i don't know about sectors but certainly the whole area of subsidies seems to be a high priority on both sides. there was a political imperative to do something about subsidies because it is draining the fiscal balance enormously. and obviously there is an economic benefit. iran may be more so than others, did an amazing reform of subsidies seven years ago. this is one where they replaced fuel subsidies with cash transfers, with a particular twist which was keeping in mind. i keep telling other countries to do it. they provided the cash transfers ahead of the reform and a waiver where people can

see the money in the bank account but they could not spend it until the reform was done. this shifted the political balance because all of a sudden people said they were supporting the subsidy reform because now they could use the cash transfers with incredible opportunity. for various other reasons it did not work out so well now the subsidies are back. i think having done it once there is a chance they might able to do it again. dudash: on the point of if it will be politically easier, it will be politically easier where the economic case is compelling.

it can be in subsidies, but it is especially compelling in the whole energy sector where there will be -- they will be desperate to attract foreign investment. the kind of oil regime that they have and they are moving in the direction desired by international oil companies. in general they will be looking for foreign investment because there are many good reasons to get foreign investment. particularly foreign investment which is a generation of employment and a transfer of technology and funding, access to funds. this should be a relatively easy play in many sectors except in those where the cronies are most prominent and most sensitive. i would expect trade liberalization by definition in the manufacturing and trade will

-- tradeable sectors to be a particularly tough not to crack because -- tough nut to crack because of you have when you have an industry that from a protected and state-run enterprises play a big role, that is very tough to open up quickly. i go back to the wto into the negotiations. i'm not sure fully i know enough to answer your question. i started from the assumption that sections are lifted. i am sure -- i'm not even familiar with all the details but i'm sure this will take time. there are a number of hoops to go through including in the next month. once the sanctions are lifted, which is the intention of the deal, and this may take a year or two or three for to come to completion, then i would argue

that you are dealing with a different iranian economy. an iranian economy that can be part of the world system. the sanctions, honestly, i was very surprised and look at the numbers. how devastating the effect of sanctions has been. it is really enormous. i stress that i remain of the opinion that this is an economic regime change potentially for iran. sadjadpour: one point which is the ayatollah maney says economics is for donkeys. his successor has not said that but he has never but the country's economic interests as a first or second tier priority. some of the things that economy -- economists talk about witches

are no-brainers from a purely economic perspective are not obvious from the perspective of an authoritarian ideological regime. you mentioned telecom. if you're an authoritarian ideological regime, you do know don't what to cede control of the telecom industry to know kia or not -- nokie or not -- noki for an outside companya. likewise, the difference between iran and some of the other countries in the region is that i would argue this regime is actually -- has actually fear the growth of the private sector in the country. they will not see political control to their adversaries. that is why trying to open iran up economically is helpful to those forces that would to see changed.

but i think we are naive if think the hardliners will of -- was if we open up the doors and potentially we can their hold -- weake their holdn. there was a woman in the front. >> shanta, on the gravity model results china was not in their. -- there. an implication of the time had cut trading with iran. >> thank you. and there was a lady here. >> from a commercial perspective, once implementation passes, there will be a whole

lot of trade i can go on for non-american companies versus american companies. to five years,ee how do you see the agreement affecting u.s. companies overall? i know that's a pretty big question but i just wondered if you could opine on that. since we will be at a disadvantage initially. >> this is one of my worries, not just because of the mechanics of the deal, but because of the animosity. not to put it subtly. because of the animosity, particularly towards the united states and the distrust. on the other hand, the united states has a lot of assets in its corporate sector. that is why it is the richest country in the world.

it has a lot of technology, a lot of stuff that iran needs. it also has companies with in aous financial clout number of other sectors. i think the united states is at a disadvantage. it has been at a disadvantage and is that one right now. a lot of other countries have. the united states has enormous -- if and if we can get we can move forward on normalization, then over time, the united states can be a significant winner. >> i do think though that as long as iran's position towards in itsremains the same support for groups against

israel, congress is very unlikely to lift sanctions against iran and the situation will go back to how things were before 2005. the question was posed in the best of circumstances. u.s. does still have some niche is it can exploit -- niches it can exploit because there are some technologies that only the u.s. produces and are needed in tehran. it seems like the french and germans are already in tehran as we speak. they are beginning their deals.

i think maybe the u.s. might be too late to the party on that one. there are still plenty of things the u.s. produces that nobody else produces. at this very high-tech level, it still needed in iran. i like this question. --fellow chief economist exactly the point. you can make the real appreciation however transmits .tself work for you that is how successful countries have done it. that's what i was saying about trying to use the windfall in such a way so that the nontradable sector can continue to grow. ask thank you all -- >> thank you all for coming. we hope to have you back soon. >> inc. you very much. [applause] thank you very much.

>> short and sweet. >> washington journal marks the 10th anniversary of hurricane katrina tomorrow with former new orleans mayor mark morreale, the editor of the new orleans times to dealing, and karen durham aguilera. archival footage of the hurricane and its aftermath from 10 years ago. plus, your phone calls. washington journal live each morning at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. today, president obama marked the 10th anniversary of hurricane katrina by visiting new orleans where he spoke at a local community center. this is 45 minutes. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute,

which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] ♪ [applause] pres. obama: everybody have a seat. hello, everybody. where you at? it's good to be back in the big easy. [applause] and this is the weather in august all the time, right? [laughter] as soon as i land in new orleans, the first thing i do is get hungry. [laughter] when i was here with the family a few years ago, i had some food at the parkway bakery.

i still remember it, that's how good it was. one day after i leave office, maybe i will finally hear a rebirth of the maple leaf on tuesday night. [laughter] i will get a chance to see the mardi gras, and somebody can tell me what carnival is for. but right now i just go to meetings. i want to thank michelle for the introduction, and more importantly for the great work she is doing, what she symbolizes, what she represents in terms of bouncing back. i want to acknowledge a great friend and someone who has worked tirelessly on behalf of the city. he is following a family legacy of service. your mayor, mitch landrieu. [applause] his beautiful wife.

senator bill cassidy is here. congressman cedric richmond. [applause] we have a lifelong champion of louisiana, mary landrieu in the house. [applause] i want to acknowledge a great supporter to the efforts to recover and rebuild, congressman hakeem jeffries of new york. to all the elected officials from louisiana and mississippi who are here today, thank you so much for your reception. i am here to talk about a specific recovery.

but before i begin to talk just about new orleans, i want to talk about america for just a minute. take a moment of presidential privilege to talk about what has been happening in our economy. this morning we learned our economy grew at a stronger and more robust clip back in the spring than anybody knew at the time. the data always lags. we knew that over the past five and a half years, our businesses have created 13 million new jobs. [applause] these new numbers that came out, showing how the economy was growing at a 3.7% clip means that the u.s. remains an anchor of global strength and stability in the world.

that we have recovered faster, more steadily, stronger, then just about any economy -- than just about any economy since the worst financial crisis since the great depression. it's important for us to remember that strength. i spent a few weeks around the world. there has been a lot of reported in the news about stock market swinging, worries about china and europe. the united states of america, for all the challenges that we still have, continue to have the best cards. we just have to play them right. our economy has been moving and continues to grow. unemployment continues to come down. our work is not yet done, but we

have to have that sense of steadiness and vision and purpose to sustain this recovery so that it does not reach only some. that is why we need to do everything we can in government to make sure our economy keeps growing. that requires congress to protect our momentum, not kill it. congress is about to come back from a six-week recess. the deadline to fund the government is, as always, the end of september. i want everybody to understand that congress has about a month to pass a budget that helps our economy grow. otherwise we risk shutting down the government and services we all count on for the second time in two years. that would not be responsible. it does not have to happen. congress needs to fund america in a way that is best for growth and security, and not cut us off at the knees by locking in

mindless austerity or shortsighted sequester cuts to our economy were military. i will veto a budget like that, and most americans will agree. we have to invest in, rather than cut military readiness, infrastructure, schools, public health, research and develop it that keeps our companies on the cutting edge. that is what great nations do. that is what great nations do. [applause] and eventually we're going to do it anyway, so let's just do it without another round of threats to shut down the government. let's not introduce partisan issues. nobody gets to hold the american economy hostage over their own ideological demands. you, the people that sent us to washington, expect better, am i correct? [applause]

my message to congress is, pass a budget, prevent a shutdown, don't wait till the last minute. don't worry our businesses workers by contributing unnecessarily to uncertainty. now, that's a process of national recovery that from coast to coast, we have been going through. there has been a specific process of recovery that is perhaps unique in my lifetime. right here in the state of louisiana, right here in new orleans. [applause]

not long ago, our gathering here in the lower nine would have seemed unlikely. as i was flying here today with a home girl from louisiana. she saved all the magazines, and she was whipping them out. one was a picture of the lower ninth right after the storms. the notion that there would be anything left seemed unimaginable at the time. today, this new community center stands as a symbol of the extraordinary resilience of this city. the extraordinary resilience of its people. the extraordinary resilience of the entire gulf coast and of the united states of america. you are an example of what is possible, when in the face of tragedy and hardship, good people come together. to lend a hand. brick by brick, block by block,

neighborhood by neighborhood, you build a better future. that, more than any other reason, is why i have come back here today. plus, mitch landrieu asked me to. [laughter] it has been 10 years since katrina hit. devastating communities in louisiana and mississippi across the gulf coast. in the days following landfall, more than 1800 of our fellow citizens, men, women, and children lost their lives. some of the folks in this room may have lost a loved one in that storm. thousands of people saw their homes destroyed. livelihoods wiped out. hopes and dreams shattered.

many scattered in an exodus to cities across the country. and too many still haven't returned. those who stayed and lived through that epic struggle still feel the trauma sometimes. a woman from a gentilly recently wrote me, a deep part of the whole story is the grief. there was grief then, and there is still some grief in our hearts. here in new orleans, a city that embodies a celebration of life suddenly seems devoid of life.

the place once defined by color and sound, the second line down the street, the backyards, the music always in the air, suddenly it was dark and silent. the world watched in horror. they saw those rising waters drown the iconic streets of new orleans. families stranded on rooftops. bodies in the streets. children crying, crowded in the superdome. an american city dark and underwater. this was something that was supposed to never happen here. maybe someplace else, but never here, never in america. what started out as a natural disaster became a man-made disaster. a failure of government to look out for its own citizens. and the storm laid bare a deeper tragedy that had been brewing for decades. we came to understand that new

orleans, like so many cities and communities across the country, had for too long been plagued by structural inequalities that left too many people, especially for people, especially people of color -- poor people, especially people of color without health care or decent housing. too many kids grew up with violent crime, cycling through substandard cools -- substandard schools, making it harder to break out of poverty. like a body weakened, already undernourished, when the storm hit, there was no resources to fall back on. shortly after the storm i visited with folks not here because we couldn't distract recovery efforts -- instead i

visited folks in a shelter in houston, many folks who had been displaced. one woman told me, we had nothing before the hurricane, and now we have less than nothing. we had nothing before the hurricane, now we have less than nothing. we acknowledge this loss and this pain. not to dwell on the past. not to wallow in grief. we do it to fortify our commitment and to bolster our hope. to understand what it is we have learned and how far we have come. because this is a city that slowly, unmistakably, together is moving forward.

the project of rebuilding wasn't just to restore the city as it had been, but to build it as it should be. a city, where no matter what how much money you have, where you come from, whether rich or poor, has a chance to make it. i am here to say that on that larger project, a better, stronger, more just new orleans. the progress you have made is remarkable. [applause] that's not to say things are perfect. mitch would be the first one to say that. we know that african-americans and folks in hard-hit parishes like st. bernard are less likely to feel like they've recovered.

certainly we know violence stifles the lives of so many youth in this city. as hard as rebuilding levees are, as hard as -- i agree with that. i will get to that. as hard as rebuilding levees is, as hard as rebuilding housing is, we need a lasting, structural change. that is even harder. it takes courage to experiment with new ideas and change the old ways of doing things. that is hard. getting it right and making sure that everybody is included. and that everybody has a fair shot at success.

that takes time. that is not unique to new orleans. we have those challenges all across the country. but i am here to say, here to hold up a mirror and say, because of you, the people of new orleans working together, this city is moving in the right direction. and i have never been more confident that together, we will get to where we need to go. you inspire me. [applause] your efforts inspire me. and no matter how hard it has been, and how long the road ahead might seem, you are working and building and striving for a better tomorrow. i see evidence of it all across this city. and by the way, along the way, the people of new orleans didn't just inspire me, you inspired all of america. folks have been watching what has happened here. and they have seen a reflection of the very best of the american spirit.

as president, i have been proud to be your partner. across the board, i made the recovery and rebuilding of the gulf coast a priority. i made promises when i was a senator that i would help. and i've kept those promises. [applause]

president obama: together, we delivered resources to help rebuild hospitals, roads, police and fire stations. we are building smarter. doing everything from elevating offices, retrofitting buildings, improving drainage, so that communities are better prepared for the next one. working together, we've transformed education in this city. before the storm, public schools were largely broken, leaving generations of kids without a decent education. we are seeing real gains in achievement with new schools, more resources to retain and develop great teachers and principals. we have data that shows before the storm, the high school

graduation rate was 54%. toy, it is 73%. [applause] president obama: before the storm, college enrollment was 37%. today, it is almost 60%. [applause] president obama: we still have a long way to go, but that is real progress. new orleans is coming back better and stronger. working together, we are providing housing assistance to more families, with new apartments and housing vouchers. we will keep working until everybody who wants to come home can come home. [applause] president obama: together, we are building a new orleans as entrepreneurial as any place in the country, with focus on expanding job opportunities and making sure for people benefit from a growing economy.

we are building jobs to expand training programs for industries like high-tech manufacturing, but also water management, because we've been building some good water management around here and we want to make sure everybody has access to those goods and jobs. small businesses like michelle's are growing. it is small businesses like hers that are helping fuel private sector growth in america. that is the longest streak in american history. [applause] president obama: together, we are doing more to make sure that everyone in this city has access to great health care. more folks have access to primary care at neighborhood clinics, so they can get the preventive care they need. we are building a brand-new medical center downtown alongside a thriving bioscience

corridor attracting new jobs and investment. we are working to make sure that we have additional mental health facilities across the city and across the country. more people have access to quality affordable health care, some of the more than 60 million americans who gained health insurance over the past few years. [applause] president obama: all this progress is the result of the commitment and drive of people of this region. i saw that spirit today. i started walking around a little bit. such a nice day out. we went to treme and saul returning residents living in brand-new homes, mixed income, new homes near schools, clinics,

parks, childcare centers, more opportunities for working families. we saw that spirit today at willie mays scott's house. after katrina had destroyed that restaurant, some of the best chefs in the country decided that america cannot afford to lose such a place. they came down here to help. they helped rebuild. i just sampled some of her fried chicken. it was really good. [laughter] president obama: although i did get a grease spot on my suit. but that's ok. if you come to new orleans and you don't have a grease spot somewhere -- [laughter] president obama: then you didn't enjoy the city. [applause] president obama: just glad i didn't get it on my tie. we all just heard that spirit of

new orleans and the remarkable young people from roots of music. [applause] president obama: when the storm washed away a lot of middle school music programs, roots of music help fill that gap. it is building the next generation of musical talent. the next trombone shorty, or the next dr. john. the wonderful men i met earlier, who are part of nola for life, which is focused on reducing the number of murders in the city of new orleans. [applause] president obama: there is a program that works the white house, my brother's keeper initiative, to make sure that all young people, particularly boys and young men of color who

so disproportionately are impacted by crime and violence. they have the opportunity to fill their full potential. in fact, after the storm, this city became a laboratory for urban innovation across the board. we have been tackling, with you, as a partner, all sorts of major challenges. fighting poverty, supporting homeless veterans. and as a result, new orleans has become a model for the nation as the first city, the first major city to end veteran's homelessness. [applause] president obama: which is a remarkable achievement. you are also becoming a model for the nation and it comes to disaster response and resilience. we learned lessons from katrina. the u.s. army corps of engineers developed stricter standards and more advanced techniques for

levees. in the louisiana, we built a $14 billion system of levees and pump stations and gates. a system that stood the test of hurricane isaac. we have revamped fema. i have to say, by the way, there's a man named craig fugate who runs fema and has been doing extraordinary work. his team of across the country have done extraordinary work. i love me some craig. [laughter] president obama: although it is a little disturbing, he gets excited when there are disasters. he gets restless if everything is quiet. but under his leadership, we revamped fema into a stronger and more efficient agency. in fact, the whole federal government has gotten smarter at preventing and recovering from disasters. and serving as a better partner to local and state governments. and as i'll talk about next week

when i visit alaska, making our communities more resilient is going to be increasingly important. because we are going to see more extreme weather events as a result of climate change. deadlier wildfires, stronger storms. that is why in addition to things like new and better levees, we have also been investing in restoring natural systems that are just as critical for storm protection. we have made a lot of progress over the past 10 years. you have made a lot of progress. that gives us hope. but it doesn't allow for complacency. it doesn't mean we can rest. our work here won't be done when almost 40% of children still live in poverty in this region.

that is not a finished job. that is not a full recovery. our work won't be done when a typical black household earns half the income as a typical white household. the work is not done yet. [applause] president obama: our work is not done when there are still too many people who have yet to find a good, affordable housing. and too many people, especially african-american men, who can't find a job. not when there are still too many people who have not been able to come back home. folks who, around the country every day, live the words sung by louis armstrong, "do you know what it means to miss new orleans?" but the thing is, the people of new orleans -- there is something in you guys that is irrepressible.

you have a way of making a way out of no way. you know that the sun comes out after every storm. you've got hope. especially your young people reflect hope. young people like victor carter. stand up, victor. i was just talking to victor. i had lunch with him. these are the fine young men i met with. [applause] president obama: stand up, everybody. these are the guys who i ate chicken with. [applause] president obama: really impressive. they have overcome more than their fair share of challenges. but are still focused on the future.

sit down. i don't want you to start getting embarrassed. [laughter] president obama: i'll just give you one example. victor grew up in the eighth ward. he loved math. he was 13 when katrina hit. he remembers waking up to what looked like some thing out of a disaster movie. he and his family waded across the city, telling his brother in a trashcan to keep afloat. they fled to texas. when they returned, the city was almost unrecognizable. victor saw those trying to cope. many of them still traumatized. he joined an organization called re-think, to help young people get more involved in rebuilding new orleans. recently, he finished a coding boot camp. today, he's studying to earn a high-tech job, wants to

introduce more young people to science and technology. so victor and these young men that i just met with, they've overcome extraordinary odds. they've lived through more than most of us will ever have to endure/ [applause] president obama: they've made some mistakes along the way. but for all that they've been through, they have been just as determined to improve their own lives, to take responsibility for themselves, but also to try to see if they can help others along the way. so when i talk to young men like them, that gives me hope. it is still hard. i told them they cannot get down on themselves.

tough stuff will happen along the way. but if they have come this far, they can keep on going, and americans like you -- [applause] president obama: the people of new orleans, young men like this, you are what recovery has been all about. you are why i am confident that we can recover from crises and start moving forward. you have helped this country recover from a crisis. you are the reason 13 million new jobs have been created, you are the reason that layoffs are near an all-time low, you are the reason the uninsured rate is at an all-time low and the high school graduation rate is an all-time high and the deficit has been cut, and nearly 180,000 troops serving in iraq and afghanistan have now gone down

to 15,000, and a clean energy revolution is helping to save this planet. you are the why people have the freedom to marry whoever they love from sea to shining sea. you know, i tell you -- [applause] president obama: we are moving into the next presidential cycle, in the next political season, and you will hear a lot of people telling you everything that is wrong with america. and that is ok. that is a proper part of our democracy. one of the things about america is we are never satisfied. we keep pushing forward. we keep asking questions. we keep challenging our government. we keep challenging our leaders. we keep looking for the next set of challenges to tackle.

we find what is wrong because we have confidence we can fix it. but it is important we remember what is right and what is good and what is hopeful about this country. it is worth remembering that for all the tragedy, for all the images of katrina in those first few days, those first few months, look at what has happened here. it is worth remembering that thousand of americans like michelle and victor and ms. mae and the folks who rallied around her. americans all across this country who, when they saw neighbors and friends or strangers in need, came out and people who today still spend their time every day helping us, rolling up their sleeves, doing the hard work of changing this

country, without the need for credit or the need for glory. do not get their name in the papers, do not see their day in the sun. they do it because it is right. these americans live the basic values that define this country, a value that we have been reminded of in these past 10 years as we come back from a crisis that changed the city and an economic crisis that spread throughout the nation, the basic notion that i am my brother's keeper and i am my sister's keeper and we are in this together. that is the story of new orleans, but also the story of america, a city that for almost 300 years has been the gateway to america's soul, where the jazz makes you cry, the funerals make you dance, the bayou makes you believe all kinds of things --

[laughter] president obama: a place that has brought together all kinds of people of races and religions and languages and everybody adds their culture and flavor into the city gumbo. you remind our nation that for all of our differences, we are in the same boat, we all share a similar destiny. if we stay focused on that, on that common purpose, and also responsibility and obligation to one another, we will not just rebuild this city, we will rebuild this country. we will make sure not just these young men, but every child in america has a structure and support and love and the kind of nurturing that they need to succeed. we will leave behind a city and a nation that is worthy of

generations to come. that is what you have got to start with. now we have got to finish the job. thank you. god bless you. god bless america. thank you. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

♪

>> the democratic national committee is holding its summer meeting in dallas. members will hear from bernie sanders and hillary clinton. live coverage starts at 11:00 a.m. eastern on c-span and on c-span radio and c-span.org. >> florence harding once said she had only one hobby, and that was warren harding. she was a significant force in her husband's presidency and adapt at handling the media. she would help define the role of the modern first lady. florence harding, this sunday night at 8:00 eastern on "first ladies: influence and image" examining the public and private lives of the women who filled the position of first lady, from

martha washington to michelle obama. sundays at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span 3. >> 10 years ago, hurricane katrina struck new orleans, causing over 1200 deaths and over $100 billion in property damage. "the atlantic magazine" hosted a conference on the long-term impact. fema director craig fugate discusses disaster preparedness and lessons learned from the federal response to hurricane katrina. >> good to be with you. i'm steve clemons, washington editor at large of "the atlantic." as we discussed these issues, we

have someone who heads the agency. craig fugate is a minister of fema, probably after katrina, the most maligned federal bureaucracy in history. it is very good to be with you today. if you look back at the press coverage of fema, its administrator during that time, and the issue, the first thing i did in terms of a historical look at this is what went so wrong, why did it go so wrong? >> i think there's a lot of people that focus on an individual. we've seen this pattern over and over again. the nation prepares for what we think can happen and when something worse happens, we are not ready for it. it goes back to hurricane andrew, hurricane hugo. there's this tendency that we plan for what we are capable of

doing, not what can happen, and then we hope things scale up. there was no real mystery what could happen in new orleans. we had a hurricane conference that year, talking about these risks. fema are dissipated in an exercise that simulated these things. the challenge was, if you cannot execute, you don't plan for what can happen. you had -- >> you had a discussion in april of that year that basically simulated what might happen. >> we looked at worse things. major hurricane coming up the river channel, overflowing the main levee system, and what that would look like. it was not that we didn't know new orleans was one of the more vulnerable areas, but if you look at the plans, they would plan for what happened in the past, what people thought was reasonable to plan for. mother nature is not reasonable.

what you had was, everybody thought, if it is worse than that, we will just scale up. it was also a very disjointed response. you had what i call, each level of government was like dominoes, having to fail before the next level kick in. there was too much delay. how domino action was triggered. as the triggering dominoes of a request came in, what came to your agency, why did it mobilize so late? >> it goes back to how we are structured. most disasters, strong -- small ones are handled by local governments every day. occasionally it will get to the level where the governor will request from the president that they need assistance, and fema acts upon the direction of the president. that, day to day works probably

for small floods and tornadoes. it does not work in large-scale disasters. the tendency was each level was planning, responding, and waiting for it to get to the next level. i am not saying fema was not doing things ahead of time, the way we had set up our structure was equal -- each local government has to make the request to get assistance. congress recognized this in the post-katrina reform act. why do we have to wait for them to ask for help to start moving? the thing you lose in disasters you never get back is time. it is not so much the lack of resources, it is the decisions being made to commit resources that you may have to make those quickly. you may not have formal request. if you wait until people know how bad it is, you lose time and you never get time back. unlike other hazards, we can see

hurricanes coming. what we have learned and done in this administration is we are not waiting for storms to get close or governors to make requests. we start planning, how bad can it the, and move resources there in time. the government may not ultimately need those resources, but time is the one aspect of response you never get back so you need to be planning for what could happen, not what you are planning to do, and move quickly not waiting for all the thought -- back. -- facts. the levees broke. at that point you need certain and rescue -- search and rescue. it is the understanding that you go by what could happen, not what you are prepared to do. when you see something developing, you plan upon the worst-case scenario. we are not in the business of hope. >> i just want to tell the audience i spent some time with

the administrator a little while ago and he is the most pleasant gloom and doom guy you could have at a dinner table. you have been in disaster preparedness and recovery all your life, thinking about these issues. i read in 2011 you oversaw 87 emergency responses. you were made famous for overseeing the four hurricanes in 2004. both president bush and pray bomb -- president obama wanted you to come in so you are seen as the disaster guy by just about everyone. what did you think was wrong with fema when you came in? what were the big things you set out to change in the way they respond? what is the difference today in the dna of fema under you than what we had under michael brown? >> think big, go big, go fast, the smart about it.

>> by implication, none of those were the case before? >> they were so afraid of making decisions for being wrong, having to have information. they want to look at how do we reduce cost. getting ready and responding to disasters is not cheap. there is always the budget consideration, as is going to cost a lot of money, do we really need it? what if we cut here, what if we cut their westmark -- cut there? we got more -- paralysis, or people were so fearful of the wrong they would wait until they had all the information to get to the right answer. you do not have time, you go with the best answer with the information. i went through this -- we used to wait until a disaster

happened and try to assess how bad it was before we would respond. that is why we used to say, the first 72 hours, it is going to take that long to know how bad it is. i was like, why are we waiting 72 hours? if it is a category three hurricane, why don't we assume it is bad? that is not how the system was set up. i was like, the system is insane, we are changing it. if you have a major hurricane about to make landfall you better be ready to respond when the wind dies low enough. speed is key. you have to have the resources based on the population at risk. this is not rocket science. you have got to risk, you have a population, you have impact. unlike an earthquake, we see it coming. it does not mean there will not be tragedy, damages, and it does not mean there will not be loss of life, but it should not be a mystery to wait for someone to do an assessment for we respond.

the lesson i learned in 2004, speed is key and the more time you wait, the less you will change the outcome. respond like it is bad. you can always go down and reduce. you do not get time back. the thing i hammered in fema over and over again, we never get time back. before the governor makes a formal request to the president, if it is a response we need to be moving. a lot of disasters are about helping financially recover, and since we do that most of the time, our systems tend to gravitate around that you we wait for the requests, and that is about financial reimbursement. it is about rebuilding after disaster. that model does not work in a response. if your system is built around what you do most of the time, that is what you will do when you have the katrina.

you have to build for what the mission is, being able to move quickly with little information based upon as best as you can with models and probability of impacts. >> one of the impressions that people have, and i can feel it just seeing the media coverage on the 10th anniversary of katrina, is a sense that the kind of resources you direct help out rich, white communities and leave behind those that are disadvantaged, those in other communities, that there is not a fair or effective distribution that covers the population. would you agree with that? >> yes. does anybody have any idea that maximum amount of fema assistance? it is about $32,000. you need to have uninsured losses.

you also have to fail means test in that the next level of the system says a low interest loan from the small business administration. if you do not qualify for the sba, you may be eligible for fema grants. fema grants were not designed to make people whole, although a lot of people come in afterwards and say fema is going to make everybody better. fema was designed to do the initial response and start the process. the mayor was talking about all of the dollars that have come to the city. that is not fema dollars. i know of no community that did not have a housing issue before the disaster that got better just because you had a hurricane or earthquake. we do not deal with the job situation, the unemployment the tuition in education -- the unemployment situation, and education. ours is like the initial

response to give somebody some help, give them a place to live, give them some initial assistance. carter has never built fema to make people whole. the poor get the most help from fema because they do not qualify for loans and do not have insurance. poverty is one of the single biggest factors of impact in disasters of not being able to recover. the other thing we had was a middle-class that were middle-class because of the homeownership. when they lost their homes they were no longer middle-class. if you got the wealth, you can weather disasters better than the poor. that is just a fact of life, because the way our programs are designed at fema, we do not exist to pre-existing conditions and we will not make people whole. we are designed to be a bridge. what are the things that

congress directed us to do under president obama we have looked at, if you only look at fema programs, communities will not recover because you have to look at the community's needs as a whole. fema has a small piece in that. what we have been asked to do is courtney among federal agencies. are we addressing the underlying issues? is there going to be affordable housing, jobs? people left is the schools were not coming back, there was no place to stay, it was not safe in many areas. if you want people back, have to have a place to live that you can afford. you have to have a job. you have to have a school system that you are willing to put your kids in. the mayor was talking about, these are the things you have to establish, but we as a federal government did not sit together with the blueprint to work with

the state and local governments on how to do that. we missed too many opportunities in that response. we are at 10 years and we are still working on resolving issues with the city on water and sewage. >> he said katrina is not a closed operation. >> it has still open up. >> back in the green room we were talking about how you thought fema had long made a mistake of competing with the private sector during responses. you have this wonderful, they call the waffle house index. give us a 45 second or one minute frame of the waffle house index. >> i drive back and forth between florida and new orleans, so you knew every intersection you were going past was a waffle house. if there was anything open at that interchange even when the power was out, it will be a

waffle house. we came up with this index that if the waffle house is open, it is not that bad. we were not waiting for the locals to tell us it was bad, we were just responding. we would start driving in these areas and if the waffle house was still open i would tell the search and rescue areas, keep going, it is not that bad if the waffle house is closed, it is pretty bad. we try to solve problems with what we call a government-centric approach to problems. we tended to look at the private sector, somebody we contract with, and get in competition with them. we would be putting out food, water, and supplies in areas where stores were trying to open. we found that perhaps a better way to was -- better way was to sit down with the private sector and let's go where you are not. is there any place in the city

that still is underserved by grocery stores? if i am planning on where to put out food and water, should i plan for those areas first? >> absolutely. >> instead of where the stores are. and then asked the stores, what do you need to open up? it was this idea in these really big disasters, there is not enough government. quit trying to solve problems with this government and look at the private sector as part of the team. if we work together, why are we competing with you and going where you can get open? we need to go where you are not you cannot get open. it goes from the big rocks stores, the drugstores, down to the local businesses, because

this is the other horror story that most people do not talk about, how many small businesses get wiped out and do not come back. they do not have the resiliency and cannot go small -- long. of time with interruptions -- long periods of time with interruptions. put people to work, use local businesses, because we tend to bring everybody from the outside. that may be necessary in the beginning but at some point, if stores are locally open, why aren't you buying their? why aren't you hiring local? and people are displaced while they are waiting for the schools to open or further jobs to come back, as income. you need to turn around and stop thinking about, we are a big federal government, we know

everything and we have all the resource. no. we were not doing it the day before the disaster. what made us think we were smart enough to do it the day after the disaster? basically it was emergency management 101 that was not a result of katrina but what we were teaching all the way back when i got into the business. >> if you had rolling into town and the region a disastrous hurricane on the scale of katrina, how do you think the contours of that book in terms of members and see response -- in terms of emergency response? >> i would hope we would not see loss of life, but the giving is we will lose people. people still have the damages. i think what you would see differently is less of the sense of, we do not know how bad it

is, we do not know what we are doing. it may legitimately be, there is just cannot -- just not enough stuff to get there fast enough. we only built systems design for our everyday business model. i think you would see a much different response. you will never be able to answer this question until you have another katrina-sized storm. our experience is, during sandy, irene, remember isaac? river parishes had no idea how bad they could get hit because they said, isaac is not as bad as katrina, we are fine, and they flooded. we saw this year in orleans parish they did well, and the levee helped. the search on link pontchartrain was actually worse on the river parishes. it was not an issue that fema was not here, we were here. the thing we try to

re-emphasized is you have to collapse the dominoes. the locals, states, and fence have to work together as one team. you have to base your scale upon impact to respond as if it is going to be bad, and hope it is not. >> you really remind me herman kahn thinking the unthinkable, the disaster guy in american history always thinking about nuclear holocaust. when you look into the arena of natural disasters, you said katrina was fully predictable, everything was on the table. how communities would be hit was on the table, and it is stupid to say we could not have been better prepared. as you look forward today, what of the top two or three horrible disasters out there when he to happen that you worry about? >> the cascadia subduction zone off the coast of oregon state

has been getting depressed lately, but we have been working in this since i have been in office. >> earthquake and tsunami? >> orleans has always been a dangerous area, but another area that most people do not think about is norfolk, virginia. that area is very vulnerable to storm surge and their population is a nightmare, to try to evacuate. miami, houston, even new york city. in most cases, we know where the hazards are and the vulnerabilities are. we plan to put our effort on catastrophic disaster planning, not what we do most of the time, but as a nation, what could happen, what is it going to take, and are we getting ready? >> i have a question.

there was an adage that you achieve what you measure. according to this person, fema spends considerable amounts of time focusing on process and measuring success against the deli to that -- the deli to that process. would fema consider measuring outcomes as impact, grand impact , how many families move, when, when they are coming back? do you need a different kind of measure to get more deeply into how fema is helping the community manage disasters? >> yes. the outcome recovery you need to measure, it is not touchy-feely and does not cover every measure but probably the single best indicator is your tax base. the local municipal tax base is probably your best indicator,

were you remotely successful in recovering. is your tax base going to be sustainable once the federal dollars rebuilding our unavailable to rebuild the community? did you get housing back did you get jobs back? did you get schools back? it is not a perfect measure, but if you want to drive a lot of the decisions that should've been happening early on, are we going to establish a sustainable tax base. you have a sustainable tax base to provide essential services and make sure you have done the basic fundamentals for future growth. safe and secure communities, affordable housing, intact and functioning infrastructure, good schools. these are all things you put on your brochures when you want to advertise and bring businesses to your community. it is just process, and i hate process. >> thank you for answering the

on the next >> program, -- >> in event to celebrate the recovery of the city and celebrate its resistance. here on c-span. >> this weekend on the c-span network, politics, books, and american history. hurricane katrina's 10th anniversary with the commemoration. speakers include president bill clinton and new orleans mayor mitch landrieu. and speeches from hillary clinton and bernie sanders at the summer meeting in minneapolis. book tv at 10:00 eastern, author

parole to -- peralta talks about his book "undocumented. it talks about his journey to the top of his class at3 princeton university. several programs about the storm and its aftermath featuring mississippi governor and an investigative reporter. former nasa astronaut discusses the history of space stations, comparing the development of russian and american grams since the early 1950's and looking at the future of international efforts. sunday at 4:00 p.m., appointment in tokyo is a 1945 signal corps film documenting the course of the war in the pacific through

the bataan death march and the surrender ceremony. did the complete schedule. >> on this part of the conference, brothers talk about their ties to new orleans as brothers and business owners. this is half an hour. >> before we break for lunch, we are going to do something unusual. before we break for lunch, want to get a glimpse into eight new orleans family, -- into a new orleans family that can trace its history back a couple hundred years. we want to get some sense of the extent that katrina was an inflection point in the life of this family. guysoing to introduce you

in terms of birth order to keep things simple. i will start with wayne, who has owned and operated numerous restaurants in new orleans for some time. currently the owner of little dizzies. to his right, the executive editor of the new york times. full disclosure -- my former boss. tonight immediate right is terry, the editor of the print edition of the new york times. as much as possible, we are going to hear them talking. wayne, i would love to start with you. story to start with the how your family got into the restaurant business in the first place. my understanding is that europe -- my understanding is that your parents took a big risk.

they invested all the money in the first restaurant. what gives him the confidence to do that? wayne: for the love of the restaurant business. in first restaurant was 1947, called the chicken coop. during the day, he was a mail carrier, and at night, he ran a restaurant. it got to a point when he just wanted to have his own restaurant. he took a chance. he sold our house. placee did, he bought a called goodfellow's bar. that bar served food. we immediately, as a team and family, worked together to open up a restaurant, calling it eddie's after him. it was his dream. the first cooks were my grandmother, mother, and aunt.

we didn't have any employees. just myself and them. then help for my brothers, but a lot of them were too young at that time to be of a great help. -- to be of great help. [laughter] i didn't mean it like that. that's the way that story went down. we had cubicles in the back, four little cubicles in the back. and i mean little cubicles. so small. all four of them together was as big as of this stage. we lived there. everybody said, you couldn't open up a restaurant in the seventh ward. they were wrong. people were coming in with containers, i need some ribs, i need some greens, fried chicken. that is the way that story went down. >> what was it like growing up behind the shop? there were five of you and your

parents, right? how did you divide up duties in the restaurant? what did each of you do? >> he does nothing. [laughter] wayne: one was married at the time, so he had a cubicle. my mom and dad had a cubicle. my grandmother had a cubicle. all the rest of us had the other cubicle. that's how that worked. room.ubicle is a >> what did you guys do to contribute? wayne: we used to clean it up. sweep, mop. >> as time went on terry, became an intricate part of working in the kitchen. on friday and saturdays, you couldn't get into eddie's, and he was one of the people sweating in that kitchen.

>> you gave a speech at a loyola this spring in which you described it was pretty intensely segregated in your upbringing. you said you only want to the french quarter with your dad to buy cigarettes to restock the vending machine. what was that part of new orleans like? terry: it was quite segregated. i grew up in a train. -- i grew up in tremaine. when we lived in a backup -- eddie's thatf was an all-white neighborhood. my only exposure to people who were not black or the nuns and priests of grammar school and high school. i had no knowledge of the garden district until i was a teenager. in fact, my clearest recollection that i can go uptown until i was a teenager,

for a debate turn it at loyola. -- debate tournament at loyola. it is hard to imagine now, but i suspect most black new orleanians would describe the same. >> when did he claim until begin to integrate in the restaurant? -- when did the clientele of the restaurant begin to integrate? people remember richard collins, the restaurant critic. he did a rave review. it was collected in his book, which you can still find. beansch he took about 3 and raved about the gumbo and fried chicken. i think that change the clientele. -- changed the clientele. that was in the 1970's, i think. >> let's skip forward to katrina

and talk about each of you. you each had different experiences with the storm. terry, maybe we can begin with you. you were here for the whole thing, right? terry: i was. i was at the howard avenue office at the time. we watched it through the windows until a tree flew through the window. we realize we shouldn't be watching the storm, we should be hunkered down somewhere. i was with the folks at the newspaper covered the storm. we stayed throughout. >> where were your temporary headquarters? terry: afterwards, when we risingd the water was and the levees had been breached, we jumped into

newspaper trucks in we went to baton rouge. it was a business complex in .hat rouge on airline highway we left computers because we rushed out kind of fast. computers.ought new we set up shop in baton rouge. i think a few of us were at the manship school at lsu. and of course, there was a staff -- i don't remember how many who stayed to cover the storm. host: you said this was before the storm? terry: before the storm. they went to atlanta and stayed with wayne's daughter for a few

days. host: do you want to pick up this story, wayne? wayne: my daughter moved out of new orleans two weeks before the storm. she bought a house and was married to a servicemen. the storm was not supposed to hit new orleans, it was supposed to hit florida. we really weren't worried about it. me and my wife caught a plane to atlanta. we were in atlanta, and then the very next day, we are seeing on the news that this was a serious storm, category 5, coming directly at new orleans. that was when i called my son and other family members and said, you need to get out, and get out now. as i was talking about this earlier, our entire baquet family, not cousins or anything, but our entire direct link baquet family ended up in

atlanta. about 17 of us stayed at my daughter's house. terry and his family, my kids and grandkids -- everybody was there. in my brother -- and my brother and his wife, children and grandchildren. they came too. we didn't have enough room for them. they stayed a mile and a half away from where my daughter lived. they didn't come back, and didn't plan on coming back. host: how long did that period last when everyone was crowded together? terry: it wasn't very long. [laughter] just a couple months. host: how long was it before you came back? terry: i came back as early as i could. i needed to get back. i had an opportunity to open up a restaurant in atlanta. talking to my brother terry, he said, you're crazy man, thinking

about that. i said, you're right, i need to get back to my roots. i have a restaurant and i need to get back there and get it opened up. host: and dean, you were in l.a. right? dean: i was in a northern california. my son was a competitive car racer at a race. , ie all new orleanians didn't think the storm was going to be a big deal. i drove up the pacific coast highway so that he could race. before he went up to the race, after the storm had passed, i called the editor of the picayune, a close friend. i said, is this going to be bad? he said, it hit mississippi, but it looks like new orleans is going to be ok. so i went to the race with my son. i came back to the hotel, turned on the television set. at this point everyone had

realized the levees had broken and that the city was flooded. car,panicked, popping the and went to los angeles. i never went back to new orleans for almost a year. i didn't go back until my mother went back. first, i think it was painful. i could do what i always did, which was rely on being a journalist to take advantage of the distance. i ran the l.a. times coverage of katrina. at that time i was the editor of the paper. i used that as my excuse. i didn't want to admit to myself that i just want to see it. a year later, when my mother was in georgia, i visited her pretty regularly. my wife furnished the apartment for them. she went down a lot. but i wasn't ready to come back to new orleans until she was ready to come back. i came back when we moved from

the house that the three of us had rented for her near the fairgrounds. host: what happened to her old place? wayne: it was near the london avenue canals, completely underwater, completely destroyed. host: and you just let it go? wayne: yeah, there was nothing. it was unfixable. host: what did you guys lose with the house? importantly -- our mother was the keeper of the photographs. absolutely every photograph that we had -- there are no photographs of me. - 70 until i am much older. all of our childhood photographs are gone. >> that is one thing good about

it. [laughter] dean: when we came down, my wife and i came back to the house, which was filled with mold. my brother was very religious. we went into the house. the only image that had survived picture, one of those old 1950's christ pictures that was hung high. there was some mold and mildew, but it survived. wayne, how long did it take to get the restaurant reopened? wayne: well, nobody was here. i was blessed in the sense that i had a condo. my condo was destroyed by floodwater. i had a condo in the cotton

mill. the tenant left. it was furnished. so i had a place to stay, which made it a lot easier. i got contractors and lived there until i could get it going. it didn't take long. but it was an amazing experience. people from that range and other from baton people rouge and other parishes were coming in droves. people would sit too long and eat too much. you can get two sides, a gumbo and a salad. this?which restaurant was wayne: li'l dizzy. i want to point out we had a lot

of people that came from other cities that came to help us rebuild. it was amazing. they would come every day in groups of 15-20. they would be rebuilding homes all over the city. it was something great. you mentioned this earlier, but how much of the family did not come back? wayne: everybody is back except my daughter, who lived there and her family, her husband and two kids. and my brother's entire family is there. his wife, daughter, two sons, and maybe -- i have to count them, for-five grandchildren. they are all there. they found jobs, doing well. they like it in conyers. but they're not coming back.

terry: we are 4 boys now, but we used to be five boys. are oldest brother, edward junior died in 1994. -- our oldest brother. it's his family that still lives in atlanta. host: i want to open up to the audience in a second. quick questions. why didn't either of you go into the restaurant businesses? terry: too hard. [laughter] it would be too hard on my kids. they are not any restaurant business. my son tried it for a little while. by the way, i am proud of him. he is doing well, working for a major company. he tried it for a little while and said, daddy, this is too hard man, i don't have a life. he said when everyone else is celebrity easter, we are feeding them. when everyone is celebrating mother's day, we are feeding

them. i said, give me the keys man. we had a couple restaurants and it was great that he got that out of his system. host: i read a quote from you, someday that the dean dropped a bread pudding. -- that dean dropped a bread pudding. [laughter] wayne: my grandmother would make the pudding at my house? now? can i leave wayne: she was looking for bread pudding. so we called in dean, drove over with the bread pudding. there, hee got tripped, and the bread pudding went all over the floor. rom thisy form business. [laughter]

how does being from here -- a question for the editor's, but also for the chef, being from new orleans -- how does it affect the way you think about the world? how does it affect the way you think about the world? dean: i think the world is really messed up. i really do. every day i look at the things that are happening. i think new orleans is the greatest city in the world, greatest culture. we made a lot of mistakes. we have got to get a hold of this crime problem. to do that, we've got to put trades back in the school. we could have revealed our own city, you know. -- we could have rebuilt our own city, you know. we created important programs. college is not for everybody. new orleans is a wonderful blue city that is trapped around red

states. [laughter] [applause] host: i will let you follow, wayne. wayne: it has affected the way i think as a journalist. i think it makes me more responsive and thoughtful about cities. it makes me more open-minded as a journalist. i think new orleans is a place that invites open-mindedness because people are so different. me, when iencouraged think about the whole of the world, to just be open-minded. whether it is running coverage of katrina, or running coverage of the world. i think it makes me see if the world is accommodated place. terry: what dean said.

but i live and work in the city. everything is about the city. i love new orleans just like everybody else. host: let's take a couple questions, please. audience: the new york times has done external reporting about new orleans and louisiana over many years. just last weekend, sunday's edition with three major articles. the baton rouge advocate has created a new orleans addition. the best i can think of would be the new orleans addition of the new york times. [applause] hard to do.sort of but the new york times has a commitment to new orleans.

we want to keep our new orleans. and make sure there is tremendous coverage in the paper, which we will continue to do. audience: hi, i write and blog about on 20 worship in new orleans. -- about entrepreneurship in new orleans. i was formerly with cnn in atlanta and have been in the newsroom, hearing many of the conversations around katrina coverage. my question for you is, as a native of new orleans, how did that influence and guide you as a leader in the newsroom during the katrina coverage? how did that influence your guiding of other journalists in the stories they are telling, and were you able to separate yourself from the story?

terry: at the time of katrina, i was editor of the l.a. times. it was tremendously useful. people were shocked on the scenes of the roush up -- scenes of the rooftops and poverty in new orleans. my staff had to be reminded a were getting a glance of urban america. i think i was able to guide the newsroom to understand that they were getting a look at a larger urban problem in new orleans, that maybe the u.s. hadn't confronted in a long time. by the same token, i was able to make people understand that new orleans was the city of neighborhoods. i also think it was pretty clear early on in everybody's coverage, but i like to think in our coverage even earlier,

that much of what happened in new orleans was a natural disaster, but that a big chunk of what happened was the failure of government over generations. and last, but not least, it certainly gave me a passion for the coverage. it made me care deeply about the coverage, to make sure that we stayed there for a long time and didn't do what a lot of media does in big disaster stories, which is disappear at a certain point. it affected the way that a look at coverage tremendouslym and still does. --tremendously, and still does. host: i hate that we have to leave it there and let people get some thing to eat. the plan these to reconvene at 2:00 -- the plan is to reconvene at 2:00. there are books on the table outside. we have a little bookstore. doingnd judith will be

respective booksignings. thank you three very verygwen: u haven't seen that tuba come on stage, so you can tell it is the end of the day. but because it is the end of the day, we know there are a lot of unasked questions that have not been asked yet. it has been a very interesting day yet, hasn't it? hasn't it? a lot of us, face it, we thought we knew it all. but we don't. so here is the chance for a good

wrapup and also a move forward. we talked at length about what happened, what didn't happen, what else to back, what didn't. we saw some people get drunk on stage, and i won't name any names -- [laughter] gwen: but we are going to leave by as rain this last question. what does new orleans now know? we started this morning with what have we learned and what is new orleans and now we are going to talk about what we have learned, and we are going to do it with a pretty interesting group. we have had pretty interesting groups all day. starting to my left, we have a writer for "the new york times," and wrote about the storm affected the infrastructure of the city. and next to him is sherry -- sharee harrison-nelson, and next to her is michael hecht, the president and ceo of the greater new orleans group. and next to him, judith roeder.

she has founded the resilience dividend project. so she comes equipped with ways of looking forward. gary is next to her, and no, john berry is next to her, i am looking at the wrong list. he is a distinguished scholar at tulane university and he may be making a special appearance tonight on the pbs news hour. and we have the founder of the bandleader of the brass band who will have more in that few moments. i'm quick to start out the same way we started up this morning by asking people to tackle this question, what do we know now? not only did we learn today, but 10 years later, what has new

orleans learned about it self, about where it goes next, and about what questions haven't been raised and what hasn't been answered. i'm going to ask them all to speak to that, but i am going to ask you all to speak to that as well. my only rules is that we try to avoid speeches, we have had her share, and we try to get some conversation going with you, with them, and among ourselves. succinctre cystic -- your questions and answers are the more it better conversations , we can have it i want to start with you gary with the answer to the question. gary: i am not very optimistic, i am afraid. i think new orleans has a worse response than it thought, and incensed after the storm that it would be a do over and whatever problems it had would be the problems that we had before and they would just go away.

at the same problems we had before we had the day after the storm and we still have them. i also feel that in black new orleans, what they have learned, it doesn't count as much as they thought that it might. the example that comes to me is announced that and was was behind us kind of a mission accomplished. i thought, go to the neighborhoods. you have the seventh ward, and african-american working-class neighborhood, you have another middle-class neighborhood, it is about 60%-70% black and -- gwen: so what do we do now? what do we learn now? gary: i feel that there is a black narrative and a white narrative side-by-side and i think there needs to be more of

an interaction. gwen: let me ask the next panelist, and ask if there is a black narrative and a white narrative and so what? he started by saying that after katrina, everybody thought everything would be fine and beautiful and it is not. did everyone expect it to be fine and beautiful? i don't think everyone thought it would be fine and beautiful but i don't think everybody would think we were having the conversations we are having today for that i was a public school educator, one of the people fired with 24 years experience. i have a masters degree and special certification. me thatd not have told i would not get to drop so i could do all the things i want to do in my community. that was my goal for life. i did go back to work at the

recovery school district and i don't care what is said, they failed children in the beginning. they were not prepared for children and the day i decided i had to quit was when we went to a hotel much like this downtown and in-service and the facilitator said "we are building the plane as we are flying it." you're talking about children's lives and if i am building a claim, we're probably going to crash. plane, we're probably going to crash. i saw children fed frozen lunches, frozen milk. they could not drink the milk, they cannot eat the food. if i did that as a parent i would be charged with child neglect and child endangerment. if you do that to 400 children under the age of 12 in the state of louisiana, my question is, is it any less child abuse? children's needs are still not being met.

for me, we are at a crossroads to figure this out and give children what is best for them to serve all of the citizens of new orleans. it is a racial issue, but it is a humanity issue. where is your humanity if you allow this to happen? mike: i can answer more from the perspective of economic development. one thing without doubt is that resiliency is not an ideology, it is a reality. one of the things i am most proud of is when you talk to individuals in our organization or the general public, the ideas of resiliency and building smarter is no longer seen as i

left or right issue. everyone recognizes it as a something that we need to change. that is something new. we have also come to embrace the new. this is a place that reveled and celebrated in its past. i think katrina showed that the past wasn't working. katrina made us all into entrepreneurs. that is good for the future. richard campanella said that the city is in equilibrium. either they are evolving, or they are dying. the discussion about gentrification, which is a real discussion. these growing pains are because we are growing for the first time in 40 years. : there has been a running theme throughout the day -- the good and the strength and the struggle to coexist with growth, resilience, and the strain of getting to that. where do you see us 10 years from now?

judy: i think we understand now mood that resilience is about physical infrastructure and about social and economic infrastructure. all three are critical for a truly resilient city. it may be that the word is overused, but i would submit, so is the word love. we each get to interpret it in our own way. [laughter] this is a moment when each of us needs to take responsibility for making the new orleans that we wish it could have been. i think in the immediate aftermath, the concentration on

physical infrastructure may have swapped some of the concentration on education, doing it in the way that, in retrospect, people think we could have done better. thinking about social and racial issues. but it was a physical infrastructure emergency that triggered it. i do think now with the luxury, as john has said well, it's not a done. but with the luxury of shoring up those things that made new orleans most physically vulnerable -- there is the opportunity now to not only learn from what wasn't done well in the 10 years that has passed, but to really begin to focus, in a much more ambitious way on the social and economic infrastructure. because you cannot rebuild the economy of the city without equity, without social inclusion as part of that rebuild. that obviously starts with education, but it continues with all of the things that will need to happen in these

neighborhoods. i am an outsider. i think, hearing the pain and frustration that still exists, it is a reminder of how important it is to both hear one another, and to continue this journey together. it is a journey that is far from finished. that is what i certainly knew, hearing that over and over again today in a variety of ways. i admire and agree with the sentiment. but it must be a state of saying, let's continue to work to fix this together.

gwen: what trajectory are we on, john? john: i don't know. i don't think any of us know. if gary talks about a black and a white narrative since the storm, i would agree with that. but i think you should have seen it before the storm. i used to consider this the most racist city that i know of, one of the most racist cities in the u.s. i think there has been positive movement there. i hope that is the case. i think the best thing that has come out of the storm is the sense that people have to rely on themselves and take charge of things. i think a lot of positive things have come out of new orleans had

been the result of that. obviously the influx, whatever the number is, more than 10,000 talented young people. that is generally positive. but then you create problems with rising rents and driving folks out of their neighborhoods, gentrification and so forth and so on. so i don't know where we are going. the other issue is the question of complacency. i have been pleased in general by the coverage so far nationally. that it has not been as atory as i had feared -- >> as the five-year anniversary? john: maybe i didn't specifically recall that. certainly in everything today