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POT. KETTLE. KAISER ED.
The White House's new Gulf Coast Recovery Caudillo Douglas O'Dell is a retired leatherneck General and he gave a blunt and gruff interview to Bruce Nolan of the Picayune. LINK. O'Dell was very critical of NOLA Katrina Kaiser Ed Blakely for his inattention, indifference and failure to do anything to ride herd on a "bewildering" and highly bureaucratic recovery process. Kaiser Ed's response was classic: "He has only been here since the end of May, and in this time, he has made overblown and incorrect judgments about how the city works."
Hmm, remember when a certain puffed up know-it-all called people here "buffoons" and blamed slow progress in the recovery on the locals. That creep was, of course, a certain windy and pompous academic: Herr Professor und Kaiser Ed Blakely. Look in the mirror, Ed, it's something your boss is good at when he's not getting awards from clapping sycophants...
There were a couple of other money quotes from General O'Dell that are worth cutting and pasting and splattering across the page in red:
--> Blakely's office produces "ethereal visions" that vastly overreach in asking for federal recovery dollars. The city's plan for a new $1 billion criminal justice complex, for example, "is not grounded in reality."
Damn, that is so true. I have a friend (not a blogger) who deals with Blakely's office and she has described a bunch of people who know how to plan but couldn't manage a 7-Eleven in Bunkie. The last bit is my image but it's oh so true and O'Dell has figured out why:
--> When it comes to solving complex problems, the city has not delegated authority up and down the line to hurry progress forward: "Below Ed Blakely, there's virtually no authority and lots of responsibility. At Blakely and above, there's lots of authority, but no responsibility."
That, folks, in a nutshell is why nothing at City Hall works. We have a Mayor and Katrina Kaiser who are more interested in talking about what they're doing than actually doing anything. Neither of them wants to be bothered with details, man, because they look at the big picture, man or as Dr. A says when doing *her* Nagin impression: "It's complicated, man."
I didn't agree with everything O'Dell said in the article but it's refreshing to have someone speak the truth as they see it about the pipe dreams of the recovery. I got an almost Tweety-like tingle in my leg when O'Dell blasted the wildly unrealistic plan for a big ass criminal justice complex near the Parish Prison. Kaiser Ed, as always, passed the buck for the idea to FEMA and segued into a claim that getting NOPD and NOFD back into permanent buildings has been a top priority of his office. Really? Is that why there's still no permanent crime lab? Is that why some police and fire districts have worked out of trailers for nearly 3 years? Details, details, pesky details...
Sometimes I wonder what Kaiser Ed and C Ray have been smoking. It must be some pretty good shit for them to spend all their time in cloud cuckoo land. Wow, man. Let's play Maggot Brain again, man. Hmm, maybe they've been getting some fictional MILF weed from Nancy Botwin and the gang on Weeds. It could explain a lot, y'all.
Finally, I have to quote O'Dell's decription of Jeffrey's new buddy, Inspector General Robert Cerasoli: "he's tough as a woodpecker's lips."
Yo, General, I think you should start blogging, you have a gift for vivid imagery.
He is so right about why nothing in the city works.
A,
Very good post, as usual. Also, in response to your reply to me about
whether Jefferson can still make the runoff, I still think he's favored to
make the cut. The turnout on Sept. 6 will be very low, which chronic
voters will cull the herd. Among African Americans, the chronic voters are
the elderly -- and they are the core of Jeff's support. Beyond that,
however, his future is uncertain. If he gets a credible black opponent, I
think he's in real danger ... but you can NEVER sell that guy short. (This
is really a reply to both your fine posts.)
In part, I agree with you Clancy but there's no Jefferson yard signs or
anything else anywhere in Central City or any of the black and/or
integrated hoods Uptown. Last time, Jeffrey and I were the only ones who
thought he'd win. This time, even if he makes the run-off, he's a goner.
If we're going to start commenting on Blakely and Nagin and their ethereal
visions, will somebody ask them how we can have TIF financing for every new
project that's limited to a specific area and still see the increases in
general revenue necessary for grandiose citywide projects -- like a library
system that goes from bottom 25th percentile in per capita spending to top
16th percentile (it might have been bottom 16th to top 25th). That's one
reason why I sometimes got so belligerent in my criticism of praise for the
visionary mayor, sorry to bring it up. Visions are no good if we don't
know how they're going to be paid for. TIF financing for the Riverfront
means any new revenue created there stays there -- which can really cut
into hotel tax revenue. TIF financing for projects in New Orleans East and
in Algiers mean the same thing, at least as I understand it. That doesn't
leave much new revenue for staffing or upkeep of big citywide projects --
if they ever get completed.