Mitch sounding like a NolaStat supporter
Mayor-elect Mitch Landrieu, on Tavis Smiley (PBS, 4/26/2010):
New Orleans is going to be a laboratory for innovation and change. I think a lot of how it goes in the future depends on the work that we’re going to do in the next 12 to 18 months. If we can restore confidence, if we can restore hope, if we can make some meaningful progress that people can actually measure, people then who are on the cusp, businesses that wanted to invest here, they didn’t because they were nervous about it, people that wanted to move here but were concerned about it didn’t, may actually start deciding to come on back in because now would be a great time to move to the city. …
I think what’s happening on the ground here for people that actually live here, people are finding new ways to solve old problems. People that before would rely on government are now innovating themselves in their own neighborhoods.
So this isn’t new people coming in that are changing, this is people who actually live here who are beginning to pull their neighborhood organizations together more tightly, who are working more closely with the faith-based organization and the not-for-profits, not just waiting on government to solve their problems.
But making sure that government fulfills its responsibility as well. The change is actually coming from the people who are here, not necessarily the people who are coming out. The folks that are coming here from without are actually learning what it is that the people of New Orleans are teaching them, not because we’re so much smarter than everybody else but because we have had to adapt or die, and adaptation is a much more preferable pathway.
