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Ray Nagin's challenge

The newly re-elected mayor of New Orleans needs to rebuild broken relationships and show residents progress on hurricane recovery.

By Times editorial
Published May 23, 2006

Conventional political wisdom was never intended for places like New Orleans, which may explain why Ray Nagin could be elected mayor in 2002 on the strength of white voters and re-elected Saturday by blacks, and why he could draw only 38 percent in the primary and still defeat the most recognized name in Louisiana politics.

In New Orleans, a political jambalaya, the way race colored the mayoral election may owe more to the path of Hurricane Katrina than to an obsession with skin color. The neighborhoods destroyed by the storm were mostly poor, powerless and black, and the businesses that supported Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu were viewed as all too eager to replace them with parks. Nagin, the business candidate in 2002, chose instead to distance himself from similar recommendations from the Bring Back New Orleans Commission.

Only in the glow of victory Sunday did Nagin allow himself to publicly speculate on the fate of such neighborhoods. Even then, he was careful to show deference: "I think that's going to be very clear by the year end: exactly which neighborhoods are coming back and which ones are not. And we'll deal with the green space issue accordingly."

The careful line Nagin walked to return to office is also a line that will continue to influence local, state and federal efforts to rebuild the city. Nearly nine months after the storm, less than half the population has returned, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has yet to restore the damaged levee system for this year's hurricane season. Ultimately, many areas of the city can't be rebuilt without a levee system that will protect against a Category 5 storm; some are too risky for reconstruction even if the levees are fortified.

The development "footprint," though, is only one of the challenges Nagin will face. More immediately, he will have to show residents and businesses steady progress in demolition, cleanup, reinvestment and planning. He also will need to repair some of his broken relationships, especially with Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco and the Louisiana Recovery Authority, that are vital to long-term success. Congress can't be expected to meet its financial commitments if the city and the state can't agree on how the money is to be spent.

Holding an election in a city whose voters are spread throughout America was an achievement in itself, and Nagin seemed eager to teach the nation a lesson. "They don't get the uniqueness of New Orleans," he said. "They don't really get what really happened during Katrina - all they saw was those awful images - and they really don't get Ray Nagin. Sometimes I don't get Ray Nagin, so it's all right."

Americans may not "get" Nagin, but they have shown an eagerness to help New Orleans. Nagin will want to give them something to embrace.

[Last modified May 23, 2006, 05:11:34]