Posted on 10/08/2005 7:01:17 AM PDT by ppaul
New Orleans' mayor on Friday proposed building a casino zone near the historic French Quarter to jump start the hurricane-ravaged city's economy, saying a bold move was needed to restore lost tax revenue.
"I'd like to have another solution for the citizens ... but I don't know what else we can do at this point," Ray Nagin told a news conference.
New Orleans is struggling to rebound from Hurricane Katrina in August which fractured flood walls and flooded 80 percent of the city. Hurricane Rita hit the Gulf Coast on September 24, triggering renewed flooding in parts of the city.
Under Nagin's proposal, a U-shaped section encompassing several blocks of the city's downtown area would allow large hotels to covert part of their property into Las Vegas-style casinos.
Only one casino is currently operating in that area, and Nagin said as many as seven new gambling operations could open.
That existing casino, Harrah's, has stirred bitter political battles and suffered from financial problems in recent years.
Nagin said he had approached Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco about the plan and offered to split the tax revenues, a figure he said could approach the $150 million neighboring Mississippi received annually.
The gambling zone proposal would need the approval of the city council and the state legislature.
Earlier this week, Nagin announced the city would cut 3,000 jobs, or nearly 40 percent of its workforce, because it had only enough funds to continue operating until the end of the year.
TOLL TOPS 1,000
In Baton Rouge, Louisiana officials said on Friday the state's death toll from Hurricane Katrina topped 1,000 for the first time as recovery efforts continued in storm-stricken areas.
They said 1,003 had died in Louisiana, which pushed the total known dead in the states hit by Katrina to 1,243.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said in a press release on Friday it had "nearly pumped the metro area dry," and it was making progress in shoring up the levee system.
While recovery operations continue, Federal Emergency Management Agency officials said in a conference call that 44,000 people displaced by storms were still living in a total of 558 Red Cross shelters around the country.
They said 2.2 million people had been registered as storm victims, of which 1.2 million had been approved for federal assistance that so far totaled $3.3 billion.
In response to complaints that federal aid efforts are moving too slowly, the U.S. Small Business Administration said it would step up the pace of approving loans to businesses hit by the storm by using aerial photography and satellites to assess damaged property.
Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Mike Olivier said only six SBA loans had been approved as of Thursday, which SBA officials blamed on their agents' inability to get to many areas to inspect damage.
"We just got a memo a day or two ago" authorizing the use of aerial assessments, SBA spokesman Ken Shuman said at a news conference.
Anyone who can't see all the people needing transportation out of the city because all those idle yellow buses are blocking the view is probably not the go to guy when it comes to rebuilding the city.
Seems to me we've been gambling on the whole of New Orleans for some 50 years ... and we've thrown craps.
It's no wonder New Orleans has a bacchanalian time where Sodom,Gamorrah and San FranSicko come together and rape the Al Hirt's of Jazz to rape the taxpayers by promising a good time.
I want to think that America is tired of the partay and eager to reclaim the emerging renewal of the thought processes our founding fathers had and enacted into law and politics, thereby creating a social structure never known on planet Earth before.
God, forgive us and give us another try ... please?
This is a dog returning to it's vomit...
Is Noggin tempting God (Katrina) again? Bring back the Devine Wind again, there are still a few sinners left in New Sodom.
How about Amsterdam-style "coffee shops" and legalized bordellos?
Anything for a buck, Ray.
Anything for a buck, Ray
LOL ... How about getting the city workers to expose themselves for some beads or other trinkets, they could then be sold to bolster the city finances.
There will be a new casino game in New Orleans called "Bet the Bus".
It will consist of 200 miniature, yellow schoolbuses, lined up on a large, long table as if for a race. Overhead will be a large tank of foul smelling water secured to a moveable crane device that operates with random GPS positioning. At the far end of the table is a model of a nursing home occupied by 42 elderly Barbie dolls. At another spot on the table is a figure representing the mayor of New Orleans sitting in a black Cadillac, having a smoke. The game begins when the Mayor orders the 200 buses to drive to the nursing home and evacuate the ElderBarbies. To WIN, only ONE of these buses has to reach the nursing home before the huge water tank drops its load and drowns the ElderBarbies. You decide to play. You are given a generous payoff of 1000 to 1 odds that at least one bus will reach the home. You bet the farm and your future newborn. When all bets are down, the game begins with The Dealer screaming: "HURRICANE COMING, GREAT BIG HURRICANE COMING", GET OUT OF TOWN BEFORE YOU ARE KILLED".. With this signal, the large tank of stinky water begins to move ominously over the table. The smoke filled Caddie begins to move in a continuous circle. Unexpectedly, you realize that none of the 200 buses have begun to move. You are perplexed by this. Several moments pass when suddenly, red lights begin flashing, a siren sounds, and the HUGE water tank is dumped on the table, flooding the buses and drowning the ElderBarbies. You have lost your bet. You've been had. The game is rigged. Better stick to Blackjack. Better odds.
Who will oversee the casino's on cloudy or rainy days when city employees, we were told, rarely work?
And, more than 100,000 "normal" people (residents) have left New Orleans since 1960 ... because it's far too dangerous.
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