Ray Nagin Quotes on People (16 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.

When we allowed people to cross the Crescent City Connection because people were dying in the convention center, that was a decision based upon people, ... Now, if they made a decision based upon assets, to protect assets over people, and to have attack dogs and armed people with machine guns, then they're going to have to live with that.

We are looking at 12 to 16 weeks before people can come in, ... and the other issue that's concerning me is we have dead bodies in the water.

They don't have a clue what's going on down here, ... There's nothing happening. They're feeding the public a line of bull and they're spinning, and people are dying down here.

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.

We must offer the people of New Orleans every chance for a sense of closure and the opportunity for a new beginning.

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,

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.

I would like everyone to get out because it's a health risk. Mosquitoes that are biting dead people are starting to fly,

Next time, a cleansing Katrina-type storm will not leave anything for us to argue about, ... The Bible says, 'If my people, who are called by my name, will turn from their wicked ways, then I, their God in heaven, will hear their pleas and heal their land.' Let's pray and humble ourselves.

So don't worry about this city being hijacked by a small group of people who are trying to take us backward,

And I don't care what people are saying in Uptown or wherever they are. This city will be chocolate at the end of the day.

What I'm trying to figure out is, should we bypass all the political stuff -- you know, these people jumping up and down every time we propose something -- and just go straight to the people,

Once we get the 3,000 National Guardsmen here, we're locking this place down, ... It's really difficult because my opinion of the looting is it started with people running out of food, and you can't really argue with that too much. Then it escalated to this kind of mass chaos where people are taking electronic stuff and all that.

People are saying it's too early to bring back jazz, the gumbo and the red beans, ... If it's too early, when is the right time

He came off the doggone chopper, and he started cussing and people started moving, ... And he's getting some stuff done. They ought to give that guy -- if they don't want to give it to me, give him full authority to get the job done, and we can save some people.