Does Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu think Louisianans are stupid? Or is it he’s just a mental lightweight? Because nobody with any sense is going to buy his argument that the state needs a $125 million advertising blitz to cure its ailing tourism industry.
Landrieu bases this absurd idea on two equally absurd presumptions, that national media are conveying the impression that New Orleans still is filled with water, and that for every buck spent on tourism publicity, $16 comes back. Let’s review these claims.
Do an Internet search of both video and print stories about New Orleans and guess what you find? Stories about rampant crime committed by both criminals and law enforcement, along with news about the Saints, dominate the non-Louisiana media since the beginning of the year. Looking specifically at video over the past 30 days there are stories extolling it being “party time” in New Orleans and recommencing a small portion of the streetcar line, but nothing about high water.
Which makes one wonder if Landrieu somehow hasn’t gotten confused about his VCR and he keeps watching old news feeds over and over again (perhaps in an attempt to wipe out the memory of his mayoral election loss?) In any event, you can bet those in the tourism industry are watching current news and they know two things, that the water is long gone from New Orleans, and so is any semblance of law and order, now including shootings on Bourbon Street when the place is packed. And that’s why tourists and conventioneers are staying away.
As laughable as Landrieu’s assertion is on this subject, it gets more warped when he talks about spending taxpayers’ money to make it. Let’s see, if there’s a multiplier of 16 here that means the $125 million will turn into $2 billion in the tourist trade. Well, why stop there, how about spending $1 billion? Glory be, that will pump $16 billion into the state and we’ll be better off than ever before!
Landrieu doesn’t see the idiocy of his thinking because he never has believed that it is people and the private sector, not government, that create economic growth. If he had any sense at all, he’d want to steer that $125 million into the state treasury to pay for tax cuts for New Orleans small businesses to keep them afloat while the longer term problems get solved. Or, if he’d rather tackle the latter, devote that money to policing the city.
But that’s not what a lieutenant governor has the power to do, and Landrieu knows nothing more about being a political leader than taxing and spending, so that’s all that he’s capable of providing as he tries to revive his fading political career. Which goes to show New Orleans voters left themselves really bad choices after last year’s delayed primary election.
Until recently I worked for a company that runs excursions on the Mississippi. From November to May we run in and out of New Orleans all the time. I can tell you that we still were getting phone calls about the flood waters and people walking down Canal St. with guns. There are plenty of people whose current image of New Orleans is 16 months old - I spoke to them on the phone.
ReplyDeleteNow, that being said I agree that any measures taken to combat crime can do nothing but help the tourism industry. Right now that is in the headlines and it needs to be stopped.