RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
Hurricane Katrina turned Mayor Ray Nagin into a household name. It also may have altered his political prospects. Six months ago Nagin was considered a shoe-in for re-election. Now, the state's popular lieutenant governor is considering taking on the controversial incumbent in the mayoral election this spring. Mitch Landrieu, brother of a senator, son of a former mayor of New Orleans, has plenty of support. At his office here, he said he was close to deciding whether to run.
Lieutenant Governor MITCH LANDRIEU (New Orleans): I've been struggling with where the best place is, where I can be the most useful...
Lt. Governor MITCH LANDRIEU (Democrat, New Orleans): I've been struggling with where the best place is, where I can be the most use and where the greatest need is. This state and this city don't need a savior, they don't need a hero; they need a bunch of people pulling in the right direction, because there's a lot down here that's worth saving. And all of us who have been going through this are trying to find a way to fix what it is that we have. But it comes down simply to this, if your home is hurt, and this is where your family is, that's where you're supposed to be helping.
MONTAGNE: A big issue for people we've been talking to here has been concern about rebuilding. Right now, a lot of people don't seem to know exactly if their neighborhood is going to be allowed to come back. There's been talk about creating a green space. Let me just play you, just a very short clip from a gentleman we spoke to from New Orleans east, his name is Arthur Busby(ph).
Mr. ARTHUR BUSBY (New Orleans East resident): They really want to make the East green space, is what they're saying. But we have green space here. We have the biggest park in New Orleans about two miles from here. So don't tell me that you're going to take my home and put green space.
MONTAGNE: Now that is the question, of how, who doesn't get to stay in their house?
Lt. Governor LANDRIEU: Well, I sympathize with him. My mother told me the same thing, there's a green space on the house where my mother and father lived in an area of town called Broadmoor.
It's a very complicated issue. My guess is where a critical mass of neighbors come together and show that they can rebuild an area, that area's going to get rebuilt. Right now, the government doesn't have a right to take people's personal property without just compensation.
MONTAGNE: Except people aren't so worried about compensation, they want, as this gentleman, Arthur Busby wants his house...
Lt. Governor LANDRIEU: No question about it.
MONTAGNE: ...In his space, on that piece of property.
Lt. Governor LANDRIEU: A lot of, a lot of people want that. And this city is going to have to kind of put its arms around itself and have a good discussion based on some really fair principles about what neighborhoods get rebuilt and what don't.
Having said that, it's also understandable that this city is going to have less people in it. Now, this has always been a multicultural city, it's very important for the fabric of New Orleans to be a place where all people are welcome. Everybody, across racial lines, across geographic lines, and that's important.
MONTAGNE: How do you do that? I mean, that's been said, but another politically very sensitive issue is the Ninth Ward. They're welcomed, but how are they going to get back? What would be the plan?
Lt. Governor LANDRIEU: Well, but the Ninth...let me say this, the issue is safety. But the Ninth Ward's not the only neighborhood that was damaged. The other neighborhoods that are white that have been damaged, the neighborhoods, Broadmoor's one of them that's been a mixed neighborhood. So, some people have tried to make this a racial issue when in truth this storm really, in terms of its direct impact, hurt everybody.
MONTAGNE: Some people would argue that those people who have made it a racial issue would include Mayor Ray Nagin, when he came out with his now quite famous statement about chocolate city.
Lt. Governor LANDRIEU: Well that was, clearly that was an unfortunate comment. But we have to, again, recommit ourselves not to be torn apart racially on other sides. And you're going to find that people in New Orleans really like each other. We've gotten along, white and black, rich and poor, for a long period of time.
MONTAGNE: Looking ahead, hurricane season starts on June 1st, and I would just like to play you another woman that we spoke to, she's out in Saint Bernard Parish. This is Peggy Messina(ph).
Ms. PEGGY MESSINA (New Orleans resident): They're saying now that they're building the levies back correctly. The problem is they're only fixing the spots that broke. And we've got a hurricane season coming up in a couple months. So, maybe it won't break where they fixed it and maybe it will. But maybe it'll break somewhere else where it was also substandard.
MONTAGNE: And Peggy's husband said, I'm scared to death.
Lt. Governor LANDRIEU: I agree with that a thousand percent. And we have got to compel Congress and the President and the corps of engineers to fix this levy system, to fix the one that we have and to help us restructure another one.
MONTAGNE: And it'll exist June 1st?
Lt. Governor LANDRIEU: Yes it will. They say that they're going to fix them, you know, we will see. But we are definitely still in harm's way.
MONTAGNE: Mitch Landrieu, thanks very much for talking with us.
Lt. Governor LANDRIEU: Thank you very much.
MONTAGNE: Lieutenant Governor Landrieu sat down with me at his office here in New Orleans.
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