It's Time to Start Rebuilding New Orleans

Dear Louisiana Recovery Authority,
I live in Mid-City New Orleans. It has been 391 days since my neighborhood flooded. My neighbors and I worked very hard to create a Mid-City recovery plan. We then worked with Cliff James and the Lambert-Danzey team, and yesterday I heard Mr. James present our plan at City Hall. It appears that it will cost just over $100 million to fix our neighborhood's streets, sidewalks, lights, and sewer. There are federal funds available for fixing things such as this in New Orleans, only your organization wouldn't release the funds until we had a plan. So I'm letting you know that my neighborhood, like many others, has a plan. We don't want to wait for another year until the Unified New Orleans Plan is finished. You've given $28.5 million to tourism recovery. Now please start the long process of fixing the infrastructure for the people who live here, those of us who don't frequent Bourbon Street.