"Black Leaders Also Failed New Orleans Poor"
Tags: ray nagin, huffington post…New Orleans is a near textbook example of that neglect and leadership disconnect. In the months before New Orleans’s current black mayor Richard Nagin [sic], a former corporate communications executive, slammed Bush and the feds for their glacial response to Katrina, he drew fire from anti-poverty activists and some black residents for being snuggling up to close to business interests, while ignoring the poor. Nagin was hardly the first black official to take heat for the plight of the city’s poor. For the past three decades, blacks have had near unbroken control of city government in New Orleans. They’ve controlled city hall, and had black majorities on the school board, and the city council. The police chief, and the District Attorney are black. During their tenure, Bourbon Street, the French Quarter, the Casinos, and tourism, have boomed. Large parts of the city have become gentrified, downtown business interests have grown richer, and black businesspersons and professionals especially those with close ties to the black establishment at City Hall have done well. City officials have been hammered with accusations of cronyism, patronage, and influence peddling…
