Sunday, March 05, 2006

Nagin in Houston

Hizzoner, Ray "Chocolate City" Nagin was in Houston this weekend, running for Mayor. Not mayor of Houston - - Mayor of New Orleans. It seems that a whole bunch of folks left New Orleans during the latter days of August, 2005. They live in Houston now, and want to vote for Mayor of New Orleans.

I think that is pretty weird. They live in Houston, but want to vote in New Orleans... can anyone say voter fraud?

How many evacuees are in Houston, anyway?
Houston, 350 miles to the west, has 150,000 evacuees, or almost as many New Orleanians as New Orleans.
The hell you say. That many? Anyway, back to the main story. Nagin is campaigning in Houston for Mayor of New Orleans (surreal, ain't it?) and had the following to say about those who have qualified.
"There are 23 candidates running for mayor. Very few of them look like us," he said. "There's a potential to be a major change in the political structure in New Orleans."
What the hell does he mean by that? Is Nagin playing the race card? Aaah, then we learn that:
In a speech organized by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People civil rights group, Nagin discussed the recovery of New Orleans and explained the complicated absentee voting procedures for those who have not returned to the city.

Nagin, who sparked controversy recently by saying New Orleans would become a "chocolate city" again, told the mostly black audience of about 50 people that the election could bring a sea change to New Orleans politics, which has been dominated by blacks for more than two decades.
The NAACP was only able to get 50 people to come to his speech? With 150,000 in town? Pretty poor turnout if you ask me.

I guess the rest of the folks were doing what many Katrina evacuees are doing these days; Getting On With Their Lives. Ray Nagin is going to have to understand is that folks who want to live in New Orleans are going to live there. Folks that don't want to live in New Orleans are going to live someplace else.

Oh, I can hear the whining now. "There is nothing to do in New Orleans." I say Bunk! A quick search of the Times Picayune website shows 3510 different jobs in New Orleans alone. Many of them for multiple workers. And these are employers who advertise in the paper. There are other employers who don't, I'm sure.

If you want to work in New Orleans, there are jobs available. If you want to vote in New Orleans, then maybe you should move there.

The fact that only 50 people out of 150,000 showed up to hear "Chocolate City" Nagin shows that a whole lot of folks are getting on with their lives.

3 comments:

Pawpaw said...

New Orleans is pretty much screwed whoever wins the election. The general consensus is that New Orleans is just screwed.

oyster said...

Paw paw, jobs aren't the issue.

It's housing.

Many many thousands of Evacuees now living in Houston desperately want to come back, but there is no place to live. Choosing to temporarily live in a concrete wasteland like Houston instead of a destroyed house is not a real "choice". People who intend to come back want to choose who will be the mayor of their city. It's not so strange. In fact, absentee voting occurs in a lot of voting districts throughout the country.

Why should only the lucky few whose houses were not destroyed be able to choose the political direction of their city's future?

Anonymous said...

they don't look like us ;)
http://spaces.msn.com/chocolatecity2/blog/cns!E3A5A45BAC8F91AD!169.entry