Nagin vows not to call WTC site a hole

By Michelle Nichols

NEW YORK (Reuters) – New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin vowed
never again to call the World Trade Center site a “hole in the
ground” during a visit to New York on Friday to let investors
know his hurricane-devastated city is reopen for business.

Nagin stopped short of again apologizing for using that
description of the Twin Towers site — where 2,759 people died
in the September 11 attacks — during a U.S. television
interview that aired last week.

“I tell you what I will never do again is refer to that
site as a hole. It’s a sacred site that is presently in an
undeveloped state,” Nagin told a news conference to launch the
New Orleans Rebirth economic development tour.

Nagin had drawn criticism for his remarks in an interview
with CBS’s “60 Minutes” when asked why it was taking so long to
clean up New Orleans a year after Hurricane Katrina, which
killed 1,339 people and caused $80 billion in damage.

“You guys in New York City can’t get a hole in the ground
fixed and it’s five years later. So let’s be fair,” he said on
“60 Minutes.”

Nagin apologized for the comment on Sunday.

A year after the disaster New Orleans has shrunk to about
half its pre-Katrina population of about 450,000 and many
expect it to stay small as poorer, mostly black residents
struggle to return.

“It’s very difficult to deal with an emotional tragedy, a
natural disaster and a man-made disaster of what New Orleans
and New York went through and it just takes time to get to the
point where you actually move quickly,” Nagin said.

“There’s no quick fix. It just takes time and unfortunately
we in America we like the fast-food mentality.”

Nagin was in New York to give a series of presentations to
lure investors back the New Orleans, which he said is home to
the world’s fourth largest port.

“We are reinventing the city from scratch,” he said. “New
Orleans is open for business and our recovery is moving forward
every day.”