Insulting

What & Who: Councilmember Stacy Head will attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Irish Channel and St. Mary Overlay Projects completion on Thursday morning. The ceremony marks the rehabiliation of 1.75 miles of roadway throughout the Irish Channel and St. Mary neighborhoods.

When: Thursday, December 11, 2008 11:00 a.m.

Where: Burke Park (Uptown) Annunciation St, between 2nd & 3rd St.

Background: As a result of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, an estimated 17,000 individual sites (roadway and sidewalks) and 6,000 blockers were damaged due to flooding in 80 percent of the City. To date, the City has completed 13 roadway and walking path projects and also completed more than 2,275 repairs to city streets and sidewalks damaged by the storms of 2005.

REALITY CHECK: Really? Oh Yeah, the flood waters were REAL DEEP in the Irish Channel and on the Isle of Denial. As a New Orleans citizen who DID have ~3 FEET of Water in the streets of her neighborhood, this is nothing short of insulting. Stacy Head does good work and I admire her, but having “recovery work” work done in the IRISH CHANNEL and having the audacity to say the damage to the road way was Katrina/Rita related is inappropriate and INSULTING to those whose neighborhoods were ravaged by flooding and postK cleanup. How much does it cost the city to plan & execute a ribbon cutting ceremony for less than 2 miles of roadway in an area of town that DID NOT FLOOD!?

We all need to keep our eyes on the recovery ball. You can’t talk about efficiency in budgeting and city services and do things like this at the same time. Focus. Focus. Focus!