NEW ORLEANS, Oct 15: New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said on Saturday the city’s financial condition remains bleak and that he is still looking for funds that will prevent further layoffs of municipal workers.
“I’m trying to figure out exactly what financial support we still have left,” Mr Nagin said when asked if the city would be forced to cut more jobs. “Our financial condition has really not improved that substantially and we are going to try to limp along just as long as we can.”
Last week, Mr Nagin cut 3,000 city jobs, or about 40 percent of its staff, because he said the hurricane-devastated city no longer had enough tax revenue to pay them. On Saturday, he said he did not know if there would be more layoffs.
Dressed in a white “Bring Back New Orleans” T-shirt and baseball cap, Nagin spoke to reporters at a city-sponsored cleanup of Magazine Street.
Several hundred volunteers picked up debris and leaves along the busy commercial street, where businesses like restaurants and clothing stores are slowly beginning to reopen.
“You just want to get it back to normal, even if it’s a new normal,” said Jennifer Bernard, a 24-year-old accountant.
Nagin also pitched in, and thanked Debby Poitevent, 59, the owner of the women’s shoe store Feet First, when she said she was determined to reopen in the Uptown district.
While Uptown residents slowly got back to their day-to-day lives, Nagin said the city’s last closed-off neighbourhood may reopen to residents next week.—Reuters
