Lakeview, New Orleans Citizens Ad

I would like to know what the message of the ad will be. What are the intentions of the ad? I can imagine what they might be, but I would like someone to explain exactly what it will be saying. Thanks!

I completely support this ad ands will donate but have reservations about the "toxic" mention. Being from the hospitality industry I know one of the biggest concerns for our tourists is the "toxic soup" the media burned into their minds. I have talked with many clients and heard this repeatedly. This is also a concern for our own citizens. If we don't lighten up on this point we will all lose in the end. We need tourism to rebuild this city. I also think there should be mention of the natural resources that we do not receive any benefits from as other states do. From what I have read this amounts to $150b since the Truman admin. If this ad gets the coverage from national media as we all suspect it will, we need to make sure our message is inviting. Who wants to waste money on a "toxic" city?

Sharon

Everyone in Washington knows we need to fix the flood protection issues. If we are going to move forward as a city or region. Congress has approved the millions needed to figure out the options for much stronger flood protection. That work is underway. They will not act on any new big dollar flood protection projects for us until they have that data. The message needs to drop the flood protection and the negative toxic verbage.

The message should be redrawn to make the case for rebuilding the entire region and why that is important to the world. That is the only issue on the table in Washington at this point. Rebuild a bigger safer New Orleans area or walk away from the area. That is what will be decided in Congress over the next few weeks.

We also need to move away from the white only Lakeview only approach. At least replace the old white lady with several ethnic faces. The picture the rest of the country has of New Orleans is already one of leave the poor people to drown then starve. The current add only reinforces the message that the middle and upper class in New Orleans are only concerned about themselves. This is killing us and your efforts will just add to the fire.

Great idea! Where can I see the ad in its completed form?

Thank you for taking the reins on this project.
We are very encouraged that we received attention from the news media -WWL-TV - to the looting problem. Since the Monday evening airing of our experience at our Canal Blvd. house, we have seen many police on patrol.
We are presently gutting our house and have plans to repair and refurbish. We are concerned that we will be one of the few in our block to 'owner occupy'. Hope many more continue to make Lakeview "home".
Tom and Darlene Schnatz

Since I am now a contributor, I don't feel guilty expressing my opinion ;^)

I agree with other forum posters who have suggested deleting the "toxic" references and asking specifically for "Cat 5" protection. "Cat 3" protection, properly constructed will likely be sufficient and more likely to get funding.

I fully support this ad and sincerely appreciate the efforts of Cherie, Dennis & his daughter and others that were involved in this. Debbie

I am so exicted about this ad, and hope that we can raise enough funds to run it, but I do think the message could be a little more compelling and ask the people of Washington for specific actions such as granting us 50% of Louisiana's oil and gas revenue to help restore our levees and wetlands. I think its important to ask for help, not handouts.

Where is the ad - why is so hard to find and read "our" ad?

I appreciate what you are doing and have donated but truly hope you will change the tone of the message. I believe the ad has a certain “whining” tone to it and would prefer a much more staunch approach. Such as a DEMAND for a fair consideration of oil and gas revenues so we may take care of ourselves. There is a great argument to be made that we have allowed the COE (and a US sanctioned oil industry) to plow our marshlands with the MRGO and over 7000 miles of pipeline canals. Not only has our safety been compromised, breading grounds for hundreds of species of seafood have been destroyed. We could go on and on regarding the value of the marshlands. The feds thought we were important enough back in the 60’s after Betsy to build a levy system. Look what they did. This did not have to happen. Our lives, the port, the seafood, the music, the culture are all still a vital part of the US. They just don’t get it. Please take this one opportunity to expose our lack of compensation of mineral resource revenue as compared to our neighboring states. I believe most of America will stand with us given a well articulated exposure of this inequity. These ongoing resources, along with the elimination of the levy boards, can provide a true Cat 3 levy system for now with a long term goal of Cat 5 protection. Again, thank you for your time and effort to our cause. Joe Lagarde

Congratulations to all of you, especially Cherie, Dennis, Art, Lakeview Civic on putting together an excellent plan for getting Washington's attention. The ad is great and I am very happy to contribute $500 towards this effort.

Jay Batt
New Orleans City Council
District "A"

The ad is available at nycnolahelp.org. It can be seen at the following address:

http://nycnolahelp.org/images/homebackad.pdf

As far as I know, this is the current version of the ad. It was received on 12-02.