Mayor Ray Nagin Criticizes Philadelphia as being Dirtier Than New Orleans
Sunday April 22, 2007
One of Don Imus' former producer Bernard McGirk's favorite parodies was that of New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. If anyone, black, white, Hispanic or other deserves to be parodied it's Ray "this city will be chocolate at the end of the day" Nagin.
While a lot of Philadelphians will always be amazed that we reelected John Street for a second term four years ago, most of the nation wonders how New Orleans’s voters could have possibly reelected Ray "hide in the hotel" Nagin after Hurricane Katrina.
Nagin was in Philadelphia last week to look at Philadelphia's recent initiatives to replace blighted buildings with pocket parks and its use of public dollars to induce private development. While touring the city with Mayor Street, Nagin had nothing but praise for Philadelphia. But then Mayor Nagin returned to New Orleans and did what always gets him in trouble. He opened his mouth and spoke.
What Nagin said is, quite frankly, so ridiculous that it's hard to take his seriously. He said:
That being said, the last time I checked, Philadelphia doesn't have entire neighborhoods that look like atomic bombs have wiped them out. We don't have a third of our population living elsewhere because their neighborhoods are more like a toxic waste site than part of a city. Even putting Katrina aside, New Orleans' French Quarter has long been one of the dirtiest areas of any city, especially after one of many frequent celebrations.
Like New Orleans, Philadelphia sits between two bodies of water, but Philadelphia long ago developed working systems to control flooding of the city. At worst, the Kelly Drive gets a few inches of water when the Schuylkill floods and Manayunk may flood for a day or two, but within a few days it's back to normal. What is Nagin doing with the billions of dollars that Americans including Philadelphians donated after Katrina?
Don't get me wrong. There were and still are a lot of wonderful things about New Orleans. It's actually one of my favorite cities in the world. I think their zoo easily rivals the best zoos in the world, including Philadelphia's. The Garden District is beautiful. The French Quarter has the best restaurants in the world, period. There's no better brunch than at the Court of the Two Sisters on Royal Street. Nothing tastes better than beignets and Cafe Au Lait served at Cafe Du Monde.
Let's, however, be truthful. Philadelphia has lots of problems - serious problems that the next mayor will have to address quickly. Mayor Street has been a disappointment in many areas. If he were allowed to run again, I doubt he could be reelected. Of the five major Democratic candidates for Mayor of Philadelphia - three black and two white - not one is running on a "let's continue the work of John Street platform."
Ray Nagin came to Philadelphia to learn. He didn't seem to learn much, but that's hardly a surprise since he never has learned that the best lesson in politics is to learn when to keep your mouth shut.
While a lot of Philadelphians will always be amazed that we reelected John Street for a second term four years ago, most of the nation wonders how New Orleans’s voters could have possibly reelected Ray "hide in the hotel" Nagin after Hurricane Katrina.
Nagin was in Philadelphia last week to look at Philadelphia's recent initiatives to replace blighted buildings with pocket parks and its use of public dollars to induce private development. While touring the city with Mayor Street, Nagin had nothing but praise for Philadelphia. But then Mayor Nagin returned to New Orleans and did what always gets him in trouble. He opened his mouth and spoke.
What Nagin said is, quite frankly, so ridiculous that it's hard to take his seriously. He said:
"Let me tell you something: Ya'll outa go to Philly, and you will appreciate how clean New Orleans is. Just go and walk around Philly a little bit, and you will appreciate - am I lying? You will appreciate New Orleans. We still have some work to do, but we definitely beat them by a long shot."Excuse me? Granted Philadelphia streets are a lot dirtier than I'd personally like. There are still too many burned out homes and shells of old commercial structures scattered throughout the city. Olde City streets really stink from urine in the summer heat as carriage horses pee at will.
That being said, the last time I checked, Philadelphia doesn't have entire neighborhoods that look like atomic bombs have wiped them out. We don't have a third of our population living elsewhere because their neighborhoods are more like a toxic waste site than part of a city. Even putting Katrina aside, New Orleans' French Quarter has long been one of the dirtiest areas of any city, especially after one of many frequent celebrations.
Like New Orleans, Philadelphia sits between two bodies of water, but Philadelphia long ago developed working systems to control flooding of the city. At worst, the Kelly Drive gets a few inches of water when the Schuylkill floods and Manayunk may flood for a day or two, but within a few days it's back to normal. What is Nagin doing with the billions of dollars that Americans including Philadelphians donated after Katrina?
Don't get me wrong. There were and still are a lot of wonderful things about New Orleans. It's actually one of my favorite cities in the world. I think their zoo easily rivals the best zoos in the world, including Philadelphia's. The Garden District is beautiful. The French Quarter has the best restaurants in the world, period. There's no better brunch than at the Court of the Two Sisters on Royal Street. Nothing tastes better than beignets and Cafe Au Lait served at Cafe Du Monde.
Let's, however, be truthful. Philadelphia has lots of problems - serious problems that the next mayor will have to address quickly. Mayor Street has been a disappointment in many areas. If he were allowed to run again, I doubt he could be reelected. Of the five major Democratic candidates for Mayor of Philadelphia - three black and two white - not one is running on a "let's continue the work of John Street platform."
Ray Nagin came to Philadelphia to learn. He didn't seem to learn much, but that's hardly a surprise since he never has learned that the best lesson in politics is to learn when to keep your mouth shut.
Comments
New Orleans has huge day to day problems that people in every other major or midsize city in the US do not have to worry about. I have a 6 year old child and when he gets in trouble he says “look at Tom”, I’m bad but he is worse. Nagen is no different he is trying to distact the people who elected him and with excuses instead of action. New Orleans will be in trouble untill Nagen leaves office and stopes dragging his city down and making enemys
I don’t think Mayor Nagin was neccessarily trying to put down Philly as much as he was trying to point out the strides New Orleans has made. The CBD and French Quarter are substantially cleaner than they ever have been. IN January a new cleaning service took over for the city, and it is VERY clean, cleaner than many cities, not just Philly. It cost millions more, but New Orleans is cleaner than it ever has been, Which is something in a Post-Katrina world.
On behalf of those of us in New Orleans with a little bit of manners, I apologize for “Motormouth” Nagin. I honestly do not believe he means any harm but please keep in mind when he says things such as this, he is reflecting just how emotionally ‘broken’ our city is.
Nagin is absolutely right. I’ve lived in LA, San Francisco, Montreal, Taipei, Shanghai, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, New York, London and, for the past four years, Philadelphia. This city is a pig sty. It suffers from by far the dirtiest, most litter-strewn and generally unpleasant streetscape I’ve had the misfortune to live in. Not everyone, obviously, throws their garbage blithely into the street. Many, many, many do. It’s disgusting, and Mayor Nagin spoke the truth. Bravo.
I see in one article it says that Mayor Nagin apoligized to Philadelphia’s Mayor John Street. But did he apoligize to the people of Philadelphia? I would have loved to hear what Mayor Street had to say to Nagin. I know it wasn’t nice. Street can be something to deal with.
Mayor Nagin needs to make a public apology. After all he was in our city to thank us for taking in some of his residents. And to me this was a slap in the face!!
Nagin has had diarrhea of the mouth since Katrina. I truly don’t understand how he keeps making these inane remarks and still stays in office and is never reprimanded. He tries to make nice with a weak apology, but nobody is listening anymore, because he’s become such a joke. He is a huge embarrassment to new Orleans, and is not helping with its recovery with these insensitive remarks.
I live on the border between Fishtown and Port Richmond and I can honestly say that my neighborhood has a litter and trash problem. Philadelphia in general has a major litter problem. In my neighborhood there are always piles of trash, tires, old refrigerators and other household utensils thrown under bridges. Lawns and the properties of convenience stores are trashed daily with broken glass and more trash. This is no myth. We may not like what Mayor Nagin said butwhat he said is, sadly, very true. We must stop being so defensive about this and start doing something to change the situation.
Mayor Nagin was absolutely correct. Philadelphia is disgusting. Someone mentioned living in Fishtown….I live in North Philly…Fishtown is so much cleaner than North Philly. Maybe a coincidence but…a huge yellow John Deere type tractor has been shoveling the litter in empty lots into huge (one story high)piles in this area since this morning. If this is a result of the Mayor’s comments…I commend him!!
I was kind of hoping that Nagin would stay in Philadelphia and leave us survivors of Katrina alone.
I can sorta see what Nagin was trying to do, i.e. build up the spirits in New Orleans. The positive outcome of his comments, however, are that there is a lot of focus now on how we can make Philadelphia a lot cleaner.
John Fischers response to mayor Nagin’s comment is uncalled for. I completely agree w/ the fact that the mayor had no right to say anything about another city’s appearance. What the mayor said was totally wrong and he has a tendency to say really ignorant statements. But, for Mr. Fischer to retaliate to Nagin’s comment by taking shots at New Orleans and its current condition is unwarranted, whether the statements were true or not. Mr. Fischer, New Orleans did not do anything to you, nor did the residents offend you in any way. To say that the city stinks and to remind us that our city looks like a bomb, really offends me. I know what the circumstances in New Orleans are. I do not need you to remind me. Why don’t you write your article more about how Nagin is incompetent as a mayor and discuss his many other offensive remarks. Again, I agree with your comments about Nagin (I was deeply offended when he made the remark about wanting N.O. to be a chocolate city) and even though most of your comments are true; We as PEOPLE of this area do not need the retaliation to be directed towards the city. Especially as someone who lives 1200+ miles from the devestation and from one who could not even fathom what we have been through. You sir, like Mayor Nagin, should think before you articulate your thoughts……just a thought.
nigga please
I am from New Orleans and I evacuated to Philly during the hurricane. Nagin spoke honestly. It matters not if you like what he said it is the truth. For the writer of the article to discuss New Orleans looking as if it was hit by atomic bombs is a bit silly.
You see there was this small event that he may not hear much about while living under a rock, but it kinda flooded 3/4 of the city. So there is pretty good reason for why it looks as it does. To go further into discussing how filthy the city is after one of its festivals is also silly. It’s like saying your house is not in order right after you have a party. I’ve been to several cities in the US. (Houston, NY, ATL, Portland Oregon, Miami, New Orleans (of course), Chicago, LA,etc..) And I’ve honestly never seen a place filthier than Philly. Honestly there’s not a whole lot of difference between North Philly with no disaster and New Orleans post Katrina.
If Nagin’s comments have made Street get to work on Philly’s streets then that’s a good thing. People don’t call it Philthy PA for nothing.