|
Apr132006
|
Ray Nagin Speaks at Tulane |
I didn’t go to work today. Dad had some errands to run so I guess it wouldn’t have been practical for me to go to the office. I do have enough work waiting for me though. Dad dropped me off downtown sometime around two in front of Canal Place. It reopened a while ago and I was curious to see how many stores were open. Most of the shops were open but the anchor store, Saks, was closed, as was Kenneth Cole. I walked up Canal Street, stopping at a camera shop on the way. I bought an SD card reader, only because it has a USB extension cord, which I’ve been unable to find recently. I took the 3:10 shuttle downtown. I decided to peek into the bookstore to say hi to Larry, but he was out sick. There wasn’t really time for me to stop at the library this afternoon so I just went to the Richardson 107 and waited with my laptop for a little over a half hour for class to start. This afternoon’s psychology class was a continuation of the lecture about personality that began last Friday. Class was dismissed just after 5:30. This evening’s Consumer behavior class had something to do with situational influences on purchasing decisions. There were eight students in attendance tonight, if I remember right. We got out of that class at about 7:30. Rather than go home after class this evening, I went to a college democrats meeting in Jones Hall. I saw on a posted flyer that Mayor Ray Nagin was speaking this evening so I decided to check it out as I’m not entirely decided on who I’ll be voting for in the upcoming election on the 22nd. Either there was a slight scheduling mix up or the mayor was a few minutes late, as were a lot of students. The mayor started out by asking the audience what they thought his opening statement should cover. A couple students raised some issues regarding the rebuilding of the city and how illegal immigrants fit into the situation. After speaking for a bit, Mr. Nagin took questions from the audience for a while. I don’t remember any of them being especially unusual in nature. I was lucky enough to get the last question of the night. I asked the mayor about the circumstances surrounding a story that made the national news a while back. A company apparently offered the city some five million dollars to remove all the flooded cars from New Orleans. City hall turned it down and now have a contract with a firm that is charging something like $20 million to do the work. The Mayor said they were unable to pursue the former contract because of a FEMA regulation, a satisfactory, although slightly disenchanting answer. Before I left I said hello to Juan Lafonta, a state representative that my Dad knows through business. I took a late shuttle home and Dad picked me up downtown.