Back To School: Yesterday marked the first day of school for many students in Jefferson and St. Tammany Parishes. Roughly 60% of Jefferson's students returned, plus an additional 3,000 from other surrounding parishes affected by Katrina. St. Tammany registered an estimated 1,800 new students as well. New Orleans Fully Opened: Starting tomorrow residents will finally be able to return to New Orleans neighborhoods like Lakeview and others that were hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. Many people will be going home to places that look nothing like the communities they left when they evacuated. But as difficult as it will be, it's important that people are finally returning home. Consumer Complaints: The Louisiana Attorney General will investigate reports of hurricane-related home repair scams and price gouging. If you have a consumer complaint contact AG Charlie Foti's office at (800)351-4889. For more information go to:http://www.ag.state.la.us/default.aspx Adopt A City: In addition to the countless other donations and offers of help, some communities across the country are "adopting" cities impacted by Hurricane Katrina. Recently the City of Hoboken, New Jersey adopted the City of Kenner, and the Village of Pleasantville, New York adopted the City of Mandeville. The generosity of others continues to provide hope and support to those most in need. The Future of The New Orleans Region: As people return home, assess damage, and some children even begin going back to school, more focus now shifts to the rebuilding of the New Orleans region. This week a number of meetings have been held with committees established to begin planning the short, medium, and long-term objectives that need to be accomplished. I also participated in a GNO, Inc. meeting with over 20 business leaders from the Information Technology community. Many good ideas were discussed to address the challenges involved in bringing high-paying jobs back into our economy, including tax incentives and requirements that displaced federal jobs will return here when their facilities are repaired. Some of these ideas have already been formalized and will be presented to our congressional delegation to be included in the federal relief legislation.
If this is going to be successful, we cannot just try to rebuild back to the way things were before Katrina. We need to build a better New Orleans. We cannot expect to build a better New Orleans if we don't address the lingering problems that existed prior to Katrina. We have the potential to build a much better City than the one we had before, but it must be done the right way. We'll only get one chance to do it right. We need to invoke strong accountability so that the money is spent properly, and in the places that were directly affected. We need to deal with problems like crime, the residency law, and the failed Orleans Parish School System. I will be fighting for this in the weeks and months ahead. It will take input from a wide range of people who have a vested interest in seeing New Orleans succeed, and I would appreciate your thoughts on practical ways to deal with these problems. We can build a better New Orleans, but we need to make sure that the problems of the past are dealt with as we build the City for the future.
Now that more neighborhoods are opening up and people are returning back home, I will reduce the frequency of these updates. I will continue to post updated information on my web site at www.stevescalise.com. Feel free to contact my office at (504)888-9899 if you need any help. Best of luck to all of you as we begin the process of recovering from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and rebuilding our communities. I hope these updates have provided some insights and assistance during these very difficult last five weeks. Thank you for the prayers and strength you've given me.
Steve
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