HumidCity

As the hearts of New Orleanians go out to the folks in Texas and West Louisiana who felt (and continue to feel) the brutal force of Hurricane Ike, it is rather demoralizing that our knucklehead mayor continues to work miracles by actually making an unfathomably bad situation decidedly worse – and in such spectacularly imaginative ways. In a sense, he is a wonder. I mean, this shouldn’t even be possible, right?

For those unfamiliar with Hizzoner’s latest stunt, it seems C-Ray held a press conference Thursday afternoon in which he encouraged people in Texas to evacuate to New Orleans, with promises of cheap, flat-rate hotel rooms in the city. He told the people of Texas, “Just ask for the Ray Nagin Special.” He later explained that his message was “to say to our friends in Houston and Texas that we want to take care of you, since you have taken care of us.”

Isn’t that sweet? I think so.

Problem is, he forgot to mention the “Ray Nagin Special” to hotel owners across the city. Problem is, it’s actually against federal anti-trust laws to create such a flat rate, even voluntarily. Problem is, it’s not voluntary anyway – it can’t be voluntary if the people being asked to donate don’t even know about it. Problem is, New Orleans businesses are still limping along economically since the 2005 storm and can’t really afford to do something like this – especially without any sort of a plan or information at all beforehand so they can figure a way to make it work. Problem is, it just isn’t nice for The Mayor to be so generous with other people’s money. Problem is, it’s not exactly brilliant to ask disaster victims to evacuate to a far-from-fully-recovered disaster area in the first place. Read the rest of this entry »