New Orleans and corruption

[Cedarman]

I read the following part of an editorial in todays Louisville Courier-Journal by Bert Emke.

"A controversy erupted over a contract that the state of Louisiana had awarded to a janitorial firm to get rid of the cars.  (There are about 100,000) The company, which was going to charge $350 per vehicle, was unable to post the necessary performance bond.  The city administration favored another firm, which wanted $1,000 per car.

Meanwhile some enterprising local with a flatbed truck was arrested for "stealing" abandoned cars and selling them for scrap. In other words, the state wants to prosecute someone for helping solve a problem at no cost to the state or the city.  If taxpayers in the rest of the country decide to wash their hands of New Orleans, it will be because of craziness like this."

And I thought I could not get any more cynical about government.

[sawguy21]

A lot of those cars would become the insurers property after being written off so technically it is theft. I understand your frustration though. The goobermint can't stand competition. If free enterprise was allowed to flourish, some sloppy servants would need to find a real job.

[Cedarman]

If the insurance company owned them, then they wouldn't be abandoned.  If the insurance company wanted them they would be paying someone to recover them.  I took it that the state was paying a company to remove them out of taxpayers pockets.  It appears they have value only as scrap.

[SwampDonkey]

They've been warning us up here in the maritimes to get a car fax on any used vehicles because an undisclosed number of cars that went through the Katrina and Rita storms have arived here on the market.

[highpockets]

There are probably a lot of cars in New Orleans that had no insurance on them and had been sitting in someones yard since the second war.  I am sure that the city has a lot of this to deal with. Having  said that and having lived here in LA. for sixty years, I can assure you there is some hanky panky going on. It is a way of life.  There are different rules for different people. 

Look at the data on the amount of Louisiana judges, etc that are in jail.  Even the ex-governor is there I hear.  He probably gets off on weekends to gamble. 

Our previous Governor Foster made a statement that if we could do away with the educational scores for New Orleans Louisiana we would have one of the highest ratings in the U.S. 

The Port of New Orleans should be moved up to Baton Rouge and let the rest of it go back to the birds and alligators.  We as a nation could get another tax cut.

[wesdor]

A couple of weeks ago I heard that some company in Texas (I think that is where it was), was willing to pay the City something like $200 per car for the priviledge of taking them away.  From what I understand, the company was going to still make a profit on each car.  That way New Orleans could actually get rid of their problem and make some money on the deal. 

You guessed it, that company was not allowed to bid on the process.  I had the pleasure of living in Louisiana while stationed at Ft Polk.  We were continually amazed at the political corruption in the state.  A lot of wonderful people, but the politicians were something else.

[metalspinner]

We returned for a visit at Christmas and it was my understanding that the insurance companies had already removed their cars.  The one's that were left were uninsured.  Which was alarming because there were thousands of them! :(    Of course, this was the talk around town, not hard data.   But thew locals are more up to speed on things than the rest of us.