Mayor Cantrell urges residents to ‘move city forward together’
14th May 2018 · 0 Comments
By Christopher Tidmore
Contributing Writer
Stepping boldly Monday into history as New Orleans’ first female mayor, LaToya Cantrell urged residents to be forward-thinking and to seek ways to contribute to the growth and development of the Crescent City.
In the midst of New Orleans’ Tricentennial Cele-bration, Cantrell told those in attendance at her inauguration festivities that she expects a great deal from them.
“There’s only you and me and the work before us,” the former District B Councilwoman told residents at the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts.
“I vow to each one of you standing here today, before God Almighty, I’ll spend every breath and every moment of the next four years proving that you made the right decision,” Cantrell said.
During her speech, Cantrell talked about the city’s “crumbling infrastructure” as well as its efforts to expand opportunities for people of color and address the massive needs of the city’s water-management system.
“There’s only one way that we can make the city better,” she said. “We really have to be willing to try, and not only try, we have to believe. We have to believe in one another. We have to step up to the challenge of moving our city forward together. The key to that is you.”
Cantrell, originally from Los Angeles, California and Xavier University alum, talked about the need to expand economic opportunities for minorities in public contracts during Monday’s speech, pointing out that while Blacks comprise 60 percent of the city’s population, whites are awarded 56 percent of the City of New Orleans public contracts.
“I care about how you live, where you live,” Cantrell, 46, said. “I want to make sure that you and your family have a chance to thrive — not just survive.
“We are people of substance, stamina and determination,” she added.
Donna Brazile, the Master of Ceremonies for the inauguration, introduced the new Council and local officials, soon to be sworn into office. Brazile also highlighted the dignitaries in the audience including Gov. John Bel Edwards, Reps. Steve Scalise and Cedric Richmond, Gretna Mayor Belinda Constant and Kenner Mayor Ben Zahn, former Senator Mary Landrieu and Mayors Moon and Mitch Landrieu, as well as several state reps and members of the judiciary. She noted as well that there were 280 members of LaToya Cantrell’s family from around the country in the auditorium that Monday.
Brazile thanked outgoing Mayor Mitch Landrieu for his service by saying, “This city has been tested as few others have been tested…and we have emerged with our faith intact.”
“New Orleans may be 300 years old but her citizens are not tired…Like the city itself, LaToya is boisterous [and] bold!” the emcee interjected, before inviting up Sheriff Marlin Gusman and his family to receive the first oath of office. Next to be sworn in was Clerk of Court Arthur Morrell, followed by each member of the new Council taking their oaths – all joined on stage by their families.
Sworn in by her father-in-law Magistrate Harry Cantrell, the new mayor declared, “New Orleans, you look good at 300, and we look good at 300.”
“We broke every glass ceiling,” she cheered, adding later that the city’s decision to put a female in the highest office was not an accident. “[We] took a good long look at who we are, and how we want to get there,” Cantrell said. Emphasizing that electing a woman mayor was “intentional,” she added, “I like intentional…We are going to do some things that are intentional.”
With a firm, “We have to stand up to our challenges and face them together,” she observed that over the last few months, people had come up and greeted her reform agenda with a sarcastic “good luck.” New Orleanians did little to hide their skepticism that anything could truly change. However, the new mayor said that she saw an additional emotion displayed in her various encounters. Hope, too, was expressed along with a willingness of people “to come together” to achieve a range of reforms. Nevertheless, Cantrell warned that change will only occur if citizens are willing to follow through in that desire to work together, maintaining, “It cannot be me, it has to be ‘we.’”
The challenges are great, she admitted, declaring that “far too many of our people are left behind.” Still, Cantrell mostly left specific issues out of her inaugural address, yet those of which she did speak had a certain partisan balance to them, a subtle acknowledgement of the still fractured nature of local politics. Citing the injustice that 56 percent of construction contracts still go to white-owned firms, a liberal priority, she also quickly emphasized the “critical” importance of regional cooperation,” a typically conservative one.
“It’s not about how the world views us at 300; it’s about how we see ourselves at 300,” Cantrell made the thesis of her speech. “It’s not about us,” she said pointing to herself and the council. “It’s about all of us,” she said, her arms sweeping forward to the crowd.
Brazile returned to the stage to welcome Irma Thomas in “the spirit” of whom “this building is named,” who sang “My Soul Looked Back In Wonder,” Mahalia Jackson’s famed gospel ballad.
Then, in New Orleans tradition, dancers and a brass band from Tremé came to the stage to lead Cantrell in a second-line.
This article originally published in the May 14, 2018 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
