. allison plyer, shannon jones, and later, steven striffler of the university of new orleans on rebuilding the community. "washington journal" is next. >> i have just gotten word from the media that there is over 1000 people here today. >> somebody said, why are you marching? they call as trouble makers occurr. but now the folks that used to criticize us for marching are trying to have a march themselves. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] ♪ host: good morning.

thousands lined the mall and the lincoln memorial yesterday in an event organized by glenn beck. the reverend al sharpton commemorated the speech by dr. martin luther king with a march. we'll get your thoughts, especially as we go into midterm elections. the president has concluded a 10 day vacation at martha's vineyard. the president speaks today. live coverage at 3:00 p.m. on c- span. it was five years ago that hurricane katrina hit the gulf coast leaving its scars on new orleans and the region. we will look at the schools, the economy, and the city of new orleans five years after the storm. first, we will get your reaction to the rallies called by glenn

beck and al sharpton. for republicans, 202-737-0001, for democrats, 202-737-0002 and for independents the number to call is 202-628-0205. let's begin with some of the headlines courtesy of the newseum. at one point, as many as 30,000 residents living in the ninth ward. now only 6000. after the storm hit, many fled to houston. it is looking at the impact the storm had on those cities. headlines outside of washington -- this is from california. the tea party followers rally at the national mall. opponents marching on the anniversary of dr. king's "i ha ve ve a dream" speech.

both events are available are our website at c-span.org. and we will replay them tomorrow evening beginning at 8:00 on c- span. john is joining us from philadelphia. republican line. good morning. caller: hi, steve. i watched both rallies. i enjoyed both of them. i have watched glenn beck over the years. i enjoy his radio show. he gets too deep for me and the stuff was to a religious for me, but the one thing that gets me is the first paragraph of the article in my local paper -- the very first line says that a predominantly white crowd, notice race. of course, the left has a problem when something is too white. i watched the sharpton rally.

it was predominantly black. we're having a talk about dr. king, and we are having to be gated rallies. two segre i noticed something about the tea party. you look at the continents and the happiness and the patriotism on their faces. -- and the countenance. and some people see things sinister. they are just people who are really happy, kind. they did not even leave a candy wrapper behind. compare that to the left, often have these angry protests. they are just people who care about their country. ost: this is this morning's "the new york times", a self-

described tea party patriot. the headline -- "at the lincoln memorial, a call for religious rebirth." caller: i watched both rallies yesterday, and the glenn beck rally was more of a sermon. one of the ministers he had gone, i believe the man's name was reverend jackson, but he said glenn beck was the son -- is the son of god. and nobody refuted that. that is blasphemous. jesus christ is the son of god, not glenn beck. he is a child of god.

that is all i have to say. i watched the sharpton rally, but i did not get to see the march. host: we covered the rally. caller: i was disappointed i did not give to see the march. front page of "the washington post". if you are following d.c. politics, mayor adrian fenty is a lagging in the primary in a new poll. the primary is scheduled for tuesday, september 14. then the scene from the reflecting pool. some of the highlights on the speeches, including sarah palin. >> and i know that many of us today, we are worried.

sometimes our challenges seem insurmountable. but here together, at the crossroads of our history, made this day, made this day be the change point. look around you. you are not alone. you are americans. [laughter] [applause] [applause] you have the moral courage of washington and lincoln. it is in you. it will sustain you. with pride in their red, white and blue. let's stand together with honor, let's restore america. host: from "the washington post" -- "rallies for honor and

a dream." the earlier caller talking about the "reclaim the dream" rally. the march to the future site of the dr. martin luther king memorial. your reaction. good morning. caller: my first reaction is wow. they are fighting a wrong people. i am talking about glenn beck. there is so much hatred, but what they need to do is channel their energy towards the real enemy. indonesia,china, everywhere. don't fight the black. it's not whites and blacks.

it's supposed to be for everyone together. host: watching the glenn beck rally gave me hope, watching al sharpton gave me a hopeless feeling. what a shame. judy, republican line, from new haven, connecticut. good morning. caller: i watched both rallies. glenn beck had four words -- god, the military, hope and positive action. al sharpton -- i am an african american woman -- and i will tell you i was so embarrassed. i feel so badly that our african-american so-called leaders have not gone far. al sharpton was nothing but

negativity, talking about the glenn beck rally. there was a them and us. one of the speakers said they have the lincoln memorial, we have the white house. no, we do not have the white house. everyone in america has the white house. i was so ashamed. there was name calling at the sheraton rally. it was just embarrassing. -- there was name calling at the sharpton rally. host: eleanor homes norton, a non-voting member of congress, one of those speaking at the rally organized by reverend al sharpton. here is what she had to say. >> when the march on washington occurred in 1963, dunbar was not segregated, but schools all over

america were still segregated and public accommodations work and housing was segregated and blacks in the south did not have the right to vote. the march on washington change that. glenn beck's march will change nothing. but you cannot blame glenn beck for his march on washington envy. too bad he does not have a message to match the place or that is worthy of a march. honor and aleies for dream." glenn beck drew a sea of activists to the lincoln memorial, and called on the nation to recommit itself to traditional values. on the anniversary of martin luther king's speech, back and

sarah palin stake in acclaim to king's legacy. pat joins us from new york city. democrat line. good morning. caller: i have two points. i think glenn beck is divisive and i think he is a repetition and a trickster -- and a rhetorician. he wants to trick poor and middle-class people into believing that tax break for the wealthiest americans will trickle down to the rest of us. it has not happened while those policies have been in effect. talking about restoring honor. it assumes we've lost honor because of obama, because who ia

black man. america is far more honored around the world. the rally should have been called restoring jobs, not restoring honor. he should have a speaker like ross perot. they should have been talking about how to restore jobs, u.s. trade policy, the trade imbalance with china, with japan, restoring jobs. we have on our around the world as a result of bush out of office who live as into a washington art and as a result of having obama in office -- bush out of office who lied us into a war and as a result of having obama in office. host: one of the questions that

comes up is how many people were there. it you or the reference that glenn beck made that more than 1000 were there. "the washington post" trying to put that in perspective -- the numbers game. the attendance at glenn beck's gathering promises to be contentious. crowd sizes on the mall are notoriously difficult to estimate. law-enforcement agencies have stopped providing numbers. at one point, they joked that they just got word from the media there are over 1000 people here today. later he told the crowd, it was between 300,000 and 500,000. michele bachmann saying that we will not let anyone get away with saying iran less than 1 million. they estimated the crowd at 250,000. ed on the independent line.

caller: good morning. thank you for c-span and your unbiased reporting of events. i took my family down to the mall yesterday. we walked around. what i saw was a lot of people gathered for cause w. before i went, i believe that there would be some trouble for the dual rallies, i saw none of it. i do think glenn beck is divisive and i do not agree with a lot of their points, they held their rally, and they were not as divisive as they thought the repeat -- as i thought there would be. unfortunately, reclaiming the dream and restoring other, each rally, it would've been more important if the actual dream of martin luther king were for all of them to be together.

i think, like the previous caller said, when it talks about restoring water and taking back the country, i am unsure who they want to take the country back from and who lost the honor in the country. i just wish they were more specific in what they're were saying is so so many people would not draw a negative, would not assume there were speaking negatively. host: david broder, who was at the 1963 rally, he writes "no one was more nervous than the kennedy administration. what sometimes is forgotten and the glow of king's words, is that it was a protest rally, and protests can get out of hand. as their numbers increase, it became clearer that the mood on that day would be one of

fellowship and the spirit, one of brotherhood." here is what glenn beck said. let's go to jim at from columbia, south carolina. republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. you played an email earlier, read an email that said that sarah palin's voice was screechy. areourse, beck's people accused of being racist. the email is sexist. the woman cannot help it if her voice is screechy. she gets passionate. the beck people want to take

back the country, not from any type of person. they just want freedom. not freedom from ray's group. they just want to live their lives independent of anyone telling them what to do. certain people do not accept that, then who cares? we do not what the government telling us where to go, how to pay taxes and that we have to pay exorbitant taxes to fund people to have children. they should plan their children. but there are so many different ways -- i am glad that beck had a very respectful. you compare that to the other rally and see how mad and mean and angry they were. host: both rallies available on our website. a replay of both of them tomorrow evening at 8:00 p.m. eastern, 5:00 on the west coast. "beck and call," tea partiers

lead 100,000 in a rally. "beck to god." here is part of what glenn beck said yesterday. >> i know that many in this country think that i am a fear markonger. it is not a label that i think applies. i do talk about frightening things, but i do not think the man who saw the icebergs as the titanic was about to hit it and said, "it is an iceberg," was a fear monger. he was warning the people on the ship. [applause] people through fearg up

will all leave awaken them for a short period of time, as we found out with 9/11. host: peg joins us on the democrats' line. phoenix. good morning. caller: good morning. after watching beck's rally, it struck me that it was grand political theater. and theater in the sense that the symbolism with their movies. if it was not the american flag, it was the military or people in history, george washington. and all of the speakers somehow tied beck in with either of jesus christ or martin luther king. you would think he on equal footing with either one.

i just thought with the music and the movies and the drama, all of the speeches, i thought it was really grand political theater. host: this from somebody on our twitter line. "if i wanted to get born again, i would have been at beck's revival. where were the snakes?" indepdendent line. somalia, grwe uew up in a country devastated by civil war. host: how long have you been here? caller: about eight years now. it seems like these opposing rallies reminded me that people

in america, both are much different from where i grew up. i think they should come over. they deny, the majority of them -- that's what goes on. thank you. host: glenn beck will appear on "fox news sunday," one of the programs you can hear on c-span radio beginning at noon. "then and now" is the headline. "meet the press" with brian williams looking back and looking ahead with interviews that would include the newly elected mayor of new orleans, mitch landrieu, and the younger brother of senator mary landrieu.

winsor david vitter his nomination. he will face a democrat in the upcoming november election. that is from louisiana newspapers. republican line from richmond, virginia. good morning. caller: good morning, sir. i watched a lot of both of the rallies and it seemed to me that glenn beck was trying to promote a lot of good news and hope and christianity and so forth. that may be a dirty word for some people. on the other side, it seems we have reverend al sharpton, a man who i never even heard him mention the word she says. it seemed like everybody at their -- he never mentioned the word jesus. i wish people could take the message from alveda king. here is a woman whose father and

uncle were murdered. she refused to become better. a person who loved other people. a person who was filled with joy and kindness and the bitterness and anger and playing the blame grain and criticizing everybody. what good is it to say that we will reclaim the dream if you have already destroyed it, if you turned into a political wedge issue against your own people to keep them down to promote your own power? god did not put us on this earth to be slaves to the government. he wants us to love each other and be kind to each other. we are all americans. can't we just be nice and kind and loving towards each other for once? host: "religion can be a personal moral compass but should never be of holier than thou stick of division or war." will have more of the rallies on c-span. you can watch them tomorrow evening beginning at 8:00 p.m.

eastern time. front page of "the new york times" -- focusing on wartime's steep learning curve. obama,n at president the first president in four decades with a war already in progress when he took office. "with no experience in uniform, it has been a steep learning curve. he has learned how to salute. he has surfed the internet at night to look into the toll on soldiers. he is trying to manage a tense relationship with the military. he is confronted some of the biggest choices a president can make, deferring to military it risers, but trying to shape the decisions with his own at judgment. too much at times for the pentagon, too little and the view of his liberal base." senator dick lugar talked

about the president's speech on tuesday, the address the will focus on the war in iraq. host: do you see the president trying to end the war on a schedule that does not match reality? guest: i think he feels having statement toima sets a many in the country or the party, he has not proclaimed a notory and glarexactly -- i am sure of what he will say in the speech -- he says this is my agreement and i am fulfilling a pledge. host: do you think that's a mistake? guest: probably. people say, where is the government? we were to provide money to the iraqi government. to whom? the bureaucracy there -- the fact that parliament has not been able to attend to a prime

minister election and there has been no oil law, that will come along after ramadan or after wherever the space baby. maybe. -- after whatever the space may be. maybe. the election that are arrived at this impasse was trouble-free, but the results came to an impasse. now, that is a problem in democracy as opposed to dictatorship, where there is no problematical bargaining or impasse. nevertheless, most iraqis -- most in the united states want to see the iraqis move toward democracy. we saw that as a model for the area. having all the votes counted, somebody needs to be in charge. host: indiana senator senator dick lugar is our guest on the "newsmakers". he is referring to the president's speech that will be

delivered on tuesday night. live coverage beginning at 8:00 p.m. eastern. also on c-span radio and streamed live on live at c- span.org with your calls and reactions tuesday evening. newsmaker comes up after this program at 10:00 a.m. eastern time. jessie on the democrats line. caller: how are you doing? i have a comment. three remarks to make. host: go ahead. caller: ok, my remarks is d ealing with the rally today. host: please go ahead. caller: my remarks are about the rally down on the mall. i watched on fox news, and i feel how he could -- this rally

was really well-constructed. the other speaker was talking about a trickster. i have watched him sometimes on television, how he puts one together -- i cannot remember the day and the time -- where he had the president on dejanovtv, showing the president's and what they do. he was demonstrating prominent black people back in the 19th office, and i thought that was really good. host: fox news making strides to indicate that they were not

behind the rally. they did cover it. the only place you could see the entire rally was on c-span. "the new york times" pointing out that beck held a surprise visit on friday. he received a thunderous welcome from a crowd of about 1600 and constitution hall. he told the crowd the began planning his march on washington a year ago, thinking "it was supposed to be political. and then i kind of feel like god dropped a giant sand bag on my head." we are country of god. actuallyeech was decent. the rest, boring. nice that everyone could speak of god so openly. gary, independent line.

good morning. your reaction to the rally is. ies. go ahead. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. the beauty of america is that we all have rights. we have the right to organize. we have the right to rally. fortunately, mr. beck has the right to be wrong. to our sister and a previous caller on c-span this morning who spoke of being ashamed of the rally with al sharpton, ashamed is what has taken place in america. and the shame that there is some people in america who still have not been able to collect on the promises of the founding father. god bless and have a good day. host: this photograph from "the washington post", taken from the top of the washington monument

looking down the mall at the lincoln memorial. helen says "sharpton and beck's mass of appeal is due to fear over our current economic crisis and obama's ineptness." republican line from florida. good morning. we are getting feedback. let me read it to you two other editorials in dealing with the economy. "waiting for mr. obama." "if he has a big economic initiatives, now would be a good time to let the rest of us in on it. the stimulus of 2008, coupled with low interest rates and federal reserve interventions, kept the recession from being worse. it has not been enough to revive hiring. without such, of real recovery is impossible." there is also at this from laura

tyson, an adviser to president obama. "why we need a second stimulus. her conclusion is that by next year the stimulus will and and were flat from fiscal support, and it could shave one to two percentage points off the growth rate. the case for tax relief is compelling." independent line at from ohio. good morning. caller: i just wanted to make a comment, that i think i have been hearing negativity about the rally on the mall and about glenn beck. it is really not a political thing. was about restoring honor and paying homage to martin luther

king and his dream, and for the american people, and his niece spoke there. all i heard from the other rally was negativity, hatred, a lot of fists, fists in the air and cursing and saying they were degrading martin luther king's speech -- the glenn beck rally was not honoring his memory. they were all lies. especially the teamster and the union reps, i think were there to rally the people and caused division not unity. that is where the dream is lacking in our country. the glenn beck rally will show you by numbers and even at the looks of their faces and the

attitude there was peaceful and very patriotic. there were numerous black speakers and people there of color. and i think there were out and out lies. at the other rally. people do not even watch it and they assume things and say things that are not true. that is what my husband and i noticed. we could not believe the negativity. host: thank you so much. glenn beck yesterday in what was a picture-perfect day in washington, d.c., for both events. "the washington post" has two photographs -- glenn beck and martin luther king 202-628-0205 202-628iii and al sharpton at a march that began at dunbar high school.

north carolina. good morning. caller: thank you for covering the subject. it is important. there was a political rally and it was not the glenn beck raleigh, though he is a political person. i do not think he would ever say he was not. there was an opportunity for the reverend al sharpton and his supporters to make this one of the greatest days that took place on the mall. did not take place. we are spending so much time on the wedge issue between the two points of view, it is very said. we have much more in common than we do not have in common. that is the saddest part. the second point is, as far as restoring are for the united states world wide, as the previous caller mentioned, since the election of 2008, just the opposite. we have been vilified around the world. the russians are supporting iranians. we are not respected around the world.

every time the president goes abroad and talks the country down. it's time we started speaking with one voice, supporting the country, and being proud of the country and i think that was what mr. beck was doing yesterday. america, we do have a wonderful country through its faults, but we do have a chance to make it better. when you have two opposing points like yesterday, that is so obvious, it shows that one group is interested in politics, and the other group was interested in dealing with problems we have which are substantial. waiting form still someone to explain why unity is desirable." from syracuse, the york, democrats line. good morning. caller: from what i saw of the rallies, they were both peaceful, not angry.

i attended a march in 1993, a march on washington. there were both positive rallies. there was no anger. al sharpton is exemplified what dr. king stood for and what the was.nal intent of march io host: taking a political look at the rally yesterday and what impact it might have on the upcoming elections. speech was heavy on patriotism, but it contained a dig on the president when it said that what the country needs is restoring, not transforming. but her presence in the capital was more than a challenge to the democrats. it was a reminder to the parties congressional leadership that she and her followers will hold them to account."

independent line. did you watch both of these events yesterday? caller: i saw parts of it. my comment is about glenn beck. there are few things that people take him apart for, and he is such an uplifting person. who would think in america that a man who was down and out, on his last legs, could come back and uplift people the way he does? you cannot knock what he says, so people try to knock him. i just think that is one of the great things about america. thank you for taking my call. host: as phil, north carolina, the republican line. welcome to the program -- asheville, north carolina. caller: i would like to make a comment. by per se glenn beck. he not only teaches -- i appreciate glenn beck.

he teaches the history we were not taught in school. i think he stands up for the rights of the people and the honor, and stands up for this country which was founded in the beginning and drifted so far from. and mr. sharpton and mr. jesse jackson, i refuse to call the reverend. i have never heard them speak positively about anything. they preach hatred and disillusioned and, and you know, they never speak up for what is right. if you disagree with them, they think you are a racist. i disagree with my son that i love. i disagree with white people. whenever the million man march was in d.c. a few years ago, louis farrakhan stood up there were said white people

evil and should die. there was not a big deal made of that. they are not speaking out for or race or a certain thing, glenn beck and his people. they are speaking up for everybody. i just want you to know i appreciate it, and i appreciate this show, too. host: "the new york times" as a series of photographs. this is a crowd estimated at between 100,000 to 300,000. david joins us from dayton, ohio, on the democrats line. caller: i think glenn beck and his ilk would love to turn this country into a theocracy. host: why do you say that? caller: they want to mix of government and religion. they want to put it in a cup and started tir it up.

he brings van jones up on his show. host: dirk has this comment. "it is clear by the two rallies that the democrats are in for huge losses in washington. a couple thousand people at the rally of "reclaiming the drea." joe from denver, pennsylvania. good morning. caller: when i left the rally and i was trying to get in the metro, and a bunch of the sharpton organizers were handing out leaflets were waeriearing ce t-shirts. we know he was part of cuba's revolution. they tried to explain to the

edge of a man he it -- they had killed his entire family when the revolution happened. the individual did not have any clue. he did not realize that che rivera was a racist. he thought blacks were lazy and drunks. there was no substance. the three people i talk to, as far as any in-depthness, any kind of lets get together and solve the nation's problems. host: what motivated you to come down to washington? caller: i went down on friday. i took a day off work. i am looking for something that was back when i grew up, that sense of community and family, where everyone, in spite of our differences, on our block, we have a different variety of religions. one black family in our community. we all worked together.

in spite some of the people in the community have ill feelings against this race or that race, when it came down to hard times or shoveling snow or to emergency, we were all there. host: and your conclusion from yesterday's events? did you find we were looking for? caller: wonderful. a gentleman gave his chair to an elderly lady. i spoke to a korean family that was there. i talked to all kinds of people. just wonderful people who were very concerned not only about the nation but about their families, their children's future. somehow, we need to start focusing on what made us great. the people who got together and pledged their lives, their fortunes, their sacred honor to make this country great. -- and give us what we have today, and we are letting it go away. and we do not care. we are worried about this little deal or that little deal.

when are we going to wake up and realize that we have to fix this problem? we have to straighten out. we cannot spend money we do not have occurred we need to learn to say, when need to help of john next door. he does not have a job. he is struggling. we need to help him. he is in this vote as much as we are. host: thank you for the call. our last call. republican line. kim from fort lee, new jersey. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. i went to a glenn beck meeting two years ago on 59th straight. eet. host: where are you from originally? caller: i immigrated from south korea with my parents.

i was not involved in politics or anything like that. i went to manhattan for the rally, and i thought i would be voicing my opinion, but i learned a lot through this meeting, because through that movement they show me to be peaceful and told me to be civilized citizen. and things have to be worked through peace not shoutings. host: also this -- "i do not question glenn beck's religion or sharpton's motives, but i do question the wisdom of d.c. making decisions for 300 million of us." the rebroadcast is getting under

way at 8:00 p.m. eastern tomorrow night. coming up is the "newsmakers" program with senator dick lugar. among the president's agenda items in the week ahead, more on the middle east. he will travel to the region later this year. here is what he had to say about that. host: the palestinians are threatening to walk out if the freeze on jewish settlements is not extended. how critical to you think in this for the administration to convince benjamin netanyahu and his team that some sort of extension of that frieze is absolutely necessary for these talks not only to succeed but to get to a second round? guest: i will not enter into the bargaining session that clearly would have to be intends to get movement on that, because the fact is my prediction of some

pessimism is predicated on the fact that movement would be difficult for either party. either party says there needs to be certain predicates there before we even talk. then we will not talk very long. at the same time, the president has set a goal or maybe a deadline of the year for this to go on. so the initial situation might not be promising, but on the other hand, there are many people in israel and in palestine, and for that matter in the middle east, who would like to see some greater permanence in the arrangement. host: the interview with senator dick lugar is available at 10:00 eastern time on that the "newsmakers" program. coming up on "washington journal", our focus -- new orleans and the gulf coast region five years to the day after hurricane katrina. we will focus on the economy,

the schools, as "washington journal" continues for this sunday, august 29. ♪ >> monday starts science and technology week on "book tv." gorden bell on a future with total recall. and the rapid investments in technology and its future. stephen baker on the computer scientists and mathematicians who want to manipulate our behavior. "book tv" in in prime took -- in

prime time monday, on c-span 2. >> we have a generation coming up who did not have the arts as children or in the public schools. these are not the 20-year-olds. i am concerned about becker put people because it is not clear that when they get to be 50 years old that they won't come to the arts. >> tonight, he will talk about the future of the arts in the u.s. on c-span's "q&a". >> "washington journal" continues. host: for the next to ours, our focus is on new orleans and a greater gulf coast region -- for the next two hours. this past week, we covered in the event looking back at the media coverage of hurricane katrina. one of the participants? shepherd smith of the fox news channel.

>> the government said, you go here and you get help. they did not get help. there is a motion in the story. you try not to be emotional yourself. i am not one that goes there. when you come to the stark reality that you are the information stream between the people who are dying and the people who can be saved, it takes on a new level of importance. over there, there is food and water, but you cannot go from there to there. i think the government will not allow you to do it. i want to get some perspective here -- that is all the prospective you need. government is here to save those people and it should have. it is not a republic or -- republican or democrat thing. is about success and failure and hurricane katrina is a story of

great american failure. i feel like we have documented it better -- if we had, the government would have been forced to act and we did not succeed. that is a powerful thing. host: with more on the region, we are joined by allison plyer, the co-deputy director of the greater new orleans community data center. thank you for being with us. you keep track of a lot of statistics over the last five years. what is the most interesting or compelling? guest: what surprises people the most is that katrina cost about $135 billion in damages, and that is six times larger than the next largest disaster. 9/11 cost $20 billion in damage. when you think about the scale of it, it was completely unprecedented.

all the other statistics cannot really be surprising because there is nothing to compare them to. host: one of the statistics is in the lower ninth ward. there was a story in "washington journal" this past week about how your mayor is trying to slowly remove many of the homes that were damaged as a result of the hurricane and the flooding. this is an area of the city that had an estimated 30,000 residents. now is down to 6000. guest: the lord ninth ward has maybe 24% of the households -- the lord high court has made 24 percent of the high salt -- the lower ninth war has maybe 24 percent of the households than it did before. i could name dozens of other neighborhoods. the surge of the water and all lower ninth ward was so strong that it pushed the houses off

their foundation. there were other areas where the water slowly rose and stood for a few weeks. in the lower ninth ward, you did not even have a stick of wood left. it is harder to rebuild because you have less to start with. host: does that explain, this from friday in "the washington post", a tale of two recoveries. "the result has been an uneven recovery, with whites in the middle class more likely than blacks and low-income people to have rebuilt their lives in the five years since this storm." guest: the extent of damage in the lower ninth ward was more severe, but what explains the difference is that from the first year, the insurance companies did not pay anyone. so, even folks who were insured could not start to rebuild unless they had money and the bank. can you imagine having $100,000

that you could use to start rebuilding? obviously, that is a small group of our citizens in new orleans, in any city. first, it was the wealthier folks who were able to rebuild. then in the second year, the insurance companies started to pay, but some folks were under insured. some folks did not even know their homes were in flood zones, so they did not even have insurance. then the federal program to supply grants to homeowners who are underinsured kicked in and the third year. the problem with that program was that it was based on the pre-katrina home value. in the low income neighborhoods, your home might have been worth $50,000. maybe you got something less than $50,000 from the government to rebuild. there is not a house in this city that could be rebuilt with only $50,000. so, yes, the lower income neighborhoods disproportionately have had a hard time rebuilding. on top of that, we had rampant

instances of contractor fraud, which is not unusual in a post- disaster situation when contractors do not live up to their word about what they will rebuild on. so all those factors have made it incredibly arduous for low- income folks and low income neighborhoods to rebuild. the wider, wealthier neighborhoods have come back more strongly. the neighborhoods that are predominantly african-american have come back less strongly. host: along the rust belt, cleveland and detroit -- the unemployment rate anywhere from 10% to 14%. nationwide is 9.5%. in new orleans, it is around 7%. why the difference? guest: the difference is the rebuilding that is going on here. we received about $45 billion, the gulf coast has, from the federal government in fines.

about $10 billion in flood insurance payments. and then a variety of infrastructure rebuilding grants. we were allocated finally the other day, five years after katrina, the federal government announced an additional $1.8 billion to rebuild our schools. when you have the numbers with a "b" in them, that is a lot of money. in contrast, we got $5 billion from the economic stimulus package. other states had similar amounts, but we got $40 billion for katrina rebuilding. obviously, the katrina stimulus is a significantly larger than the economic stimulus and is helping to buoy the economy host: our telephone lines are open. we have one line is set aside for those who live in the gulf coast -- 202-628-0184. if you lived through hurricane

katrina and returned to the region, we are interested in your stories. if he moved on, why? why are you know longer in new orleans? 202-628-1084. long-term, if we were to sit here five years from now, what issues do you think we will talk about? guest: it is going to be the economy. katrina funds have buoyed our economy. then we were hit with a recession. we lost 1%, compared to 4% nationwide. then we had the oil spill. it points out the unfinished business of katrina. one, are wetlands have been eroding. congress approved a plan to rebuild it, but they never funded it. this is a state that has a budget of $14 billion, so to allocate $1 billion for rebuilding wetlands demonstrates

a strong commitment. it will take multi-billion dollars. they have been hurt because of the with the army corps of engineers build levees and kept it from flooding and replenishing the wetlands over time. we need to rebuild them. i think the country is aware of the importance of our wetlands as the breeding ground, the nurturing area for the whole gulf coast and our seafood and wildlife. we are hopeful that there may be some funding after the oil spill from bp to help rebuild our wetlands. any number with a "b" in it might come from bp funds. our economy, the oil spill is potentially affecting tourism. tourists have the misperception that the oil is affecting your lens, which it has not. it is 100 miles away -- they

have a misperception that the oil is affecting new orleans, which it has not. it is affecting our oral and gas industry, our ship building. what we need to do it in new orleans is to diversify our economy, thinking about the industries of the future. we will be drilling for oil for as long as americans need it, which will probably be a long time, but can we also be developing other sources of power like hydropower? host: from "the advocate," "a look at katrina then and now." this is your call back in 2005, a few months after the storm hit -- this is her home. this is your home completely built today. by the numbers. 38,008 under 62 -- the number of

housing units lost in new orleans. 11, 510, the number of housing units lost and st. bernard parish. thes figure -- 93,00800, number of jobs lost. . .

>> to every person who has served and sacrificed in this emergency, i offer the gratitude of our country. tonight, i also offer this pledge of the american people. throughout the area hit by the hurricane, we will do when it takes, we will stay as long as it takes do help citizens

rebuild their lives. the challenges that we had. the damages. we got about $30 billion in private insurance and $6 in charity blt to be clear, this is actually normal in a post disaster setting. every pass per is under funded in terms of the rebuilding they

worry that one neighborhood is getting more, another is getting less. on friday, asking both of them if he saw in the short term immediate recovery. both agreed and said no.

that think in terms of evacuation, it does seem we are more prepared. from washington democrat lines. host: my question is this, no one understand. these electric dmre see

host: you still there? caller: do you have a question in >> there's been a vak assume ever leadership. that's been pretty widely agree. .

>> these folks are struggling to rebuild their homes. neighbors pitching in for nips. it is a good time to realize there's a lot of thing in the the wrordy not worky. wref had more reforms going on

vat >> grass rults driven from the ground up. . host: this year with the census

that's important more across the south coast. it went from 6,000 to 12,000. we have team that's go into these housing units. you could see on every blighted building in town there was a little hanger asking folks to fill out the form.

they did that work. >> good morning, please. >> good morning. i just want to correct the record. we got a hurricane on the east side of slide will, louisiana. new orleans we went to work. we didn't go for the government handout.

if the government would get out, question could fix the problem. the truth hurts. nobody will tell the truth. thank you, sir. any response to that? there is a lot we can do for this area frment talking about

the shared sacrifices of the people in the region. getting under way past 3:00 eastern and 12:00 for those of you on the west coast. >> good morning.

first of all, i thank justice the charter system is an expirement that has been turned -- almost 80% of the skwuls as xhared to the reasonable profits that had been gained by the charter system. if you want to respond to that.

guest: the caller making rs a really good point. there have been some measurable gains. that's a good sign. the data indicates this very fuft kater one of the reasons their doing better is because there's a lot of young professionals.

after two years, they are not obligated to stay. what folks here are looking at seriously is how can we set up a system, produce more teachers locally who will stay in the communicate. and seeing an improvement on the gains we are starting to see here.

a lot of older folks juft said, i can't do it and stayed home and in the process didn't survive. the majority of the people on this day were old and disabled.

fema didn't get here until friday. i didn't see the red cross. hospitals that flew over the top of us seemed like they were only going from the lake front airport to where they were going. they didn't start picking pump up nm friday.

people do not discern the treatment we got in new orleans. you all have a nice one, thank you. guest: the caller points out something that is a concern for the future. the red cross said they will only house people above highway high. we have young people, old people. to continue to ee vaka wait is a problem really developing some

great systems for living with water. our city master plan calls for similar initiatives in new orleans. there's a lot of people that will look at how do to do that. this can be really useful.

often times the government will be interested in playing. to invest now in some of those things that will protect the area, the oil and pipelines and fisheries which we know about those can reduce the need for those possibilities in the if you tr.

host: gary is joining us on the line good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. i'd like to say first, my con doll evenses to everyone who went through katrina and lost loved ones.

let me stop you there first. that is completely wrong. >> there is no evidence of that. >> considering the global warnling we are going through. i feel for the people is it really wise to even rebuild with the cost and the fact that we are going through such economic hard time and everything.

>> a sign that this would happen. is it worth rebuilding >> it's keshlly a good one. so many of our major cities are at risk. we all thought, no. that's never going to happen. we saw thing that's show the

same scenario. what do we do about protecting all of our cities? what parts of our city have assets that have valuable enough to protect? the rebuilt casinos are in

mississippi. >> good morning. go ahead. instead of giving them help and staying over, they pulled their weapons out on them. it doesn't even seem right. what is our government doing? caller: as a resident of the

region, did you want to respond sfl we know there was folks not getting help there were a lot of troubling things that happened. what is apartment rentals like

now caller: before the storm, we had a lot of rentals for $300, $400, little sholt guns. it was a very inexpensive place to live. this cost has risen quite a bit. the insurance went up.

jeff joining us on the democrat line much good morning. caller: first of all i want to complain. can you allow me to say this? host: absolutely. caller: i notice you have lun tick right wingers calling in talking about more people a borted and killed in wars. why don't you ask them to get their facts right. that's sounding ignorant and disrespect fum to women.

we did try to correct them. it's a reflection of the variety of views in the country. we do try to do that when appropriate. you are still with us. go ahead. caller: ok. ok. about katrina. you had this guy call from mississippi probably have an iq of a 2-year he had these right wingers telling the government to get out my way.

they go on and on. thank you for letting me have my talk. >> there has been that point of many saying get government out of my life accept when that's a difficult thing for them to wrestle with i'm sure. host: it has had an incredible

siek log cal boost. we had an incredible amount of tourism. all hotels were full during superbowl weekend. huge saints fans and thrilled that they are here. caller: i'm one of your right

wing idiots. host: thank you for being loyal, we pressure point of view and everyone else. caller: i have to give you a compliment. i have watched you since 1988. about 30 20 years i'd say about. you haven't aged a day. you must live a very clean life. i'm serious about this. allison, i have the pin that most of the people in the ninth ward were renters. after katrina, they moved to texas. a lot of them to arkansas. they got reestablished. they got into the system, they

are not going to come back because their kids are in this is my opinion. i think the churches and volunteers have not gotten enough credit for what they accomplish and are accomplishing and it was a horror i was telling you about the neighborhood association and insurance companies not paying.

when folks didn't have enough insurance money, it was filled in with volunteer labor or organizations. every time there's volunteers in town, we say thank you for being here. headed up the city's efforts on the 2007 estimate. thank you for being with us. >> >> we are focusing on the

economy and the schools. we have more coming up.

♪ ♪ >> monday starts science and technology week. we are more on the future of total recall. steven biker on computer science

>> we have a generation coming up very concerned about that group. heading to the kennedy center for the performing art. host: this past week, we focus on the media. conducted by the organizers here

in washington. we needed help right now. i would say for many of us, one of the most right nows jobs they did was to deliver the paper. people would be there getting ice and water. we came up with the paper. people would leave the line looking to get a newspaper and gas because they couldn't believe that the paper had gotten there. in the midst of all this, if you

could get a newspaper, we are probably going to be ok. shan none jones in new orleans. pressure time this morning. thank you for having me. beginning with this statistic. looking at public schools in new orleans mainly as a result of deseg gags is what you actually saw around the country.

we have had saidy increases. going over a 10-year period, 45% of the free or reduced lunch program. >> what are the biggest challenges of public schools in new orleans? reform efforts take money.

how do we at the end of the day figure out what is working and what's not? thirn still can't get past katrina. they are displaced by the storm are nearly five times more likely to have severe emotional disturbances >> does this surprise you? >> not at all. able to focus on the academics.

teachers, parents, neighbors. creating more for those in the public school system. we haven't been able to put a

figure on the rate in new orleans. it is do you to school choice. we do have one line open. 202-628-0184. jessie is joining us in washington, d.c. good morning. caller: good morning. she has children that are not

the greatest of children. she gives them 185%. one question about people rebuilding about the lower income and poverty. who owns those homes? most the people i know rent. good teachers in new orleans and elsewhere. one thing i would say is that

there is no reason to believe where he don't have good teachers. they have changed significantly. we had a large number of teachers who were young and didn't have a lot of experience in the classrooms. the teacher is the most important factor when you look at student achievement.

there were pretty strict guidelines around who was able to collect money and who wasn't. >> currently the executive director. a result of hushg katrina five years ago today. joining us from new orleans. go ahead. as it relates to books for the public school students. i live here in new orleans. i was in a charter school. there are no books. the efforts of the teachers in my opinion being wasted when students cannot take the books home when they come back to school, teachers are doing a lot

of reteaching, this is not allowing them to regress to make sure the students get all the information they need to be able to pass. certainly a school without books is a problem. they are able to bring a set of books home. one of the things about charter schools is that they are able to decide how to spend the money. they may be spending more monday on teacher salryes but i wouldn't say that it is across the board that kids didn't have books. before katrina, that was a problem. that's not the case anymore.

we spend quite a bit of time. >> writing charter schools have given people some hope. given people a chance to get involved. new orleans is showing improvements. there are good charter schools and bad a skros the country and in new orleans as well. i think they are mainlior reform efforts. i don't believe it is the only reason why. >> join the discussion on line. bill is joining us from austin

texas. good morning. caller: are you hearing me? host: yes, good morning. when i left in 1978, it was all over the newspapers that this were some large sliding locks planned that would save new orleans those would be out near the wrigleys pass i learned later reading papers and such that those locks had never been built. the environmentalist group which

was called save lake upon che train or something like that. politically, they killed it off. but you can blame environmentalists in general for what happened. >> your comment? caller: guest: i have no comment. host: thank you for c-span. good morning. caller: i live in california and i watched that storm come in days before it hit. anybody could have told you there was going to be mass devastation. what you have is low income housing. houses that have been there for

decades. nothing but good can come from this. let's get some inmates out of jail and get that place cleaned up. i agree with the lady that called from arkansas. you are looking fabulous, steve. if you get down to west hollywood, you come and see me. guest: where he need to figure out a long term housing

solution. volunteers have come to help us rebuild homes to have a safe, dry home for their families. it is hard to disa gee with that point. host: looking at it as a basis, the average teacher in louisiana earning about $33,000 a year and in new orleans proper about $34,000, $35,000 and now you see it has increased to about $46,000. we have had a steady increase. that there is the average salry. we have right after katrina.

we have a diverse mix of experienced teachers. that mix is healthier than what we had in 2005 and 2006 and 2007. >> the obama administration has been pushing a race to the stop top for schools getting the money. what is your reaction and is it effective? guest: it is to be determined if it is effective at this point. the money hasn't reached the first state. it's really historical that so much money is being put toward education.

i would hope that their strong evaluation would be put in place. you may know louisiana was not selected as a finalist for a race to the top money. louisiana has received this significant amount of federal money. is it enough, no? we have been able to do significant amount of reform that has taken place. that is why you have started to see the student a griefment. is it fair the way this system is being set up by the department of education.

>> when you are looking at trying to find all of the work when looking at opportunities for all of the kids. go ahead. good morning. good morning, i have two questions. first. the gentleman that called in earlier. that's what caught me. a lot of that people in a lived in the ninth ward was renting. yet still, all of these people were getting money to rebuild those houses. who are they? are they homeowners or developers i saw a program about

new orleans and that there were 300 teachers brought in from the philippines to teach. i don't know if it was spread out over louisiana or all over the country but why would tle bring teachers from the philippines to teach in the united states when we need jobs right here and there are teachers qualified to teach right here. that is true. that is a strategy to recruit teachers. a call went out to come to new

orleans to cox and a teach. when you don't get the response, you a lookout side of america. working with teachers unions around the country to find teachers. it wasn't the only strategy being used here, it was one that was being used to recruit teachers to make sure kids had an adult in the classroom able to teach them.

most of our schools. the state doesn't provide any money for maintenance. now when you look at the school master plan, which is almost $2 billion. we had so much significant decay in schools.

it is impossible to learn when it is 102 degrees outside and your air conditioner doesn't work or you have mold growing. it's a priority now that we have resources. i think it will go a long way in r to really improving things for students. jo if you want more information, it's the cowen institute domenici. we have a lifrng on our website at c-span.org. caller: what i'm calling about is basically since hurricane betsy, if the state or federal

government had built 20 miles of flood protection each year, new orleans would have been protected. i was in new orleans when the storm happened. at 8:00 in the morning on august 29, i stood on hamilton street the water was around my ankles. by 9:00, it was up around my waste. i know it was the levees that failed. what failed us was the louisiana poll tish ans. they failed to do anything about flood protection. . .

>> there are schools we visited and spent time in where the art class is working on some sort of art project but the impact of that individual child's home and what their experience was during the storm. they are addressing it. they are talking about it. i am sure they will implemented into the curriculum as

appropriate. yet, i don't think there was one way they are doing it. i don't think that is being done across the board. host: we talked briefly about the department of education and the race to the top. you indicated earlier that local schools in orleans art that not getting any assistance from the state when it gets to the infrastructure of the schools. can you walk through the levels of authority and who is in charge of new orleans schools and who determines the funding and where the decision is made? guest: the million-dollar question in new orleans is who is responsible for the schools in the city. if i had to come up with something, i would say the state board of education. we have about 43 different operators. we have two districts so we have the local school for running a

handful of schools and web chartered about 12 schools and we have the louisiana department of education who is running about 30 schools and then we have the rest of the schools are chartered for the school board. it looks a lot like an independent school district right now. each of the charter schools has its own governing entities. one of the longer term challenges for us is to determine what that long-term system of governance structure looks like so that we can articulate roles and responsibilities so that everyone is held accountable for what is happening in the classroom. host: are they held accountable now? guest: for the most part they are. one of the ideas of school choice and having a free market system is that parents can make decisions. if their school is not doing well, parents can leave and go to another school. on paper, that is how it works.

but information is not easy to come by for all parents. all parents -- we have done -- we have parents who don't know how to read and how can you expect them to understand the state accountability system. ? louisiana has a highly rated data systems we just have to figure of how to make it work for our local district and for parents. host: dayton, ohio, independent line. caller: i would like to know whose property is in the ninth ward. they can keep their land even though they can't build a house for $100,000. can they keep their land and prosper from it? who does it belong to? host: our guest is here

primarily to talk about schools and education in new orleans? guest: i am not familiar with that. it depends on the circumstance. some land is owned by people and some is commercial property or public land. whatever the case is depends on what the answer will be. i don't think it is one thing or the other. host: the front page is focusing on the ninth ward and it is available online at nola.com. please continue. caller: you have kids uneducated and you don't have a system that is educating all american kids like it other countries. it seems like they are just taking money. i would like to see where the dollars go that goes into the school system. i would like to see the children benefit and not just others.

i would like to see the children educated. the money is not going to educate them. that is a shame. can you tell us why that is happening? host: worthy efforts prior to katrina to reform the schools, were there ever is to do so and what impact did katrina have been changing reform on new orleans schools? guest: we had a new superintendent every single gear and the effort could not gain traction. as soon as someone would start to implement a literacy program or some sort of whites kill program for reform, the following year we would have a new superintendent. when you have the tenure.

being so short, it is impossible to sustain any sort of effort. that is one of the really positive place since katrina is that we have had stable leadership at the state level, at the school district level, and that many of the schools. we have the same school leader in place and that makes an impact when you are able to sustain those efforts instead of every 12 months or less everything is changing. no one ever knows what the goals are very never have time to get anything done. host: shannon johnson is part of the advisory board for the citizens of one greater new orleans. dan is joining us from franklin, new york. good morning. caller: good morning. god bless new orleans. many excellent points have been made. i have been a teacher for 35

years. suny-binghamton middle school counselors. the last 25 years i have for the juveniles that have been 7.rested, age 12-17 barre the first thing i heard was you talking about post-traumatic stress said drum. syndrome. you have the broken kids from katrina and you have these young children going to school or bird in the with all these other issues -- were burdened by all these other issues that distract them from education. to try to crystallize what is going on, it has to start with the home. somehow we have to bring america back to the family structure. somehow, we have to have a husband and wife to make that commitment, that great

marriage, and then one year later or five years later or 10 years later, they have gone their own separate ways. i teach this to my students but i have two amendments -- don't hurt my wife, don't hurt my children. protect my wife, protect my children. as a teacher, i have two commandments. don't hurt my students and don't hurt my colleagues. that is about all i can handle. how'd you bring back the family structure when you have the divorce rate at 60% or mor. ? e? those kids coming into the school are traumatized, distracted, scared, they are angry, they're gone is loaded with anger.

they don't know what is going on. somehow the school becomes a sanctuary for eight hours, if done right. host: 94 the call. shannon jones. guest: i agree it is an issue. i think that katrina made the situation worse for many kids, obviously. one of the great things that i am seeing and hearing in this city is that we have an extended school day and some kids have extended school years. kids are spending more time at school. that means you need more resources to sustain that. when you're at school you are not on the street and getting into trouble. we have kids who are staying after school and have longer hours in the classroom, but also for athletics and our programs and music programs. i think that is one piece of the puzzle.

i don't obviously think that will solve all the problems that were just mentioned by the collar. when kids are not on the street and have a sense of themselves and can figure out goals on their own, i think it definitely makes a difference. host: jim is joining us from new orleans, good morning. guest: the one insoluble problem we have in new orleans is the class structure. we have two parallel education systems, the public and private school systems and the upper and middle class generally abandon the public schools. my own children attended an elite public french language school in up to new orleans. and then they switched to the up county private school and my kids went off to the sorbonne in paris. this is probably 5% or 10% of the people but these are the people who generally won new

orleans. this is not a race thing. it is a class structure. the kids in a private school are the children of black doctors and black lawyers. you can live a life in new orleans if you are in the upper class where your children get a in education second to none. my children have that. in the elite private school, the kids go off to harvard, and stamford. i don't know how we can do anything with the public school system. i have invested loads of my money in the private school system for my kids. we don't have any extra money to do anything about the public school system. this, i think, is the seat of the problem. my kids will never be in a class with students who cause trouble and are criminals. i just won't do it. i opted out of the system as have most of my friends who are in the upper-upper class. thank you. guest: i will start off by

saying it is important to note that kids in public schools are certainly not criminals. they are not all disrupted. that is a small segment of the population. what has come out of katrina is a significant number of kids who were disengage. every charter school has a charter school board. you have every type of person on the charter school board. you have parents, grandparents, neighbors, and the chair of the chamber of commerce in new orleans. you have people who otherwise were not engaged and most likely send their children or sent their children to private or parochial schools in the city who are involved in public education in a way that was not the case before katrina. it is not a small group.

this is a large body of people who have access to political capital and financial capital and they are using that to benefit public schools in the city. that would not have happened if it would not for hurricane katrina, in my opinion. host: our focus this morning is five years after hurricane katrina. the flooding resulted in the greater new orleans area. we are focusing on the economy and rebuilding the school districts in that city. mark is joining us from alexandria, va., good morning. guest: thank you for taking my call. i have an opinion and i want to get your reaction. i don't think anyone has talked about this before. 12 years ago, some architects, but these designs for above- ground structures which are durable and have superior aerodynamics' which are designed in a way that they are virtually stormproof. i want to know what you thought, as you rebuild the school

district and other public structures, draw from these stormproof designed so they would be able to withstand a storm similar to katrina. we had public bomb shelters during the cold war. perhaps, without public storm shelters said they did not have to have back to it if there were forced to do so. guest: based on what you said, it makes sense to develop or build structures that can keep people safe and dry. other than that, know nothing about that. all ideas are welcome in this city which is one of the great things now an education and elsewhere is that people from around the country have been able to come and say what they are thinking and here is what has been done in the past. i don't think the community or the city was as receptive to those ideas before katrina as they were now. host: as awful as it was,

hurricane katrina was an opportunity? guest: it absolutely is. people died and lost homes and lost every single thing they had. but the way the city is rebuilding, we are rebuilding smarter. we have more involvement in schools that we did not have before. you are seeing it in other sectors. you see it in health care, as well and in some areas we have had more progress than others. host: liz has last word on the democrat line from plano, texas, good morning. guest: good morning and thank you for taking my call. i am an educator as well and we had some students filter through our school district up here that have come from katrina. i have noticed almost a language barrier there. i am a teacher of many different subjects. i have noticed that the

gentleman who called earlier had this belief french school thing going for it -- elite french school thing going. is there a need for english as a second language almost there? is there a plan for these kids to know specifically what to do when there is a storm? where they are taught from early grades to upper grades? is there a parent education program? is there anything going on along those lines to help restore the faith in the public schools and the faith in the kids. the kids'' faith in their public officials? i should not ramble on. if you could enter to those a little bit, please? guest: one of the things that

makes new orleans you make is that we do have our and language. the result is that we need to have a widespread esl program for students. we have a growing number of hispanic community in new orleans where before it was smaller than it is now. there are programs for those students. as far as the culture goes, one of the pegs we have done in new orleans and has always done is make sure that our culture is a part of the curriculum in school. you see that in everything from food to music, art, architecture and that has continued and grown since the storm. host: shannon jones is joining us from new orleans phrygia's with an institute that is focusing on public education and the greater -- in the greater

louisiana area. thank you for sharing us your perspective. guest: thank you. host: a look at some articles from the area. five years after the storm left much of the city under water, nor lanes has climbed back to 80% of its pre-storm population. the hurricane flood and new orleans but lasted -- left its mark and used in as many fled new orleans and traveled to houston. some are still there today. a focus on the lower in ward and a preview of the president's speech that will happen later today at 3:00 eastern time, just past noon for those of you on the west coast, live on c-span. we will focus more on how the communities are rebuilding as "washington journal" continues.

it is sunday morning, august 29. we are back in a moment. >> yesterday i signed a declaration for the state of louisiana. this morning, i signed a disaster declaration for the state of mississippi. >> as the gulf coast marks the fifth anniversary of hurricane katrina, look back at how the federal government responded to the crisis on spent at the cspan video library. every program since 1987. this is washington your way. >> monday starts science and technology week on book-tv prime time. digitally save all your experiences? we will talk about the rapid advancements in technology. stephen baker will talk about computer scientists who want to

manipulate our behavior. book-tv on primetime on c-span 2. >> we have a generation coming up that do not have the arts as children and did not have the arts and the public schools. these are down of the 20-year- old split i am concerned about that for the people because it is not clear that when they get to 50 that they will come to the arts. >> michael kaiser heads the kennedy center for the arts and he will talk about struggling arts organizations and the struggle for arts in the u.s. on " continues.a. host: our focus is on hurricane katrina this morning. you can watch the entire program which differs perspectives on the economy and school and in just a moment, how communities have changed and rebuild deprecate katrina. this past week at anewseum a

form looking at media coverage and how the media covered one of the biggest natural disasters in our country's history. here is more from that panel discussion this past thursday. >> we had two reporters who had bicycles and looked down from the railroad bridge that was a quiet residential street is now a river that is rushing past them under this bridge toward downtown orleans. in that flash of a moment, they realized that we are doomed. the water has broken through the flood walls and the ocean is

rushing into the city. host: "the washinton post" says this morning that needs to be done. the city was understandably appalled at the government's reaction to the crisis. people were stranded on rooftops. this was a symbol of a failure of our government here and abroad. if katrina was the symbol of government ineptitude five years ago, today government at all levels, community organizations and residents are making a difference. we have a professor at the university of new orleans. thank you for being with us. guest: thank you for having me. host: let me begin with the demographics of bordelaise. how has it changed among the ethnic populations in your city? guest: it has been pretty astounding demographically. if you think back to the 1990's, new orleans had the lowest

percentage of latinos for any major urban area in the country. even prior to katrina, we're talking about a latino population specifically about 3%-4% and bust of those were longstanding populations. there were hondurans that had been here for three or four generations. there were dominicans and cubans but new orleans had largely missed out on what we think of as a latino bow. that is the influx of relatively large numbers of mexicans and central americans particularly into the u.s. south end of the 1980's and 1990's. in 2004, according to the census, new orleans was home to about 2000 mexicans. that is astoundingly low. a city the size of nashville that would not have very many latinos in 1990 but in 2004 has

about 80,000. even towns the size of 20,000 people tend to have more mexicans in 2004 than the city the size of new orleans. we missed out on that latino both prior to that. today, about 10% of our population is of latin american descent. that is a city that has been hemorrhaging population. we have lost about 25% of the population and we have seen a growth in the latin american population. i think it has more than doubled since katrina so it has been significant democratically. -- demographically host: you can see a small reduction in the african-american population and is holding steady at about 55% among the white population guest: right, that is one of the

things. if you remember the mayor made a statement about new orleans being a chocolate city. his concern was that new orleans was going to be overrun by mexicans. in some respects, that has not happened exactly. in relative terms, we have to or african-americans and we have more white americans and in relative and absolute terms, we have more latin americans. what his statement did is it took us away from an explanation and understanding of why that happened. host: the super dome has become something of a symbol. we saw the story initially where people were coming in there and fleeing their homes and trying for safety. this is what it looks like today. five years after hurricane katrina, what does the superdome

represent to you and the people of the city? guest: it was certainly a place where people went for refuge. more than that, it is the heart of the city spread it is seen as a central part of the revitalization. above all, it represents the new orleans saints which has been central in their super bowl run this past year to kind of energize the city and rebuild this city. not to make too much of it, it is just football, it is central to the energy of the city in the past year-and-a-half-two years. host: what else has changed? what is better and what is worse from the past five years? guest: certainly the influx of latinos has been dramatic. as well, we certainly see efforts in school reform.

i also feel there is a missed opportunity in the sense that we had an administration in the immediate aftermath of katrina in the form of a nagin administration that had an approach to let the free market take care of things and work its magic. the difficulty with that approach i think is that in the simple sense, the free market does not necessarily rebuild schools in places like the lower ninth ward or bring back hospitals in certain areas or grocery stores or businesses. if there was ever a moment where we needed a strong state presence, it was in the aftermath of katrina. i think we missed out on that opportunity. previewing the president's speech, he will touch on the economy and the rebuilding of new orleans.

we will have live here on c-span that this is what president obama said one year ago. >> now, even with all the action we have taken and all the progress we have made, we know how much work is left to be done. whether you're driving through an orleans, a biloxi, or the southern part of louisiana, it is clear how far we have to go before we can call this recovery a success. there are sewers and roads still to repair. there are houses and hospitals still vacant. there are schools and never is waiting to thrive once more. i promise you this, whether it is becoming down here for my cabinet or other members of my administration, we will not forget about new orleans. we will keep working [applause] we will not forget about the gulf coast. together we will be built -- we will rebuild this region and we will rebuild the better than before. host: based on that, what are the priorities of new orleans? what do you need next? guest: we continue to need a

major rebuilding effort along the lines of housing. that is the number-one issue. in the aftermath of katrina, it was difficult for african americans to return to the city in a number of respects in the sense that in some cases we certainly blocked off their housing and actually made it impossible for them to return, but we also have a city where we have seen the skyrocketing cost of living particularly in the area of the doubling and tripling of rents and housing is a major area. there has been significant reforms in the school system. there is a long way to go in that area, as well. we have skyrocketed levels of crime that have been a problem. more than anything, it reflects the desperation of a sector of the population that does not see a whole lot of hope and remains poor and marginalized.

there are many challenges that remain in the city. host: our guest is a professor at the university of new orleans. and he now asks how many residents returned and how many are new residence? guest: we have lost maybe 20%- 25%. new residents are harder to calculate. most of the latino population or at least a significant percentage of them is relatively new. that percentage of the total population has gone up from under 5% to around 10%. there have been significant increases of latinos while we have been losing a portion of our african-american population host: some of the area of rebuilding includes some of the newer homes in new orleans. caller: my question is based on

the house and. it is more so in the ninth ward area. i know the president will be there to that. i am concerned whether he will help rebuild neighborhoods as well. [unintelligible] guest: if the past is an indication, he will make a stop at the ninth ward. that would be my guess but i am not sure what his schedule is. host: he will also be interviewed on nbc that will take place at 3:00 p.m. eastern time. joe is joining us from new orleans. we have a video from the ninth ward, this is what it looked like five years ago. caller: good morning, i was listening before when you were talking about new orleans and you were talking about houses. your callers are misinformed.

the lower ninth ward was a residential area and 98% of those people down there were homeowners. when the people returned, their rent skyrocketed. people who should have been able to rent could not run because they did not on the rental property. because of the rental properties went through the roof because they were folks who live in outlying parishes and or the recipient of all that money coming in. there was no rent control because it did not have anything to do with people who actually live in these hard-pressed area. it was the folks who had abandoned new orleans. that is one of the reasons why they could not make any headway the politicians knew that the money was going in one direction only. guest: i am essentially in

agreement with the caller. one of the failures in the post- katrina period, there was a focus of home ownership and getting people back into homes and we did not debate could great job in that area. one of the major failures was helping people get back into the city and deal with iran's that were literally going through the roof. how'd you get the largely african-american population that evacuate and have the they afford to come back to the city and live there when the cost of living is going through the roof? i think we felt our city in that respect. i certainly agree with what the caller was saying. host: 1 impact as the bp oil spill had on louisiana long term? guest: everybody is waiting and it is a little unclear. our economy revolves around certainly the port which is a major source of revenue and jobs

for the city. tourism is part of that. many people in new orleans are concerned about the impact of the bp oil spill. it affects everything from seafood to the hotel and restaurant industry which is the core of the economy. i think it is really unclear now and we are hopeful and encourage people to come down to new orleans. host: we have a line set aside for those who live in the gulf coast region. we also divide our lines among democrats, republicans, and independence and it could join the conversation on twitter o3 . am originally from jefferson parish in the shrewsbury area.

i am not latina i happened to marry a man from puerto rico. i went to booker t. washington high school. steven is being just ingenuous when he talked about ray nagin and his comments about a job that city. his reference was the fact that the planning commissioner, whoever they were, were planning to make large areas that were originally black or residential areas such as part of pontchartrain park, make them green areas and there was a feeling that those who had the wherewithal were planning to push the african americans out of the city and that is where

reagan was coming from -- where re-was coming from. as far as those in jefferson parish, i know a number of those people were getting quite a bit of money from state road home program. i wonder as i travelled through the orlin is visiting some of my friends in the city, what was happening with those people who had those homes and could not come back? host: when did you leave new orleans? i graduated in 1957 and my parents lived in new york. when i went away to college, i made new york my residence. my mother still lives there. she is 93 years old. i have two sisters who live there. one of my sisters taught in the system.

guest: i think we are in more agreement. when i made reference to the ray nagin statement and the city would be overrun by mexicans, my problem with the statement had much to do with the fact that it drew more attention to re-than the issues. --ray nagin than the issues. average americans were concerned about a few things like they were not being allowed back in the city, they were being blocked from their homes, there were not given access to jobs in the rebuilding effort, they were not able to afford to come back to the city because of the skyrocketing costs. there was a series of things that were quite serious and that african-americans had every reason to be angry about. the unfortunate nature of the commons was that it focuses on ray nagin and less on why that

was apparent host: the president is coming down to more lanes and speaking at a xavier university. why did the white house make a decision to speak there? guest: xavier university is a major university within the city. it is a starkly black university at that had something to do with it. it is located in the heart of the city in an area that experienced some flooding and has been crucial to the rebuilding of new orleans. i think it is a great place for him to locate a speech. host: we will have that this afternoon at 3:10 eastern time. alabama, good morning. caller: part of the real tragedy was my uncle was in charge of the levees and he got the keys to the city during hurricane betsy. the tragedy was that if a

category 3 hurricane hits the city, the city is gone. they had from 1960 until hurricane katrina to fix levees and knowing what would happen when it hit at high tide. i turned the tv off and i did not look at the newspaper. i knew what would happen. guest: as a comment, i think there were lots of folks that were putting out similar warnings about the potential of the impact of a hurricane and making those kind of warnings for literally decades. in that respect, many people in new orleans consider katrina to be as much a man-made disaster as a natural disaster i certainly agree with that sentiment. host: the other sentiment we have been getting from many viewers and many online is the sense that there was a lot of waste especially in terms of government assistance following

katrina and fraud in new orleans. can you respond to that? guest: that waite was crucial particularly for marginalized and poor folks in the city that needed the money and the resources fairly quickly to get back into the city. it made it very difficult for them to return at all they needed resources in terms of getting schools up and running and coming back to communities. without schools at a place to put your children, that was a real issue in terms of basic resources in the aftermath of the chin and the failure of the government on a number of levels to make good on those kinds of needs and promises. host: where federal dollars waste or abuse? guest: i think it is important to remember in the aftermath of a veteran of that there was a crisis mentality.

they wanted to build a canal and think letter. when you have that context, you have money that is wasted. in some respects, there was a series of messages sent to contractors and employers. the davis-bacon act was passed that you don't have to pay workers prevailing wages. there were telling employers that it is ok to hire undocumented workers. in the crisis context, i think there was federal money wasted and a considerable amount of that -- there was profit to be made of large contractors. you lose the efficiencies aside from out right cases of fraud host: with the increase in the hispanic population, has there been a racial divide between african-americans, whites, and hispanics or a more noticeable

racial divide that in the past? guest: in the aftermath of katrina, it was almost inevitable you would have tensions between african- americans and latinos in the sense that way petted them together. it was the idea -- the real sort of problems that ever parents had in terms of being locked out of houses and the rents and many things we mentioned is that they were actively and excluded at the same time you have a latino population that is being included but not being included as citizens or full members of the to -- of the economy but be included as a part of a labour force which is welcome as long as they will work for low wages under difficult working conditions, unsafe working conditions, under poorhouses a grid you have an exploding population on one hand and one

is included as a disposable labor force. that is a recipe for conflict. african americans were angry at some of that anchoanger was directed at lead to desperate people have now realized that they share more problems and a source of the problems is not each other. it makes more sense to form alliances between the two rooms that it does to harbor resentment and anger. i think that is the direction where we are going at present host: our focus is rebuilding after hurricane katrina and the impact it has had on neighborhoods in louisiana fell particularly new orleans. we have a professor from new orleans as our guest. caller: i have heard a lot of blending of the government, particularly the bush government about how the desk -- about the disaster in louisiana.

you must include both the city government of new orleans and a state government of louisiana as being part of the problem. governorblanko did not allow the federal people to come in right away because the state government rules in those cases. they don't have to let the federal government come in. in a natural disaster of this type are the federal government was delayed by the governor. down in new orleans, there were many buses available that were not utilized. that is part of the administration maderay nagin. they could have done many people out that they fail. hurricane rita hit later and that had the city

of lake charles but there was more of a bootstraps' operation. the people were willing to take responsibility for themselves and go to work and they had a much more effective recovery from hurricane rita then new orleans had from hurricane katrina. guest: i would agree with the caller in the sense that there is plenty of blame to go around , certainly at various government levels. local governments let down the city of new orleans during kitchen and in the aftermath of the cleanup and rebuilding effort. host: about $145 billion in assistant to new orleans and a greater gulf coast region as a result of the hurricane to rebuild and fortified the levees and rebuild communities.

johnny is joining us from new orleans, good morning. please go ahead. caller: you doing okay? guest: i am a keg. host: thank the lord for bobby jindal. he is a good man. these are hard-working people and i don't know why they did that get along. the only reason obama is coming down here is to join his little black the bones -- host: let me ask you about the unemployment rate with african- americans as opposed to the rest of the population guest:. this is hitting african- americans more than any other group.

we're not creating the kinds of jobs that allow one to live a decent life. that is an enduring problem before and after katrina. we have jobs that are heavily dependent on the service sector. often they will come with a kind of wages and benefits that people made. this is a decade-long problem in new orleans but it's that community particularly hard. host: we want to apologize for any derogatory comments. this is an open forum and we want an open and fair and direct dialogue but when you cross the line using ethnic slurs or derogatory terms, we will cut you off and we ask that you refrain from doing so on this network. there is no place for that. iranda is joining us from california caller: i feel like crying after the last person.

this is what america has come to. all of this hate and derision. oh, my god. say it isin to s unfortunate that when you think about what this person mr. stevens, we thank you for being there, when you say they have locked out african-americans from coming back into their own city but yet the government has allowed immigrants to come in who don't even have money to purchase rentals but yet they can rent their and live there? there is certainly a trend to make that city a city where blacks no longer -- with all the food and the music and everything that new orleans stands for, i have never been there. i hope to go there.

i am african-american. to wipe all of that tradition and history out and bring in immigrants? this country is in a situation where we don't have jobs and african-americans cannot get jobs to rebuild their on city? they have to bring in immigrants to build their own city? that is sad. and then to hear the caller is really, really sad. this is america a host: thank you for the call and the comment. guest: i don't think i have anything to add to that. i agree with that columbarium -- i agree with the caller. i am a little more optimistic than that. this is not the end of new orleans. people have come back in large numbers. there are certainly problems that affected the return of african-americans. i also think the latin americans that came here certainly did not work on the the best conditions

and often paid poorly and not paid what they're promised and in some cases not ppaid at all. there were some that lived in part during the cleanup. these are folks that have earned the right to stay in new orleans. they were central to the clinic and that is not to take away anything from an the other folks who participated in the cleanup. they came not only for jobs but they can to help out the city and they certainly haven't they have been central to the rebuilding effort. by alan sense is that there is room in orlin is considering we are dow 20 down 20 -- down 20% in population current. host: wynton marsalis has a piece in the news. this is from ""the wall street journal."

the matter is starting the politically sensitive process of knocking down the empty and ravaged homes that marked the said wa ninthrd whose population is only 80% of the pre-katrina size. he hopes to remote 1/3 of the 55,000 abandoned structures by the end of his first term in 2014. what impact does that have on new orleans? guest: anyone who drives down to the ninthward or lives there knows this is a problem. darren is to be a concerted effort on the part of the government. the idea that you leave these things up to the free market is a problem because it has not worked. you have st. abandoned houses in w the ninthard. it is more than just knocking them down and getting rid of blight. you also need to have a plan for rebuilding the neighborhood.

and the ward and a plan that is not just not sit down and make it more attractive for real estate developers. they need a plan that would make it more affordable for the people to come back and rebuild the area o. they are thinking about that but it will take considerable resources. we certainly don't have those kind of resources here in new orleans. we will need help from the state and federal government and private capital, as well. host: good morning to you from carmel, indiana, \ caller: thank you for the wonderful program this morning. i would ask your guest -- this was asked to a previous caller that perhaps was not in the economic field like you are. the question is -- who owns landham a la or ninth ward --

who owns the land in the ninthward. i was in new orleans for one day and it was a wonderful visit and i wish it well. there are realistic people up here that might want to come out and buy some land in the los ninth ward and build some homes and so forth. who owns the land? i presume it was not owner- occupied properties. if the other people want to wait for the government, there may be other people who have the money themselves to build houses and moved down there or helped other people moved in barracks who owns the land? host: courtesy of ""the washington post." guest: homeowners: the lan.

-- homeowners owned the land. there were stable homes that were spawned by the people who live there. -- that were owned by the people who lived there. i think we need to find better ways to get people who are still in the city but perhaps are not able to rebuild their homes and may want to come back. they should rebuild the city with many of the folks who were there. the idea that many people will come from new orleans and buy up cheap real estate, that is probably not the way we want to go and that is not realistic for w or ninthard. host: that is what the newspaper is focusing on this morning.

the national spotlight shines on the lure w ninthard. we're joined from biloxi, mississippi, good morning. caller: good morning, i have a comment. i hear people talking about new orleans and i understand they were hit hard by katrina but also there were other gulf coast residents that or had just as hard if not harder by katrina. everybody acts like white or black and racism does not exist in new orleans. all that sounds good but the fact is, america is just as racist as it was and always has been. host: we got the essence of your point which is racism in america. guest: it certainly exists. new orleans is a case study in many ways.

i agree with the caller that your eyes was not the only place that was devastated. i am from new orleans and each of the university. i certainly recognize there are problems elsewhere both caused by and beyond hurricane katrina host:. tammy, from south dillon, texas. caller: good morning. i was calling because i remember seeing briefs and areas featured on tv and there was a lot of devastation caused to that area. there was a a lot of catastrophic events that took place. i had a friend who live there who was a bishop and she was african-american and was teaching in the public school system and her life was totally

disrupted. she had to move to south carolina. i met people when i lived in charlotte, n.c. that were from new orleans. their lives were totally disrupted. they had nothing to go back to at that time. this was back between 2005-2008 that i had the pleasure of meeting people from new orleans that were living there in charlotte. when something like this happens, you don't have any control over the hurricane itself because god that drove that kind of thing. it happened and people's lives had to be put back together because they lost everything. it takes time to put a community and a city back together. i was looking at the lower in ninthward and there are grants, block grants that people can go down to the city and apply for to try to rebuild community development. guest: i agree with the

sentiments of the college. certainly, katrina was a natural disaster. the effects felt in new orleans were created by man and a sense of a poor levee system and other things. the response is exclusively done by people. that is where folks have been let down. in terms of the grants, it is a complicated question. in some respects, there has been money there but has not been enough and has not come quickly enough and it has not recognized the realities in which people are living and the difficulties they face when they are attempting to rebuild their homes when they are paying exorbitant rents and cannot find jobs or schools to put their kids in. these are problems that are these are problems that are still with