Big Easy needs help

Biloxi (Miss.) Sun Herald: Yielding to political reality, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has given up trying to get the state to create a casino district in the downtown area of the Crescent City.
Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco was opposed to the idea and Don Hines, president of the state Senate, gave it little chance of legislative approval.
Even though Nagin's notion would have had an adverse effect on the casino industry in South Mississippi, we cannot help but sympathize with his predicament.
No homes, jobs
The Saints have all but abandoned the city. Bulldozers have yet to level many flooded neighborhoods. Tens of thousands of the city's residents are scattered around the country with no homes or jobs to come back to.
"We have the most significant challenge of any city in American history and they are dismissing ideas ad nauseam," Nagin said of Louisiana's leadership.
The mayor's frustration underscores our appreciation of the options and alternatives being developed for South Mississippi by Gov. Haley Barbour's Commission on Recovery, Rebuilding and Renewal.
A similarly united and unifying approach needs to be taken in the New Orleans metropolitan area.