Who's in Charge Of Rebuilding New Orleans?

NEW ORLEANS -- New Orleans can be rebuilt, or so they say.

Just ask the mayor's commission. Or the governor's commission. Or, wait a bit, and see if the congressman's commission flies. The city council's commission was even unveiled with something important missing: commission members. But it was trumpeted as a commission nonetheless.

As this once-flooded city is flooded anew by commissions and subcommittees and study groups, the operative question is becoming: Who the heck is in charge here? "If we can't appear to get ourselves organized, how can we possibly convince the rest of the country that we can do this recovery right?" said Mel Lagarde, a health care executive who is co-chairman of Mayor C. Ray Nagin's rebuilding commission.

Wading into this tangle of internecine rivalries and push-me-pull-you Louisiana politics will be Donald E. Powell, 64, head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. since 2001. President Bush named him Tuesday to oversee Gulf Coast hurricane recovery efforts.

Powell takes on the task in a region with ancient mistrust of the federal government, dating to the Civil War and on into the heat of civil rights-era desegregation battles. Nagin has already warned Vice Adm. Thad W. Allen, the current day-to-day coordinator of the government's relief work, that he is not "the federal mayor of New Orleans."

Powell's appointment was greeted with muted approval. "If this person is going to be doing more than padding his r?sum?, it makes sense to me," said Barbara Major, co-chairman of Nagin's commission. "Y'all in the federal government need to come up with some continuity about what y'all are doing. There seems to be a real lack of coordination."

Judging from the urging that has taken place for weeks, many of the most influential people here would welcome a federal overseer with broad powers, even a so-called czar. Walter Isaacson, the former chairman of CNN who is vice chairman of Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco's commission, said he likes the idea of a czar, even if "everybody gets all allergic about that phrase."

In a sense, New Orleans now resembles Blanche DuBois, the faded belle of Tennessee Williams's "A Streetcar Named Desire," who famously relied "on the kindness of strangers." With New Orleans near bankruptcy, devoid of a tax base and forced to lay off half its 6,000 city workers, there is no doubt here that the money to rebuild will come from strangers -- strangers in Congress -- many of whom have been frosty, and some downright hostile, to the Louisiana delegation's attempts to pass a $250 billion relief package.

"It's almost like fighting with your hands tied behind your back," said Nagin, who traveled to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to plead for tax breaks. "You can't move quickly. Everything's dictated to you."

As New Orleans City Councilman Jay Batt puts it, the federal government will surely play a huge role because of the "golden rule": "He who has the gold makes the rules." Indeed, so far, Nagin says he has been given discretion to spend just $15 million of the $27 billion in federal money that has been allocated to the region.

The city's first stabs at jump-starting the economy failed. Nagin touted, then quickly abandoned, his plan to create a "casino district" by allowing gambling halls in downtown hotels. Some of the city's signature businesses are fleeing -- Ruth's Chris Steak House, founded in New Orleans by the late Ruth Fertel, moved its corporate headquarters to Orlando, and the New Orleans Saints are reportedly negotiating a possible move to San Antonio. Nagin declared that the National Football League team is welcome to return, but owner Tom Benson is not.

At the same time, a lack of money is keeping New Orleans out of the power loop in the recovery effort. The city is so short of cash it had to put school employees on disaster leave.