[NYTr] "We're still paying attention," Bush tells NOLA

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

LA Times - Aug 30, 2007
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-bush30aug30,1,6613718.story?coll=la-headlines-nation


'We're still paying attention,' Bush tells New Orleanians

The president strikes a positive note two years after Hurricane Katrina, 
but the federal rebuilding effort's pace and funding are faulted.

By James Gerstenzang

NEW ORLEANS --- Against a backdrop of criticism over the slow pace of 
the federal rebuilding effort two years after Hurricane Katrina struck, 
President Bush marked the storm's anniversary Wednesday with an 
optimistic message.

"This town is coming back," he said at a charter school in one of the 
city's most flood-ravaged neighborhoods. "This town is better today than 
it was yesterday, and it's going to be better tomorrow than it was today."

The president spent much of the day in the Crescent City and on the 
Mississippi Gulf Coast, repeating the message of federal support that he 
has espoused in 14 previous visits to the region, but bringing no new 
money to spur the recovery.

The Bush administration's response to Katrina -- the president's 
decision to fly over a stricken New Orleans without landing as he 
returned to Washington from vacation, the chaos of rescue efforts and 
the botched post-hurricane relief program -- has brought criticism and 
political controversy.

Two weeks after the storm, Bush stood in Jackson Square in the French 
Quarter and said, in a speech to the nation, "This great city will rise 
again."

On Wednesday, in a quiet recognition of the pressure to turn that 
message into reality, he said Washington had not forgotten his commitment.

"It's one thing to come and give a speech in Jackson Square; it's 
another thing to keep paying attention to whether or not progress is 
being made. And I hope people understand we do, we're still paying 
attention," the president said. "We're still engaged."

A recent report from the RFK Center for Human Rights and the Institute 
for Southern Studies estimated that the Bush administration was 
overstating federal funding for the Gulf Coast rebuilding campaign by as 
much as 300%, with about $35 billion of an estimated $114 billion 
actually spent. White House officials said Wednesday that the amount 
spent was $96 billion.

In an open letter to Bush, New Orleans City Councilwoman Shelley Midura 
said the funding "has served you well, as your spokesmen often cite it 
as an indicator of your dedication to our recovery." But, Midura, who 
noted that much of the money covered initial relief, added, "it hasn't 
served us as well -- it's not enough, it's been given grudgingly, and 
only after our elected officials have had to fight for it."

Bush also was greeted by an editorial in the /Times-Picayune/ newspaper 
with a front-page teaser that pleaded: "TREAT US FAIRLY, MR. PRESIDENT." 
The newspaper compared federal spending in Louisiana with that in 
Mississippi and concluded: "In every case, Mississippi ended up with a 
disproportionate share of aid."

The disparity between the speed of the recovery in Mississippi, whose 
Republican governor, Haley Barbour, has close ties to the Bush 
administration, and in New Orleans and Louisiana, led by Democrats, has 
been a point of sharp controversy.

The newspaper contended that if Community Development Block Grant funds 
had been "handed out proportionate to the damage," Louisiana should have 
received $22 billion, four times the $5.5 billion that Mississippi 
received, but it had received just $10.4 billion.

"All Louisiana wants is to be treated fairly," the editorial said. "But 
that hasn't happened."

Bush made no reference to such controversies on his visit.

He started the day's public events with a speech in the media room of 
the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School for Science and 
Technology, dedicated in June and the first public school to open in the 
storm-devastated Lower 9th Ward. Joseph Recasner, a fourth-grade 
teacher, said that 15 to 18 feet of water washed through the building 
during the storm and that people who had sought refuge there were 
rescued from the second-floor windows.

The president visited the River Garden housing complex, talking with 
residents in some of the rebuilt houses and spotlighting the federal 
assistance he said supported the effort. The mixed-income housing 
project was buffeted by the hurricane's winds but suffered only minimal 
water damage.

The presidential motorcade route wound past lingering evidence of 
destruction: blocks with rebuilt houses but with many more boarded-up 
houses, some with the spray-paint markings left by searchers looking for 
the storm's victims. It took the president over the Industrial Canal, 
where the new flood wall had "Hindsight" painted in large red letters.

Off his route in the Lower 9th Ward, there was even more evidence: 
entire blocks deserted and store after store boarded up -- Family 
Dollar, Walgreens, St. Claude Hardware.

At the center of the federal effort to revive New Orleans is the 
reconstruction of the levees, which failed to hold back the city's 
canals. The Corps of Engineers is scheduled to finish by 2011, said Don 
Powell, the federal Gulf Coast reconstruction coordinator.

"We fully understand that New Orleans can't be rebuilt until there's 
confidence in the levees," Bush said.

Contrasting with Bush's upbeat remarks are the statistics.

The pre-storm population of New Orleans was 455,000; it is now about 
274,000. Of the 184,000 people who sought help from the government grant 
program for rebuilding, 43,000 have been sent checks.

At the start of the year, fewer than 1% of the applicants had received 
any money from the plan, which is $5 billion short of meeting all the 
needs.

More than half the city remains in disrepair.

The Lower 9th Ward and the Gentilly neighborhood, both centers of 
poverty, remain extremely flood-prone.

With tourism at 70% of pre-storm levels, the heart of the New Orleans 
economy has not fully rebounded.

New Orleans has the highest homicide rate of any American city. Rapes 
increased 44% in the first half of 2007 compared with a year ago.

The White House said that in the budget request the president would send 
to Congress for fiscal 2009, he would seek $7.6 billion for work on the 
levees, and an additional $1.3 billion to improve drainage in New Orleans.

In Mississippi, the president visited Bay St. Louis, which he called the 
storm's "ground zero." A rebuilt bridge served as a backdrop.

"People are worried about insurance here. They're worried about 
bureaucracy," he said at an event with elected officials at Our Lady of 
the Gulf Community Center, but added that they were most worried they 
would be forgotten. "We haven't forgotten, and won't."