Just say ‘no’ to the New Orleans takeover
8th April 2024 · 0 Comments
Governor Jeff Landry and wealthy Louisianans’ proposed efforts to take control of New Orleans, its streets, utilities, education, institutions and economic engine should be roundly protested for several reasons.
New Orleans’ predominantly Black population and local, state and congressional leaders are quite capable of operating the city without monied people coming to take over and control the town they left during the white flight days of early integration.
Landry’s New Orleans Transition Council’s thinly veiled ruse of identifying New Orleans’ most pressing challenges seems to be more a master plan for taking over the city than an altruistic effort to help handle its most pressing issues.
According to a Fox 8 report, Landry’s New Orleans Transition Council identified a lack of access to quality education, job opportunities, inadequate health care and declining infrastructure as significant issues impacting New Orleans.
Fair. We already knew that.
However, if the state wouldn’t suck up so much of the city’s tax revenue and run money-generating entities like the Superdome, Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, and other state-empowered institutions, and reinvest some of that money into New Orleans, maybe we wouldn’t have 22.3 percent of residents living below the poverty line, including 34 percent of children and 20 percent of seniors.
Landry told Fox News host Tucker Carlson that he wanted to “bend (New Orleans) to his will,” Sam Karlin, NOLA.com staff writer, reported in November 2023.
His Transition Council includes numerous business and tourism officials and many people who don’t live in the city. Among them, a donor of the Cantrell Recall Campaign. It does not however include any current members of the Cantrell administration or the City Council. Also not on the list is anyone from Orleans Parish law enforcement agencies.
Only four of the committee’s 27 members were Black, although most of the city’s residents are Black.
State Senator Royce Duplessis sat on the council, as did Pastor Tom Watson. Duplessis, who confirmed that the council met just three times, told The Louisiana Weekly he wanted to be a part of anything involving New Orleans.
City control of New Orleans’ economic development assets are at risk.
We are well aware of the results of the state takeover of the New Orleans Public Schools after Hurricane Katrina when all the veteran teachers were fired and replaced by people with two years of college and no specific specialized education area.
The state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education orchestrated the takeover of the system’s multi-million-dollar budget and created the nation’s first all-charter school (aka private schools with public dollars), which continues to earn failing grades nearly 20 years after its creation.
No BESE member had children in public schools, but they claimed to know what was best for parents and children in the New Orleans public school system. To say the charter experiment is an abject failure is putting it mildly.
It’s hard to put any good faith in Landry’s wanting to take over the state’s crown jewel and economic engine when he would not invest in something as simple as free meals for poor children during summer.
We all must remember that some things that look or sounds good doesn’t mean they are good. Things are not always what they seem.
Understanding that, the New Orleans Citizen Committee has issued a call to action. The group wants elected officials to stand up for their city and stop the state’s takeover of a town that suffers from resources being taken and run by the state.
Long-time civil rights advocate Barbara Major chairs the group, law professor Will Snowden is vice chair, and former Mayor Sidney Barthelemy, policy strategist Jacques Morial, Retired LSC Chief Justice Bernette J. Johnson, and many others have joined forces in calling on local officials to “defend New Orleans.”
In addition to the recommendations from the so-called New Orleans Transition Council, all Black Louisianans must be concerned about Governor Landry’s proposed Constitutional Convention. Landry wants to open a Constitutional Convention on May 6, before the end of the state’s regular legislative session, and finish monkeying around with the state constitution by July 24.
Landry’s motives for calling the Constitutional Convention are questionable. Neither the bill authorizing the Convention nor the press release justifying it explains how the Convention will “streamline” governance to benefit the people.
Thankfully, we, the voters, must decide to accept or decline Landry’s proposed state Constitution changes. Given Landry’s previous behavior and conduct regarding Black people and his desire to take over the most prosperous city in the state, we advise everyone to read the proposed changed Constitution before blindly voting for it.
This article originally published in the April 8, 2024 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
