NEW YORK, Aug. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- One year after Hurricane Katrina, 58
percent of Americans are dissatisfied with the progress that has been made
in rebuilding the city of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, according to the
latest Newsweek Poll. Only 28 percent are satisfied. Fifty-one percent of
those polled say President Bush has not followed through on his promise to
rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast; 32 percent say that he has. Poll
respondents who were dissatisfied with the lack of progress to date differ
as to who is most to blame for the lack of progress: 33 percent say the
heads of federal agencies like FEMA and the Department of Homeland
Security, 24 percent say President Bush, 19 percent say state and local
government officials in the affected areas and 20 percent say all or a
combination of these parties deserve most of the blame.
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060827/NYSU005 )
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin is at the center of the controversy. He
cannot be faulted for the city's shoddily built levees, or a vacationing,
clueless White House, or the Force of Nature. Even so, he is the theater
commander in the battle to save New Orleans, and the war is still not going
well, report Assistant Managing Editor Evan Thomas, General Editor Jonathan
Darman and Assistant Editor Sarah Childress in the September 4 issue of
Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, August 28).
Nagin is intelligent and independent and not corrupt, qualities not
always associated with Louisiana fat-cat politics, they write. But he can
be ineffectual, too eager to please and too easily distracted. And his
detachment vexes some local organizers. The Rev. Leonard Lucas Jr., the
wealthy pastor of the Light City Church in the hard-hit Lower Ninth Ward,
styles himself as Nagin's black conscience. Devoted to getting jobs and
federal money into Lower Nine, Lucas seized on the reconstruction of the
Jackson Barracks, the local home of a Louisiana National Guard unit, as a
chance to get contracts for minority-owned companies. Lucas persuaded Nagin
to go to a meeting on the project, and crowed afterwards, "We got the mayor
on board and he liked it. He didn't like it-he loved it!" But then Lucas
never heard back from Nagin. Now the reverend is bitter. "I've never seen a
black man hate his people like that. All he did was sell his people out."
Calling Nagin a "white Republican," he denounced the mayor for joining with
the white business community in trying to drive blacks out of the city.
Nagin insists he's trying to restore black neighborhoods but accepts that
he is going to be a target of frustration. "I'm the mayor, I take those
hits at times," he says.
Elsewhere in the package, Investigative Correspondent Mark Hosenball
reports on efforts to hire Dutch engineers to help rebuild New Orleans'
levees. The Dutch are, no argument, the world's experts in the field and
U.S. engineers are impressed by the Dutch system, but so far, bureaucratic
sluggishness has slowed reconstruction. Much of the contentious debate over
rebuilding the city has centered on what to do about the lowest-lying
areas, including the hard-hit Ninth Ward. Early cost estimates made it seem
that whole sections of the city would have to be abandoned. But Hans
Vrijling, a renowned authority on flood control who designed part of the
Dutch system, says it should be possible to protect all of New Orleans-even
low-lying sections-from storm surges more than 10 times Katrina's. The
price tag: less than $10 billion.
Also, Columnist Jonathan Alter looks at whether Katrina succeeded in
prompting a fresh look at the 37 million Americans living below the poverty
line. One year ago, Alter wrote, "It takes a hurricane ... It takes the
sight of the United States with a big black eye-visible around the world-to
help the rest of us begin to see again." He ended on a hopeful note: "What
kind of president does George W. Bush want to be? ... If he seizes the
moment, he could undertake a midcourse correction that might materially
change the lives of millions. Katrina gives Bush an
only-Nixon-could-go-to-China opportunity, if he wants it."
Some readers said at the time that this was naive-that the president,
if not indifferent to the problems of black people, as the singer Kanye
West charged, was not going to do anything significant to help them. At
first this seemed too cynical. The week after the article appeared, Bush
went to Jackson Square in New Orleans and made televised promises not only
for Katrina relief but to address some of the underlying struggles of the
poor. Well, it turned out that the critics were largely right. Not only has
the president done much less than he promised on the financing and
logistics of Gulf Coast recovery, he has dropped the ball entirely on using
the storm and its aftermath as an opportunity to fight poverty.
(Read entire package at http://www.Newsweek.com.)
Newsweek Poll
Princeton Survey Research Associates International
Final Topline Results
(8/26/06)
N = 1,002 national adults, 18 and over
Margin of error: plus or minus 4
Interviewing dates: 8/24-25/06
SAMPLE SIZE/MARGIN OF ERROR FOR KEY SUBGROUPS:
316 Republicans (plus or minus 7)
330 Democrats (plus or minus 6)
319 Independents (plus or minus 7)
582 Dissatisfied with the amount of progress in rebuilding New Orleans
and Gulf Coast (Q6=2) (plus or minus 5)
498 Favor federal funding of stem cell research (Q9=1) (plus or minus 5)
386 Oppose federal funding of stem cell research (Q9=2) (plus or minus
6)
SAMPLE SIZE/MARGIN OF ERROR FOR REGISTERED VOTERS SUBGROUPS:
v895 Registered voters (plus or minus 4)
290 Republicans (plus or minus 7)
305 Democrats (plus or minus 6)
279 Independents (plus or minus 7)
162 Stem cell research key issue in vote for major political offices
(Q15=1) (plus or minus 9)
504 Stem cell research important, but not enough to determine vote
(Q15=2) (plus or minus 5)
179 Stem cell research not important in vote for major political offices
(Q15=3) (plus or minus 9)
NOTES:
Data is weighted so that sample demographics match Census Current
Population Survey parameters for gender, age, education, race, region, and
population density.
Reported sample sizes are unweighted and should not be used to compute
percentages.
An asterisk (*) indicates a value less than 1%.
1. Almost one year after Hurricane Katrina struck, are you generally
satisfied or dissatisfied with the progress that has been made in
rebuilding the city of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast?
28 Satisfied
58 Dissatisfied
14 Don't know
100
2. Which of the following, if any, do you think is MOST to blame for the
lack of progress ... (READ IN ORDER)
BASED ON THOSE DISSATISFIED WITH THE AMOUNT OF PROGRESS
19 State and local government officials in the affected areas
33 The heads of federal agencies like FEMA and the Department of Homeland
Security
24 President Bush himself
20 All equally/Combination (VOL.)
1 None of these to blame/Other (VOL.)
3 Don't know
100
3. All in all, do you think George W. Bush has followed through on his
promise to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, or not?
Total Rep Dem Ind
32 Yes, has 61 16 26
51 No, has not 16 72 60
17 Don't know 23 12 14
100 100 100 100
D2. Now I have just a few more questions so we can describe the people
who took part in our survey ... Regardless of how you might have
voted in recent elections, in politics TODAY, do you consider
yourself a Republican, Democrat, or Independent?
Total RVs
29 Republican 30
35 Democrat 36
32 Independent 31
2 No party/Not interested in politics (VOL.) 1
* Other party (VOL.) *
2 Don't know 2
100 100
END OF INTERVIEW. THANK RESPONDENT: That completes the interview. Thank
you very much for your cooperation.
Nagin: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14535072/site/newsweek/
How the Dutch Keep Cities Dry:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14535074/site/newsweek/
When the Cameras Left:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14535078/site/newsweek/
Alter on Poverty: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14533214/site/newsweek/
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