[StBernard] Conservative Review - Remaking New Orleans

[Westley Annis]

Remaking New Orleans   
By Robert D. Novak   
Townhall.com   

NEW ORLEANS - The imposing presence of Robert A. Cerasoli   
as the city's first inspector general is the clearest sign   
that Hurricane Katrina's changes wrought on New Orleans   
in 2005 were not limited to physical devastation. By   
declaring war on municipal corruption, Cerasoli has signal-   
ed that life in the Big Easy no longer will be so easy.   

I spent two days here with Donald E. Powell, federal   
coordinator for Gulf Coast rebuilding, who conducts over-   
sight on remaking New Orleans. Physical reconstruction is   
slow, and the city never will regain its former size or   
appearance. But civic leaders I met here agreed that law   
enforcement, criminal justice, education and health all   
are better than they were before Katrina.   

Louisiana politicians grumble that the flow of around $120   
billion from Washington is insufficient and mourn for some   
180,000 New Orleanians who have left the area. But that   
does not worry the rebuilders. "We don't want to rebuild   
an old New Orleans," insurance executive and civic leader   
John Casbon told me. School reformer Sarah Usdin said of   
the improvement in schools that "it never would have   
happened" save for the storm.   

At the heart of the Katrina-inspired revival is a trans-   
formed mindset in a city traditionally more interested   
in good times than good government. For the first time,   
New Orleans elites are concentrating on something other   
than Mardi Gras.   

A sign of change that transcends federal dollars was the   
arrival last August of Cerasoli, the nation's foremost   
inspector general, who served 10 years as Massachusetts   
state IG. "I was amazed when I arrived to find that just   
about everybody I met had been the victim of a holdup,"   
Cerasoli told me. He wondered why crime was much more   
rampant in New Orleans than in Atlanta, a larger city   
with a smaller police force.   

Cerasoli is working closely with U.S. Attorney Jim Letten   
to crack down on corruption. In a city whose good-time   
image belies high murder rates and violent crime that   
preceded Katrina, the new local district attorney, Keva   
Landrum-Johnson, and police chief Warren Riley are bring-   
ing reform to a law enforcement system notorious for   
putting arrested criminals back on the street. As founder   
of the New Orleans Police and Justice Foundation, Casbon   
has led business community pressure for reform in the   
D.A.'s office.   

Those efforts followed the Katrina catastrophe, as did the   
replacement of half of the city's public schools with   
charter schools. I visited the Langston Hughes Charter   
Academy, whose principal and founder, John Alford, is a   
recent Harvard MBA graduate who has sacrificed making big   
money. He and the school's students are African-Americans,   
as are nearly all the city's public school students. The   
children in their red uniforms were orderly as they   
followed Alford's strict instructions against jostling   
and fighting in the corridors.   

This spirit of reform seems to have eluded re-elected Mayor   
Ray Nagin. He is not tarred with corruption in a city where   
his former possible successor, Councilman Oliver Thomas,   
last year pleaded guilty to taking bribes and some 85 other   
New Orleans officials have been convicted or indicted   
recently. But neither is Nagin considered a reformer at   
city hall. There, the new spirit is typified by City   
Council President Arnie Fielkow, elected in 2006 after   
running the New Orleans Saints football team's front   
office.   

Federal Coordinator Powell, a rich banker from Amarillo,   
Texas, and generous contributor to George W. Bush, knows   
that the progress in New Orleans stems not from billions   
sent by Washington. He told the National Press Club on   
Nov. 29 that "the real reason I'm optimistic -- the reason   
I have hope for New Orleans -- has nothing to do with   
government." Powell openly sympathizes with locals over   
the infuriating red tape of the Federal Emergency Manage-   
ment Agency (FEMA).   

Katrina's assault on New Orleans and the failure of govern-   
ment at all levels to cope with its damage has been cited   
by critics the past two years as proof that more, not less,   
government is needed. While "government harnesses tax   
dollars and administers programs," Powell contends, "in   
this country it has never been and never will be a   
substitute for the creativity and can-do spirits that   
individuals possess." A visit to New Orleans proves his   
point.