Thank Goodness for Ed Blakely.
Many local residents have been critical of New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and his “recovery expert,” Ed Blakely. A new story, aired tonight on a local TV station (WWL), shows why so many residents have been so critical.
On the positive side, we learn that the City has fined approximately 400 property owners nearly $3 million for failing to take care of their property during the three years since Katrina. Of course, there’s a negative side. WWL reports “…there are 358 properties owned by the city, just over half, 183, are labeled in-operational.” Don’t worry, it gets worse.
The City’s Department of Property Management is responsible for maintaining all city-owned buildings, but the person overseeing this department says that they can’t inspect all these properties because the department is understaffed. It turns out the Department of Property Management only has 80 people on staff.
Maybe Ed Blakely can help out by providing a complex mathematical model for scheduling blighted property inspections. The model could explains how to divide 358 by 80. The City paid him $150,000 per year, he should be able to handle this.
NM