Almost a fresh start

Washington Post: It wouldn't be correct to say that C. Ray Nagin, newly re-elected mayor of New Orleans, starts his job with a clean slate. But Mr. Nagin, who received mixed reviews for his post-hurricane political performance, does have a new mandate, and a significant one at that: With a large black evacuee vote -- but also a good deal of prominent business support -- he defeated a well-known, and better funded, opponent. He is also returning to office just as the levees are close to repair and as Congress is about to pass a funding bill meant to end the uncertainty still surrounding vacant housing in the city. He should make sure that neither the mandate nor the funding goes to waste.
In essence, the mayor has two kinds of tasks in front of him. One is to smooth the way toward the creation of a city that probably will be smaller, possibly denser and certainly shifted to higher ground. In the past he has often seemed to want to offer all things to all people, including the return of their old neighborhoods. But thanks in part to new flood zone maps, which will make it difficult to obtain insurance in the most vulnerable areas, and thanks in part to the nature of the housing money promised by Congress, it seems that many New Orleanians are deciding voluntarily not to return to the most easily flooded areas of the city.
Funding bill
Instead, they can opt to take the compensation that the funding bill will guarantee and move elsewhere. The mayor can help facilitate that process by providing advisers and planners who can help people readjust if they need to. He can also help by sounding realistic about what can be achieved and by actively encouraging the revival of integrated neighborhoods.
The second task is to make sure that the worst aspects of pre-Katrina New Orleans don't return as the city rebuilds. Along with other city leaders, Mr. Nagin has said some tough things about the criminal gangs who used to intimidate large swaths of the city. He should follow through, even taking up the suggestion that gang members be prevented from moving back into public housing.
The same is true of the failed public school system, which has been converted in entirety to a charter school system: He should resist the inevitable pressure to bring back the disastrous old school board. Finally, it's important that he continue with the job he initially set out to do as mayor: namely, to get rid of the "business as usual" culture of corruption that had hampered the city's development for so many decades.