Mary Landrieu, Mitch Landrieu, Brad Pitt, Wendell Pierce, Garland Robinette, Douglas Brinkley
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Announcer: From New Orleans, five years after Hurricane Katrina, this is a special edition of MEET THE PRESS with David Gregory. Substituting today, Brian Williams.
MR. BRIAN WILLIAMS: August 29th, 2005, Hurricane Katrina touches down on the Louisiana coast. The city's levees fail, the next morning nearly 80 percent of New Orleans is under water. A botched government response, a poor local evacuation plan, thousands are left without food, water, shelter or safety, trapped for days as the city is looted and its people suffer. Forty-one thousand people were heroically rescued by U.S. armed forces, many of them brave Coast Guard pilots, but almost 1,800 people are dead and the storm has left an estimated $75 billion in damages throughout the Gulf Coast. Five years later, what's changed and what hasn't? What lessons were learned? Is this city's recovery moving in the right direction? Joining us: Two of the area's notable political leaders, Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu and her brother, the newly elected mayor of New Orleans, Mitch Landrieu. Then, my interview with actor Brad Pitt, founder of the Make It Right Foundation, an effort to repair the devastated Lower Ninth Ward.
(Videotape)
MR. BRAD PITT: These people are pioneers. They're pioneers, and this is now the greenest neighborhood in the world.
(End videotape)
MR. WILLIAMS: Plus, our special discussion with three men who've worked tirelessly to bring renewal and regrowth to the city they love: New Orleans native, star of the HBO hit series "Treme" and the president of the Pontchartrain Park Community Development Corporation, Wendell Pierce; longtime New Orleans journalist Garland Robinette of WWL Radio; and author of "The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast," historian and author Douglas Brinkley.
But first, and good morning from New Orleans for this special edition of MEET THE PRESS, we should set the scene here. If you know the town, we're in the former Bella Luna, now the Galvez Restaurant, a building halfway destroyed in Katrina. And it's part of the plotline here, it has come back, and these days is back and prospering as a restaurant. And here in our studio space we have nothing but Landrieus. With us, Louisiana senior Senator Mary Landrieu and her brother, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who took office almost four year--four months ago--I almost put you ahead of time.
MAYOR MITCH LANDRIEU: Yes, four years ago.
MR. WILLIAMS: And, Mr. Mayor, let's, let's mix things up right at the top here. We've come down here so many times in these past five years I could probably accept mail delivery by now, and you, you pick up on the local quirks. And when you say down here that Katrina was the worst natural disaster ever, usually you're not allowed to get that sentence out, and you're interrupted and a New Orleanian says, "Wait a minute."
MAYOR LANDRIEU: That's right.
MR. WILLIAMS: "The levees broke."
MAYOR LANDRIEU: That's exactly right.
MR. WILLIAMS: But then a Northerner comes back and says, "Yeah, but you're living below sea level, why is this America's problem?" So that's the first question to you, why is New Orleans America's problem?
MAYOR LANDRIEU: Well, first, two things: One, it is a historical fact that this was a man-made disaster. It wasn't a natural disaster, the levees broke. That's the reason why the catastrophe exists. The federal government was responsible for building the levees, engineering the levees, and consequentially, the federal government is responsible for repairing the damage that has been done, which has not been completed yet. That's first of all. Secondly, the city of New Orleans and all of the coastal parishes along the Gulf Coast have been at the tip of the spear for this nation's fight for energy security, economic independence, and its national security. We produced most of the oil and gas that this country uses domestically. We produce 30 to 40 percent of the fisheries. We produce the greatest culture that this country has ever seen. And so it's a, it's a strange question for us when people even ask us that. And by the way, I'll make two other points, we're not the only other place in America, must less the world, under sea level, and we've learned how to live peacefully in those places. And finally, there are clear ways to fix the problem, and we should get, get about it fast.
MR. WILLIAMS: I was at a dinner where you spoke last night, and it's kind of bracing, I've seen you--seen you speak a number of times and you've used the word "dire" to describe your own city. You've said you have the worst police department in America. You raised your hand, got the Justice Department in here to help fix it. And in your remarks, you often say, "I hope we make it. I hope we make it." Is that expectations adjustment by a veteran Democrat and a political family of this, of this fine soil?
MAYOR LANDRIEU: What, what it is, is a willingness to speak to the truth to this very simple notion, that success is not predetermined. There is nothing here that's broken that can't be fixed, but it won't happen on its own. It's going to require a huge lift by the entire country of the United States of America and people on the ground taking personal responsibility for themselves. You cannot take it as a fait accompli that the city's going to come back. We have great stories that have occurred over the past five years that will give you great hope about the resurrection and redemption of the city, and we believe that it's going in the right direction, but we have a long way to go.
MR. WILLIAMS: Senator Landrieu, before I begin with you, I want to show you a piece of videotape of another member of your family. The--a long time ago, a newspaper columnist affectionately called the Landrieu family the "Cajun Camelot," and that's the last time there was, first of all, a white mayor in the city of New Orleans before the current mayor, your dad, Moon Landrieu. What was it, 1970 to '78, a two-term mayor, former head of the Conference of Mayors, later secretary of Housing. Senator, have you searched your own soul and conscience to make sure--there was so much blame that went around after Katrina--that you bore none of it? How--have you sorted out just what it was that happened here?
SEN. MARY LANDRIEU: (D-LA): Well, Brian, first of all, no elected official could say that they didn't make mistakes. We all did. It was an extremely tough time. But I can say proudly that I helped to lead the effort to help the federal government respond more effectively. Now, we still have a long way to go and to try to tell the story that it wasn't a natural disaster, it was a man-made disaster and that the levees did break and that our coastal restoration efforts, while we had put them under way, needed to be accelerated. And the town can't just be protected by levees but by the coast. So I had been doing that for quite some time.
But the fact of the matter is many of us knew that Katrina and the levee break was an opportunity to transform this region and transform, not just the city, but St. Bernard and St. Tammany and Jefferson and all of the coastal areas that honestly sometimes, Brian, get overlooked by the national media that focuses on New Orleans. As proud as we are of this city and as extraordinary as it is, all of south Louisiana and all of the Gulf Coast is a very special place, and the federal government has underinvested in it year after year after year, whether it's education or health care. And, as the mayor said, the federal government has taken so much. For the last 50 years, the federal government has taken out of the Gulf Coast $165 billion in taxes that came from oil and gas off of our coast that went to the federal Treasury, to rebuild all places in America except the place that it came from.
So I have been a leading voice, I'm thrilled that Mitch has joined, and many others, in saying it's time, as my father said many years ago, for New Orleans, the region, Louisiana, and the Gulf Coast to get its fair share, and we most certainly intend to do that.
MR. WILLIAMS: Now I want to ask you about one of the many promises made after Katrina. I want to roll in a piece of sound from President George W. Bush after Katrina, speaking not far from here in Jackson Square.
(Videotape, September 15, 2005)
PRES. GEORGE W. BUSH: And tonight I also offer this pledge of the American people: Throughout the area hit by the hurricane, we will do what it takes, we will stay as long as it takes to help citizens rebuild their communities and their lives.
(End videotape)
MR. WILLIAMS: Senator, you heard it.
SEN. LANDRIEU: Yeah.
MR. WILLIAMS: Did it turn out to be hollow? Did it turn out...
SEN. LANDRIEU: It was.
MR. WILLIAMS: Do you think he was telling the truth then?
SEN. LANDRIEU: Well, it, it turned out to be a hollow promise, and I'll tell you why: Because the federal government didn't stay and do everything they could. The federal government didn't make it easy. They made it very, very difficult. Very specifically, when the mayors of New Orleans and my other mayors asked for funding to help rebuild, they were offered a loan of $5 million. The city's budget is $460 million. The mayor of New Orleans at the time was offered $5 million. That wouldn't buy them a, you know, loaf of bread for the week.
MR. WILLIAMS: And yet it's said, Mississippi made out like bandits. Just next door, they had...
SEN. LANDRIEU: Mississippi--but the fact of the matter is, Brian, that's not true, and we, we will document many things. Mississippi did not make out like bandits. And you're going to hear a lot about that in the next couple of years.
MR. WILLIAMS: There's a couple new documentaries out.
SEN. LANDRIEU: There's a couple of documentaries that are out. The Brookings Institute. But the fact of the matter is, is that, you know, we were given a very small portion of the funding relative to our disaster. We did the best we could with it, but the great thing is there are leaders on the ground, whether it's this mayor of New Orleans, Craig Taffaro in St. Bernard Parish, and others that are building schools, hospitals, and rebuilding our coast, and giving leadership here which is so important.
MR. WILLIAMS: Mr. Mayor, you have the, as long been chronicled, the highest murder rate in the United States. Would you yourself walk unaccompanied after dark in your own Seventh Ward?
MAYOR LANDRIEU: I do it all the time. And, and the answer is yes. And it's important that people know that, at some point in time, that the city is going to be safe. But it's also important to acknowledge, again, a speech I gave a couple of weeks ago called "Eyes Wide Open." The only way we're going to fix our problems is really to confront them. And as wonderful as some of the recovery has been in the schools and the healthcare clinics, things we'll talk about later in the program, it is also true that we have a police department that had lost its way completely. We also have one of the highest murder rates in the country. We have to deal with that problem.
Again, I should say this, that what New Orleans is going through now is not unique to us. Katrina and Rita didn't cause all of our problems. It certainly made them more evident. It certainly should be looked upon as being the canary in the coal mine for the rest of this country as it deals with the issues of health care, infrastructure and crime. We're suffering with many things that may--every major urban city is, but the immediacy of it has been brought to bear by Katrina and Rita. So that's why I called in the Justice Department, and they have responded wonderfully to ask us to completely redo the police department while we're focusing on getting in front of crime with recreation programs, critically important. But it's something that has got to get done because if this city is not safe it'll never be free and it won't grow back up. It's really important.
MR. WILLIAMS: Well, let's talk about education for a moment. The Education secretary, Arne Duncan, famously said--and others have, have said it, though it sounds perverse when you hear it, "Katrina was the best thing that ever happened to the school system in New Orleans." And post-Katrina, here you are with, what, 60 percent charter schools, teachers union says, "Oh, that's great except they've tossed the teachers union out of all of those places, and you can't educate kids on, on charter schools alone."
MAYOR LANDRIEU: Well, let me, let me say this--and I know Senator Landrieu has had a lot to do with this particular movement. The fact of the matter is, whether they're charter schools or public schools, in the city of New Orleans we have the most innovative change that's going on in public education anywhere in America. In the last three years alone, our students' scores have gone up in every category, and it is, in fact, an amazing story. We--the other day the president announced, and Senator Landrieu changed the congressional act to allow this to happen, that we got actually a lump-sum funding, first time FEMA has ever been able to do this, to actually physically rebuild every school in the city of New Orleans. So it, in fact, is going to be one of the great stories.
Now, I wouldn't have said it the way the secretary said it. Some people say, "Oh, it was a great opportunity." I think that comes out wrong. I think it gave us the responsibility of building back something that should not ever have gotten to where it was before. It's a, it's a huge responsibility, and it's one that we should take very strongly.
MR. WILLIAMS: Now, Senator, we should note that you were talking about wetlands before talking about wetlands was, was in vogue. And, perhaps, though, you can explain the very confusing relationship between Louisiana and oil as we look at the once-beautiful wetlands with that now characteristic oil line that's to be found on all the grass. A lot of folks elsewhere in the country just assumed that the anger down here would come out of the oil spill, the fact that three months of oil is sitting out there in that water. A lot of folks assumed that the folks in Louisiana would be behind a stoppage until there could be a rule that if you can get oil a mile down, you should be able to stop it. What is the relationship between Louisianans, who love the great outdoors and have some of the great outdoors in all of the world, and the petroleum that comes out deep under the ground?
SEN. LANDRIEU: Well, first of all, Brian, please know that people are very angry about that spill, and very disappointed in BP, and very disappointed in the subcontractors as well, and are just furious about the oil. We want to keep our waters clean. We've tried to keep our waters clean all these years. But we do have a strong relationship with the oil and gas industry, not just big oil, but independents and the thousands of small businesses that we built that we're proud of that support that industry because the nation needs this oil. This nation consumes 20 million barrels of oil a day. It did the day before the Deep Horizon exploded, it does today. Now, we're going to transition to cleaner fuels. And by the way, Louisiana is well positioned to be part of the energy future, not just our past. But that's why people down here feel so strongly. We've been fishing in the same waters that we drill for oil. We've been navigating all of the commerce of--not only of this country, but of the world on those same waters. And yes, Brian, we recreate, we swim in those waters. And we believe with the right kind of balance in policy we can do it. So, yes, a pause was necessary. But a six-month moratorium has put a, a blanket of fear and anxiety, and it must be lifted as soon as possible.
MR. WILLIAMS: But has it hurt the industry as much as you feared?
SEN. LANDRIEU: Well, it's not--I'm not worried about hurting the industry. As I said, I'm not worried about hurting big oil, I'm worried about hurting Big Al's.
MR. WILLIAMS: Well, right.
SEN. LANDRIEU: Because a sandwich shop closed last week. And that's who I'm fighting for. I'm fighting for small businesses. I'm not fighting for big oil. Don't be confused. And there are thousands of businesses in this state that are at great risk. Meanwhile, the country keeps guzzling the oil, but we're out of work down here. We need to get back to work to build this region, and we intend to do so. And the president has heard that message strongly and clearly from the people of this state.
MR. WILLIAMS: Mr. Mayor, was the administration slow off the dime when the spill happened?
MAYOR LANDRIEU: I don't think so. They were down here pretty quickly. And, of course, this was a much different disaster than Katrina was. I can honestly say that they've been working very hard at it. Unfortunately, you know, the focus gets taken off of where it should be, which is on BP. The fact that that spill could have occurred and that this company, one of the largest in the world, did not have a plan to cap that well or capture the oil or clean the coast is something that is problematic. Although we didn't like it, we accepted the fact that BP had the technical expertise to the extent that anybody did. We obviously feel now that the well is capped that the federal government needs to be very aggressive and really make sure that BP honors its responsibility to repair every bit of damage that was done.
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