Obama's brief New Orleans visit triggers criticism
Residents of the Lower Ninth Ward are frustrated by the slow progress after Hurricane Katrina. Homes that have been rebuilt are sandwiched between overgrown lots where rats scurry in the scrub.
The president, who holds a town hall meeting later Thursday, is coming under some criticism for visiting the city for only a few hours. It is his first New Orleans visit since becoming president.
President Obama is scheduled to hold a town hall meeting later Thursday in New Orleans, where he is likely to get an earful from residents about progress and problems during the four-year effort to rebuild the city since it was devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
The president will begin his first visit to New Orleans since taking office at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School for Science and Technology — the only school to reopen in the city's Lower Ninth Ward since floodwaters ravaged the neighborhood.
Later in the afternoon, Obama is set to hold a town hall meeting at the University of New Orleans. The White House gave out tickets to the event to people chosen by a lottery. The meeting will include a question-and-answer session.
The president is scheduled to be in the city for three hours and 45 minutes before flying to San Francisco for a Democratic National Committee fundraising dinner later this evening. The brief New Orleans stop has drawn criticism from some residents, who complain that Obama isn't paying enough attention to the area's problems.
Two Republican critics criticized the president for not touring the battered wetlands, and a Mississippi official said he was disappointed Obama was skipping the state entirely.
Some 60,000 properties in New Orleans are still abandoned or in serious disrepair, and the Army Corps of Engineers is only one-third of the way through its $15 billion project to strengthen the levees.
But the White House said Obama has been closely monitoring recovery efforts and is committed to rebuilding New Orleans.
According to a White House spokesman, senior administration officials and Cabinet members have made 22 separate visits to Louisiana this year. Administration officials have also visited the Alabama and Mississippi Gulf coasts.
Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Democrat, said members of the Cabinet and other senior advisers will remain in the area for a longer visit.
"Although I'm disappointed, as many are, that the trip won't be longer, I'm encouraged that he's coming with members of his Cabinet to visit very significant sites in the area," Landrieu said in a YouTube post.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan, Education Secretary Arne Duncan and White House environmental adviser Nancy Sutley are scheduled to join the president. Each will be attending different events in the city.
Obama visited New Orleans four times after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast when he was in the Senate. He also visited in 2008 when he was in the midst of his presidential campaign.
From reports by NPR and member station WWNO in New Orleans
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