Sometimes I wonder if I’m being too hard on our mayor and his team. Then I read something like the following, which appeared in Saturday’s “Money” section of the local newspaper….
Under the headline, “Developers Castigate City Hall,” writer Greg Thomas reports on a 3 day tour of Katrina-land by a group of investors and developers brought together by the Urban Land Institute. They finished their excursion at the 17th Street Canal, the dividing line separating Jefferson and Orleans Parishes, and then had lunch in the Quarter at the Monteleone Hotel. Afterward, they met with reporters.
Rufus Lusk, a realtor from Baltimore, expressed amazement that the City Planning Commission had so few planners and that it has just recently been approved to hire more. “There are planners from cities that would volunteer to come and help,” he insisted. The American Planners Association would be the place to start to find such helpers. Lusk says the last thing a developer needs to hear when he’s looking at making an investment here is that it will take months to have development plans reviewed and placed on an agenda to be approved or modified.
“Who’s in charge?” Lusk asked. Who indeed.
Lusk pointed out that in other cities–the normal, progressive metropolitan kind–a developer can find information on possible sites for investment and building such as ownership and zoning laws on the internet. But in this city, the only way a developer can find out about land, laws, and titles, is by doing the leg work, going to many offices, knocking on numerous doors.
A real estate investor from Irvine, California, owner of a large apartment complex on the West Bank, says the failure of this area to address insurance increases and the ever-changing building codes are stymying needed repairs on his facility. Simply ruling that air-conditioners must be raised to apartment floor levels is a $50,000 hit on his pocketbook, he said.
The president of a large real estate investment company in Burlington, Vermont, said he was amazed that the mayor has not appointed a czar to handle inquiries from developers. (We finally got that person just this week.)
All the investors and developers agreed that it would be a tremendous leap of faith for someone to pursue large real estate investments in this city. One said, “I met a guy in the elevator from Lakeview who said he still can’t get electricity for his trailer.”
Maybe altruistic virtues would bring him to invest down here, the Vermont developer said, but the business uncertainties certainly would not.
An architect from Cleveland was concerned about the piecemeal way neighborhoods are rebuilding. Readers will remember that this has been a mainstay in the mayor’s program from the beginning, that anyone who wishes to rebuild may do so. He was warned early on about the jack-o’lantern effect this would produce–a few lights here and there in an otherwise darkened neighborhood–and that is precisely what we have now. I hope Mr. Nagin is proud, because this is his baby.
The Cleveland architect pointed out that while talk of “shrinking the city’s footprint” has provoked a lot of division, it’s going to be impossible to provide public services, schools, and quality-of-life facilities if every neighborhood is partial and sparsely settled, as things are now and promises to be for the foreseeable future.
That’s the complicated and multi-faceted problem the new recovery czar, Dr. Edward Blakely, is facing. He seems confident that he’s up to the job. We pray that he is.
Someone needs to be in charge. This city is crying for leadership, someone who knows the way and is willing to stand out front and courageously call for the appropriate action.
Congressman William Jefferson won re-election Saturday over State Representative Karen Carter, by a 57 to 43 percent vote. Surprisingly, Orleans Parish went for Carter, while Jefferson Parish voted for Jefferson. Political pundits are earning their pay Sunday trying to figure this one out. It would appear that Sheriff Lee’s opposition to Miss Carter carried more clout than I had anticipated.
A common theme we heard more than once in recent days is that both are poor candidates. “I wish they could both lose,” someone said to me. Both Carter and Jefferson are liberal Democrats receiving high marks from abortion-rights and gay rights groups. The newspaper asked a candidate who lost in the primary and later endorsed Jefferson if he did this anticipating that Jefferson will be indicted in the bribery scandal and be ousted from office, thereby leaving himself in a pretty position to run for the vacancy. He did not answer. If that was his strategy, it may turn out to be sound thinking.
The newspaper says the New Orleans Saints are becoming “America’s team,” perhaps due to the sympathy vote after all our city has been through. Tonight, the Saints go up against the Dallas Cowboys in a game the entire nation will be watching. So to speak. Those who watch football, at any rate. Both teams are 8 and 4, both are leading their divisions, and then there is the Bill Parcells angle. Parcells, the coach of the Cowboys, is the mentor of Sean Peyton, the Saints’ coach.
I don’t know how the area would be feeling about the “new” Saints if they were playing down to their normal form (i.e., losing), but at the present time, they are providing a needed shot in the arm for the morale of the population. It’s fun to root for these guys. This is most definitely not “your father’s Saints.”
At the First Baptist Church of Kenner Sunday morning, attendance was down somewhat. “Where is everybody?” asked a deacon on the front door. This is my church but I don’t get here very often and have no idea how the attendance has been running, but can tell you it’s down all over the area. The church bulletin showed 201 in Sunday School last week and 351 in morning worship with 2 additions.
“What is the true Christmas spirit?” asked Pastor Tony Merida. To some, it’s peace, to others it’s liquor, or joy, or buying gifts and spending money. In Luke 1-2, we are given seven people’s take on this greatest of all events. Whether we’re talking about Elizabeth (1:41), Zechariah (1:67), the angels (2:13), the shepherds (2:20), Simeon (2:25), or Anna (2:36), it’s all about worship, giving glory to God. And no one says it better than Mary in “The Magnificat,” from Luke chapter 1.
Her song of praise is very similar to Hannah’s in I Samuel 2, Tony pointed out. And look how much Scripture she quotes–some say 15 different passages. Her song is all about worship: the attitude of worship (heartfelt, joyous, continuous, and humble), the object of worship (Mighty God, My Savior), and the reasons for worship (because of what Christ has done, who God is, and What He will do).
“We honor Mary,” Tony said, “but we do not worship her.” He explained, “The Lord Himself seems to put a halt to this business of making too much of her. In Luke 11:27-28, someone called to Him, ‘Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts at which you nursed.’ ‘Oh, no,’ Jesus said. ‘Rather, blessed are those who hear the Word of God and observe it.'”
In a similar fashion, Tony pointed out that in Luke 8, they tell Jesus His mother and brothers are waiting to see Him. He answers, “My mother and my brothers are these who hear the Word of God and do it.”
Whatever else one says about Mariolatry, the worship of Mary, there can be no dispute that the New Testament honors her without making her into the perpetual virgin or a sinless near-goddess or even our intercessor with Christ. In fact, in her song of praise, she herself admits that “God is my savior.” Savior: one who saves. She needed saving, just as all other mortals do.
Not a popular doctrine in this heavily Catholic city, but it’s the truth. Anything other than what the Scripture teaches detracts from the position and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
A missionary to the South Pacific was chatting with a Catholic woman who said she prayed to Mary. “Why?” he asked her gently. She had a ready answer: “Oh, who has more influence with Jesus than His very own Mother?”
The Christian worker said to the lady, “Let me ask you a question. If you were seriously ill, would you rather have a doctor treat you or the doctor’s mother?”
It’s a worthy question and demands an answer.
Jesus Christ and only Jesus Christ is Lord.
He’s in charge.