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12:01

David Hammer - Thanks for joining us for this discussion and for providing so many on-point questions.

12:02

[Comment From UptownRed]
Where's the Mayor on this? If nothing else, he's still a figurehead and should be responding to any such negative remarks on his fair city. Has The Times-Picayune pressed for a comment? Is the mayor in town?

12:03

David Hammer - Let me just start by assuring all of you that I pursued a response from Mayor Nagin yesterday, but his press office declined to comment. To UptownRed's point about Nagin representing the city and its government, I particularly wanted them to address Blakely's assertion about a high percentage of city workers taking literacy courses (presented as supposed evidence of their lack of sophistication). They did not respond.

12:04

[Comment From Luis]
Regardless of whether one agrees with most of Blakely's assessment of the residents of the city or its government workers, this is damaging to the city. It seems like a cheap shot from an embittered professional of high stature.

12:12

David Hammer - Blakely has certainly traded on his high stature from the beginning. When he first arrived at the very end of 2006, he talked about being one of just a handful of experts on recovery in the world. He touted his work in Oakland, dealing with the planning process after the 1989 earthquake, and after wildfires there in 1991. He also noted advising on projects in China, eastern Europe and South Africa and work in New York after 9/11. He was a member of the Civic Alliance for the Rebuilding of the City of New York in 2002, he's written several books on urban planning and was a professor at the New School University in New York, at Cal-Berkeley, at Southern California and at the University of Sydney in Australia.

12:15

David Hammer -

I remember covering Blakely's first appearance in front of the Louisiana Recovery Authority in Baton Rouge in 2007. That's the board that controlled the flow of money from Congress to the local governments. So, Blakely goes into this meeting room and demands that the LRA give him total control over money for restoring blighted properties, rather than giving it to the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority. He basically gave them an ultimatum. I asked him afterwards what he would do if they didn't give him control, and he said he'd quit. That was the bravado.

12:17

David Hammer - But at the end, he went in front of the City Council and did a mea culpa. He said the flooding in New Orleans was a calamity no level of government was prepared for, and added: "This was a unique experience for me and everyone." He did a lot of backtracking in front of New Orleans audiences, but never really lost that bravado in front of national or international ones.

12:17

[Comment From xpatnola]
For all his self-congratulations, my wife and I can't figure out what Blakely actually did for the city. Where were the results? And if he thought we were lazy, he should've come around to ours and our neighbor's houses and watched us rebuild our homes with our sweat. He could've at least streamlined the permitting process for us.

12:19

[Comment From Pat]
Ed Blakely's are nothing more than sour grapes from a blowhard, do next to nothing and get paid big bucks academic.

12:20

[Comment From nomax]
Mr Blakely seems unsophisticated to make such remarks that seem to gain no one anything.It's one thing to try and open a dialouge about a subject and another to speak with malice.My qeustion is just what did blakely accomplish.

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