Incompetence + Monopolies + Corruption = Gentrification

Water Bills to go up 50%:

http://www.wwltv.com/topstories/stories/wwl051007khwaterprices.55ba65dd.html

Entergy claims it will do everthing it can not to pass their infrastructure costs back to N.O. citizens:

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070508/entergy_new_orleans.html?.v=1

note this:

Exactly where the rest will come from remains unclear: the $200 million in federal grants set aside by the Louisiana Recovery Authority has already been spoken for by the completed work, Stewart said. He said the company -- as it continues work that could take a decade or more -- planned to "exhaust every (funding) source possible without having customers bear it."

But there remains tremendous uncertainty about where residents will resettle. While West said Entergy New Orleans must provide services to all who want it, the company is studying resettlement patterns and trying to take cues from the city on where it intends to invest rebuilding dollars.

OR.....is the city taking cues from Entergy on where Entergy wants to rebuild? If you want a case study lets look at the Holly Grove area and see what Entergy is "estimating" people's monthly bills to be.

And finally...this report from the Kaiser Family Foundation speaks for itself:

http://www.kff.org/kaiserpolls/7631.cfm

Once again....the market is deciding. Nagin's plan...his only plan...was to let the market decide. This is the result of that strategy. He has not only utterly failed to deliver on his promises to the people who elected him...his inaction and failure to deliver a comprehensive social and economic vision for this city is successfully gentrifying it. He then has the nerve to stand in front of black audiences, locally and nationwide, and point fingers at invisible conspirators who are intent on keeping the city's displaced black population from coming back to the city....what's worse, many African-Americans are buying it.

If there are conspirators...the kind Nagin implies....Old white men drinking mint juleps on the porches of their St. Charles Avenue Mansions...you know what they're saying?

Rich Honky 1: "What are we gonna do about all these negroes trying to get back into our city?"

Rich Honky 2: "Don't worry, son....C. Ray's doin' that job for us."

I wish Essence Fest would host this panel:

"Is Nagin really black...or is he just playing African-American sentiment like a fiddle?"

Then someone should present a Power Point presentation showing his actions (or inaction) since Katrina as opposed to the rhetorical hyperbole he's been spitting out.