Madame Mayor. Or is it Latoya? Or Miss Cantrell, if you’re nasty.
Whatever you prefer to go by – let me start by congratulating you on getting to be our first female mayor. Godspeed. People are already nitpicking you to death on every choice and you haven’t even clocked in for your first shift.
Let’s talk about one of those choices though. As a person who holds Detroit near and dear to her heart, I don’t know if it was a great idea to pick someone from Kwame Kilpatrick’s reign as mayor. That was kind of a hot mess and didn’t end super well. If you haven’t put a ring on him yet, you might want to rethink that one.
Next up – word on the street is that you’re interested in changing some the Air BnB laws in favor of the actual residences of New Orleans. This is what I’ve been talking about and waiting for. Please listen to your constituents who are here every damn day. We are here paying our parking tickets, paying taxes, checking in on our neighbors, picking up trash on our blocks, and looking out for one another. Air BnB should be restricted to people who file homestead exemption and factually live in their homes.
Since I mentioned Homestead exemption, let me go further with that one. I know some folks in my neighborhood (they may have even sat on a neighborhood board) who have numerous properties they file these exemptions for. WHY? HOW? I found it within minutes, so I’m sure we could hire someone to do the same. Hell, I will do it for free on Sundays and just shoot you an email. We have dead people claiming homestead exemptions too. We have to be better at that.
You’re going to have a lot of issues to tackle, but for the love of god, please address this sewage and water board mess. I know it’s not your fault. You’re inheriting this. There has to be some solutions to this ongoing nightmare. As a New Orleans real estate agent, I can tell you I have clients worried about buying or renting in Mid-City due to the flooding in August 2017.
I don’t know if this falls into your area or not, but can we be a tad more progressive in New Orleans with recycling. I travel to other cities domestically and internationally and they have bins everywhere where people can recycle. As a city that is sinking, we should consider being more environmentally friendly.
Also, do we have a game plan for New Orleans East?
What about potholes?
Crime?
Hurricanes?
Falcons fans?
We are going to look at you and hold you responsible for a lot of things. You can’t control it all, I know that. I just don’t know if *they* all know that.
Anyone coming in after Mitch has a big job to take on. He basically no called/ no-showed on us while he began writing a book. Please do us all a favor and write your book after you get out of office.
New Orleans needs a strong woman to take the reins and guide us in a better, more progressive direction. If you need help from us along the way, don’t hesitate to ask. That’s what we’re here for too!
In the words of Kelly Clarkson, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” New Orleans is going to test you. You got this.