Ray Nagin Quotes on Cities (30 Quotes)

Yesterday the broken city was filled with the noise of Blackhawk and Chinook helicopters and its still partly flooded highways were filled with rescue crews in flat-bottomed boats, searching those sections of the city still believed to have people living in them. The sounds of New Orleans were jazz, people laughing, people eating a good meal, ... And now the sounds of New Orleans are helicopters and army vehicles. This is almost surreal.

We now have a comprehensive plan for rebuilding the city of New Orleans.

The city of New Orleans is in a state of devastation. We probably have 80 percent of our city underwater. With some sections of our city, the water is as deep as 20 feet.

Let me just say it one more time and make sure everybody understands it ... We will rebuild this entire city,

The city of New Orleans ... will start to breathe again, ... We will have life. We will have commerce. We will have people getting into their normal modes of operations and the normal rhythm of the city.

I think this is kind of a put-up-or-shut-up moment, ... How concerned are you, city of New Orleans, about fixing this problem . . . Are we going to be entertained by the violent nature of these murders, or are we really going to try to fix it What's the deal

Decisions were made to move resources and to not move resources that just don't make sense to me, and then, there was this incredible dance between the governor and the president about who had final authority, ... I just don't appreciate that kind of stuff when people are dying in my city.

Now is not the time to change leadership. I ask the citizens of New Orleans to let me continue this important job of rebuilding our city.

This is a sad day in the city of New Orleans when you have a hero to make a decision such as this,

It's very important for people to come back to the city and take a look and understand.

The model that were looking for to rebuild this city, is to keep New Orleans unique culturally, unique musically, unique from a people perspective, but economically as strong as an Atlanta, where you have a strong middle and upper class of African Americans, of white folks, of Hispanics, of Vietnamese,

My gut feeling right now is that we'll settle in at 250,000 people over the next three to six months and then we'll start to ramp up over time to the half- million we had before and maybe exceed, ... I imagine building a city so original, so unique that everybody's going to want to come.

There have been too many people who have said we were dead. There were too many people who said we were way too divisive. There were too many people who thought this city should go in a different direction. But the people, the people have said they like the direction we're going in and we have run number one today.

Technically today were out of cash, ... The city is bankrupt We have no money.

This is not a safe environment, ... I understand the spirit that's basically, I don't want to abandon my city.' It's OK. Leave for a little while. Let us get you to a better place. Let us clean the city up.

We're looking at a 3-month period before this city is back to normal,

If we get a storm like Ivan to hit us directly or come really close to us we could have a situation where we have 12 to 18 feet (3.6 to 5.5 meters) of water throughout the city.

Our city is in a state of devastation, ... we probably have 80 percent of our city under water.

Now is the time to think outside the box. ... Now is the time to think about a bold vision for a cash-strapped city. We need solutions.

It's a sad day in the city of new orleans when a hero makes a decision like this, ... He leaves the apartment in pretty good shape and with a significant amount of leadership.

Over the next 12 to 15 hours, water will rise on the east bank of New Orleans to the levels where some sections of the city which are dry now could see nine or 10 feet (more than three meters) of water,

That four weeks is going to stop all commerce in the city of New Orleans. It also impacts the nation, because no domestic oil production will happen in southeast Louisiana.

I don't want anyone outside of New Orleans telling us how to plan this city,

The French Quarter is high and dry and we feel it has good electricity capabilities. But since it is so historic, we want to double and triple check before we fire up all electricity in there to make sure, because every building is so close that if a fire breaks out we won't lose a significant amount of what we cherish in this city,

The people of our city are holding on by a thread. Time has run out. Can we survive another night? And who can we depend on? Only God knows.

I'm going to announce a phased repopulation plan that is going to deal with some of the areas that were least hit by the hurricane and had less water, and then within the next week or two we should have about 180,000 people back in the city of New Orleans

With Hurricane Rita behind us, the task at hand is to bring New Orleans back. We want people to return and help us rebuild the city,

This commission is charged with a fundamental goal, which is to advise, assist, plan and help the city of New Orleans as it makes recommendations for how we rebuild this city,

This city, for the first time that I can remember, is drug-free and violence-free,

Every time we talk about re-entry into the city, some official pops up and says we're not ready, ... We are not rowing in the same direction in the same boat.