New Orleanians Ask Mayor: Why Go Home?
Barbara Bonseigneur looked to her hometown mayor Saturday for a reason to return to New Orleans. She didn’t get one.
“There is nowhere to buy food or get gas. It’s chaotic,” said Bonseigneur, 50.
“Bringing us back to living in poverty is not a new beginning.”
New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin spoke in Atlanta and pleaded with his former constituents to come home and help rebuild the city.
Though most in the frustrated crowd said they were eager to do so, the same question kept coming up: “Home to what?”
During the two-hour town hall meeting -- the latest of several Nagin has hosted -- the mayor told the crowd of about 2,000 that he was working for a better New Orleans.
That includes stronger levees, economic opportunity for citizens, restoration of utilities and a better school system, he said.
“The ‘Big Easy’ is not very easy right now,” Nagin said.
He predicted that citizens who return would be in for six months of hard work before the city experiences a five- or 10-year construction boom.
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