Mayor Dave Bing says there’s a lot the city of Detroit can learn from the way the city of New Orleans has tried to recover from Hurricane Katrina. And, there’s much they can learn from Detroit.
Bing and other Detroit city officials spent a few days this week touring part of New Orleans’ Ninth ward, a section of the city heavily damaged by the flood that followed Hurricane Katrina in 2005. New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu compares the devastation in the Ninth ward to parts of Detroit.
Detroit mayor Dave Bing compliments Landrieu and others in New Orleans for making difficult decisions to reclaim their city. He says similar decisions face Detroit.
"The decisions that we make today will set the framework for the next 20, 30, 40 years for our cities."
New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu agrees with Bing that Detroit and New Orleans share similar problems with job creation, education and blight.
"I've said many times that Katrina did not cause New Orleans’ problems. It just made them more manifest. The same can be said of Detroit."
Landrieu praises Bing’s efforts to get Detroit police officers to move into the city.
