Thursday, January 03, 2008
Could one possibly be enough?
If you've missed them, let me direct you to two important posts at Squandered Heritage and Think New Orleans. At ThinkNOLA, I commented:
Whatever the root cause, it's certainly exacerbated by an attitude, a top-down attitude, at City Hall that claiming accessibility and transparency is an acceptable substitute for honest communication.
It seems to me that obvious questions need to be asked. "How did DRC go from being a p***ed-on outsider to being an apparent insider," "What, if any, subcontractors are involved," and "Are there any recent additions to the city's DBE list?" all come to mind.
Don’t know if it’s the same DRC.
Offhand, I’d say that it would take at least two of three factors to produce something like this:
1) Bureaucratic bumbling and indifference.
2) Corruption.
3) Unfathomable stupidity compounded by unbelievable arrogance.
On the last point, you have at least three colossal egos belonging to major demolition proponents. Nagin, Blakely and Couhig all seem eager to bulldoze anything outside of a few rich or historic areas. Don’t know how much sway Couhig still has through his NORA position.
Whatever the root cause, it's certainly exacerbated by an attitude, a top-down attitude, at City Hall that claiming accessibility and transparency is an acceptable substitute for honest communication.
It seems to me that obvious questions need to be asked. "How did DRC go from being a p***ed-on outsider to being an apparent insider," "What, if any, subcontractors are involved," and "Are there any recent additions to the city's DBE list?" all come to mind.
