In French Quarter, Not Everyone Convinced by Bush

In the darkness of his French Quarter restaurant, without electricity since Hurricane Katrina hit, Don Davis tried to get a gas-powered generator working in time to watch Thursday night’s broadcast of President Bush’s speech here on the disaster recovery effort.

The generator proved too stubborn for a quick start, so Davis listened to Bush’s remarks over a visitor’s cellphone -- and he liked what the president had to say, especially his renewed pledge of billions in rebuilding money.

“He said what he was supposed to,” said Davis, 57, who has homes in Texas and Florida. “That’s what the government is for.”

But Ruben Barrios, the general manager of Davis’ cavernous eatery, wasn’t convinced.

“Yes, he said exactly what he needed to say,” said Barrios, 41. “But now it’s a matter of whether he’ll back it up.”

Others in the French Quarter had similarly divergent views about the president’s remarks, although many only heard secondhand accounts of them, having been left in the dark.

The president spoke in the quarter’s historic Jackson Square, but residents and business owners were not allowed close enough to see or hear him.

The area’s narrow streets of balconied, Old World buildings remain littered with broken glass and collapsed awnings, as well as mountains of foul-smelling trash. Block after block still turns as black as a well bottom when night falls.

One business that has bounced back quickly from Katrina, Johnny White’s Sports Bar & Grill, drew an overflow crowd, but there was no TV.

Bar regular Brett Oncale, 46, said he wasn’t interested in the president’s words.

“He’s just here for a show of face,” said Oncale, who was sitting astride his Harley-Davidson and sipping a Red Bull and tequila. “That’s all this is, a show of face.”

The promises of relief funds didn’t impress him. “The money was coming anyway,” Oncale said. “That’s how this country works.”

Arne Hook, a New Orleans entrepreneur and former board member of the city’s Police Foundation, had hoped to see the president deliver his speech but was kept out of the square by the military.

“I came down to offer my support,” said Hook, 59. He got only as far as a levee along the Mississippi River. “I’m disappointed.”

Back at Davis’ restaurant, the 700-seat Ralph & Kacoo’s, the owner and Barrios traded gibes about each other’s political leanings as they worked on the generator by flashlight. They made it clear that Bush’s speech did little to change their feelings about the federal government’s response to Katrina.

“When you prepare for a hurricane, and Noah’s Ark happens, how do you prepare for that?” Davis said in the president’s defense.

But Barrios, whose home sustained wind and fire damage in the storm, said the Bush administration failed to heed warnings about the vulnerability of the city’s levees. “If the levees didn’t break, this whole thing wouldn’t have happened.”