared more about national politics and there was a lot going on in my personal life), but even I could see that, at best, he didn’t have the stomach for real reform. Once I went back and read old stories, I saw what a phony he was from the beginning.
With that in mind, I’ll recommend my other blog, The Nagin Files. It consists entirely of unedited newspaper stories that are difficult to find without lexisnexis. I see that I need to put in expandable post summaries to make it more readable, but try searching “Charles Rice.” I can almost imagine the editors, reporters, and op-ed columnists at the T/P debating, in the weeks before Katrina, whether Nagin bamboozled us, or Rice bamboozled Nagin. To his credit, Clancy DuBos wasn’t buying the naive Nagin excuse. The fat contract that Rice’s new firm was given on the day before Katrina’s landfall, makes it seem that Nagin got rid of Rice for CYA reasons, not to restore integrity. Yes, I said the day before:
The day before Hurricane Katrina made landfall, Mayor Ray Nagin signed a contract potentially worth tens of millions of dollars with Omni Pinnacle of Slidell.
To be fair, the city had started reviewing bids weeks earlier.
I still think that one of the first post-Katrina absences (the second hard to defend absence) led to the deliberate fomenting of discord. He went to Jamaica in November 2005. He announced his list of FEMA trailer sites in December. He didn’t go into the city’s neighborhoods to ask residents about FEMA trailer placement, he didn’t go into city council offices to discuss FEMA trailer placement, he went to Jamaica. Then he came back and presented a ridiculous list. Some of the sites were aburd, and all five district council members raised objections. Unfortunately, the reporting on the issue didn’t distinguish between the suburbanites who didn’t want Orleans Parish project dwellers nearby and the city residents who wanted to know if there had been effort to use the parking lot across the street before they agreed to give up their park. Don’t get me wrong, not all Orleans Parish objections were reasonable and not all suburban objection were racist, and there would have been NIMBYism from some residents no matter how well Nagin handled it. But Nagin quickly realized that it played better politically to say “NIMBY” than to admit his mistake and discuss trailer placement. He got to pose as champion of the displaced and his approval rating among African-Americans started to rise. But not enough, he still had to do something to stop the talk of a “land-grab.” You can dispute whether “NIMBY” led directly to “Chocolate City.” but “NIMBY
” was certainly an example of Nagin playing a race card to cover his own mistakes. I also know that it’s a difficult argument to make, because it’s impossible to tell many so-called NIMBYists were asking legitimate questions and how many really were racist, or just selfish bastards.
That should have been, “people who care enough to read up and blog.” The point is, he would have faced no real opposition in his re-election bid had it not been for Katrina, but I think that it was already getting to be difficult to view as a reformer. I think we’d all be viewing him as just another worthless sham reformer by now, had it not been for Katrina.
Yea, Katrina really put him on the hot seat and that’s the last thing he was prepared for, setting the stage for the debacles that followed. Pretty much like Bush and Sept. 11. He would have been a lousy president anyway but the attack made him dangerous.
That site is just what I was looking for for this list. I will be exploring!
You edited since my first comment, for the record. This is so much better.
Yikes. What a detailed list — almost suitable for inclusion in a legal document.
I’m with BSJD. Nagin was *never* a good mayor. I always cite the fact that he never peeped a word or broke a sweat about rising crime and failing schools before Katrina.