| Morial was in Madison September 19 to help promote the Urban League of Greater Madison's plans to build its new headquarters and business development center in South Madison. Morial's heart has never left New Orleans. Although he works and lives in New York, he is still a registered voter in New Orleans. He will be on hand at the New Orleans Saints home opener in the renovated Superdome September 25. The reverberations of Katrina are still being felt, just as the aftershocks of an earthquake continue to weaken or collapse buildings after the major quake has ceased. "A lot of people, unfortunately, are moving on," Morial said. "Some people are moving from one neighborhood to another. If people are moving who are in neighborhoods that weren't affected by the hurricane, it's because they can't get their children in school, their job has gone away, or their professional life has been diminished. For instance, I know several doctors whose houses were not destroyed, but whose businesses were, whose patients have left. They can't make a living in the city even though their houses are intact. The large shopping centers in New Orleans East are empty and deserted and there is an inadequate plan to rebuild. I think many people feel let down, but still have great hope. It's just that it is going to take a lot longer than it ought to take." Morial blames much of the year-long delay in the rebuilding process on the federal government and the process it developed to provide relief. "I think the federal government shouldn't have implemented a process that gives the money to the states instead of giving it to another agency, which then gives it to the people," Morial said. "I think the federal government should have directly granted money to the people of this city. They should have given out what I call victims compensation grants to everyone whose house was damaged by a factor of greater than 30-40 percent. They just should have done it. It would have been the right thing to do. It would have been the easy thing to do. It would have put money in people's hands and they would have been far along the road to rebuilding." Morial also feels that the local leadership hasn't itself entirely recovered its bearings and focused on the task at hand. "I'm concerned that the leaders have been overwhelmed," Morial said. "It needs an urgency! Let's get it done. Let's get it done yesterday." Morial has a top three list of prescriptions for the recovery effort. "Housing, housing, housing," he said. "Without a full fledged assault on rebuilding the housing market, the city's economy, the city's culture, the city's fabric is going to continue to struggle and suffer. In effect, the foot dragging about putting that together has stymied the recovery." Morial believes everything else, including the return of small businesses, will begin to show improvement once the housing stock is livable once again. "You get the small businesses back involved by ensuring they have first right in participation in any rebuilding effort," Morial said. "You also have to help them get their facilities back in order. One of the reasons why many small business people I've talked to have had great difficulty is that their employees haven't returned. At the core, at the essence, at the bottom, it's a housing crisis." There has been a lot of speculation about the future of New Orleans. Some have talked about completely remaking the city, complete with attracting a new urban base. New Orlean's "Chocolate City," to borrow the term of current New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, wouldn't be so chocolaty anymore. Morial dismisses such talk as ridiculous. "I've been offended by that because I believe that in the case of a tragedy, you don't talk about things getting better," Morial said. "You have to talk about recovery. I'm certain from talking to people that people have a great passion for the city. The New Orleanian wants to return. Any recovery plan has to be designed to get New Orleanians to return, not to get others to move there. The people who are going to live in New Orleans primarily are going to be people who know it, who have a passion for it, and have a connection to it. The success of the rebuilding is going to revolve around getting housing repaired fast enough so that people can return. You have to talk about getting people back to normalcy as quickly as you can. This is not a city to be put on display. This is a vibrant American community that people call home." As a native New Orleanian, Morial doesn't think of the city in terms of its buildings; he thinks of it in terms of its people. "What makes New Orleans unique is its multicultural tapestry: its culture, its sense, its people, and its language," Morial emphasized. "What makes New Orleans unique is its intangible elements. But those intangible elements are rooted in the DNA of the people. It's not something you can carbon copy, duplicate, e-mail, or replicate." As the president of the National Urban League, Morial plans to do his part in helping New Orleans recover. "We have some initiatives," Morial said. "We have a new job training program down there. I'm going to continue to be a voice for the people I care about and love." You can take the man out of New Orleans, but you can never take New Orleans out of the man. |
| An interview with National Urban League President Marc Morial My beloved New Orleans By Jonathan Gramling |
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| Marc Morial, president & CEO of the National Urban League, was born and raised in New Orleans, eventually following in his father's footsteps to be elected New Orleans' mayor. Morial grew up in the Pontchartrain Park area in the shadows of Southern University-New Orleans. The family then moved to the Seventh Ward near City Park, the second largest urban park in America. As an adult, Morial lived on Esplanade Avenue that ends on the fringe of the French Quarter and in the Mid City neighborhood. All of these neighborhoods and places were devastated by Hurricane Katrina. City Park is now an overgrown urban wasteland, for the most part. "It hurt to see those areas devastated," Morial recalled in an interview with The Capital City Hues. "It was so painful. I've never seen more grown men and women cry to see what's happened and to see people suffer. My beloved New Orleans doesn't feel or look like the New Orleans of old or the New Orleans of pre-Katrina." |
| NUL President Marc Morial (l-r), Mona Adams Winston, and Winston's father, Lawrence N. Adams. Adams lived in New Orleans until he was displaced by Hurricane Katrina. |
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