New Orleans slowly progessing
By Alicia Haefele

BATON ROUGE – Former chairman of Gulf Coast rebuilding, Donald Powell, returns home with an optimistic view for New Orleans’s future.

After returning home, Powell believes that New Orleans is headed in the right direction. Public schools and public housing are being renovated and significant are being made improvements in health care and in criminal justice.

Although New Orleans is headed in the right direction, Powell says that it was still take years for things to return to the way they were.

According to Powell, the people have done more than the government to drive the city’s recovery.

Although the Road Home program is slow, they are effective, criticized Powell. Kathleen Blanco created a system of checks and balances which is “probably overkill”.

“The money is in the hands of the people, where it should be…That’s a lot of money,” says Powell.

Road Home, although effective, is severely putting a damper on progress in New Orleans. The government needs to find a way to assist New Orleans like they helped California when they suffered from forest fires. The governments responded fast and effectively, why couldn’t they do the same thing for New Orleans three years ago?