Many of you have already gotten news of the passage, with ease, of the Wal-Mart into the Lower Garden District. This is likely disheartening to some, and confirmation of the cynicism of others. The Urban Conservancy is disappointed in the outcome, not just in its lightning-quick passage, but in the failure of our elected officials to even mitigate its effects on our community. We feel there is moral, if not criminal culpability in the destruction of people's homes as part of a game of bureaucratic and corporate chess played out in our community.
However, we see hope in these events. We have learned that organized people can actually have an effect on organized money, if only slowing down the "done deal" this time. We have learned that a group of people once written off as apathetic do care, and care greatly for the quality of life in their city. We have learned that now is the time for new leadership in this city and that each of us has a place within it. We have learned that our friends and associates are looking for new approaches and that our collective tolerance for "business as usual" has diminished and continues to do so. We have learned that people are awakening to the fact that our city's future is in our hands, and that we can effect change and need not suffer from the cynicism that has poisoned us in the past. Mr. Nagin was the beneficiary of this important shift in public sentiment. We are hopeful that he will assist in the creation of our new future. But if he chooses to ignore the legitimate desires of the people of New Orleans in favor of political expediency and the mirages labeled as "economic development," he will be replaced by the same mood that brought him into power.
In each letter we have received, in each voice we have heard, in each new person who joined the cause we have the building blocks of a new community.
Let's keep at it. |
