do not -- you do not see me too often, but i am there to say look at my community. right now what i see i do not like. katrina has passed and gone, but november. to this day, i am still trying to get part of my utility back. i got a bill from coxe cable even though i have not been there. energy, i have not been there but i got a bill. we need to stop playing games with people. and stop thinking that people are dumb stupid and crazy. i don't want to pay energy

anything and wait for them to pay me back. i am not looking to pay $200 up front. i was not at the party that caused you to not have the money. i am not going to be responsible for anything that is not my doing. do you know what i'm saying? to you mr. mayor. -- ii got on the bus today could not believe it. thank you mr. mayor for that. -- but there all are a whole lot of things that are keeping us from functioning as proper human beings. damaged except

for a little bit. , i cannot the debris get anything done. >> you said you live in algiers. >> in lower algiers. -- give heru what your address and we will get the debris taken care of. thank you so much. mayor, i am reverend howard. don't cut me off like you did before. two minutes. [laughter] >> i am here because i have been appalled. and i am first of all, at fema.

mr. mayor you gave them your plan for the seller parks. my question is what does fema need to have to put those trailers where the requests were made? where are they? does it mean that you are just -- that incompetent? all of our citizens want to come back home. speak for yourself. i cannot find a place. i even requested that such killer be placed near my home and that was in october. -- i even requested that a be placed near my home

and that was in october. somey has come up with foolishness to get some power. the power needs to get put back into the lines on the main thoroughfares. st. charles avenue. the citizens want to come back but what are you doing? sitting down on your behind. tired and i have been aggrieved and hurt at the representatives who submitted andslation to the state that the state would take over the school system when our citizens are suffering down here in portland's. orleans. we are suffering.

we do not take that lightly. want the assistance that i am supposed to get. i have not gotten it yet. i have to get out of the hotel room by the third. i have been waiting on the trailer since october. the measurements have not even been taken. it is unfair. mayor, demand the public service call for help. [indiscernible] in thoseple communities did not mind helping one another. you need help. you cannot do it by yourself. reverend, let us get fema to

help us with the trailer. if you can come on the side. i know you're fired up right now. he is irreverent. he is a reverend. >> next question please. >> good evening. a reverend but i am fired up because you said that you would try to keep the work for the locals. all of the work is going out to the people from new york, chicago, and california. time a man brings a truck you know that money is involved. get acal people need to piece of the pie. it is a doggone shame that a man who lives in the city of new orleans with his house paid for, family members here, and we

don't get nothing. it is a shame. >> i agree with you. you with don get hutchinson to see if we can help you. >> another thing i want to --red all of the contracts another thing i want to say is that all of the contracts went people.ther that is not right. she asked me if i had a truck that loaded from the rear. we need the contracts. it is not right. you talk about new orleans coming back.

>> let us see if we can get you some help. i will get you with don hutchinson. we have been able to help some businesses to bust through this. >> good afternoon. i have a home in algiers in high water. is cut off every afternoon. fema put us in an apartment without a refrigerator. bring people back to new orleans. where are the kids going to go to school? 90% of new orleans have kids. they fired 30 teachers. reregister myto

10-year-old adopted child. i refused. she will stay in jefferson parish. lastly, the people coming here from baton rouge on the bus at elks plays -- it is terrible. you need to leave them in baton i had tos morning, step over bags of clothing that they throw from canal straight all the way -- canal street all the way to tulane. no one is going to get social security past 2006. understanding that

the school system has started to open up some schools. next month. five days from 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. i was here before at your last meeting. i was instructed to talk to a gentleman. they called me up. i never heard back from him. in the meantime, i went and bought me a pickup truck with a trailer. explain to me about the zones. was picking up the debris from the front of my house. i am in my house and picking up my washer and dryer because this was my property. a man up alongside me and said i was in the wrong zone. he said it was his own.

and i said -- yeah, this is my house. the fact is that was my washer and dryer. i am going to make them money off of it and not him. explain to me how when i left now, if i cross the street, i am in someone else's zone from maryland or washington, d.c. enough is enough. where did the zones come in? coastal new orleans and made it who stole new orleans and made it into zones?

i lost everything. give me a piece of the pie. [indiscernible] where do the zones come in? no one can explain it to me. this?t my city up like >> are you ready? i will try to answer. the debris pickup is basically being managed through federal contracts that come through the corps of engineers. -- i believee done but don't quote me, there were

five major contracts that were left and as they were left, they divided the city up into zones. four zones. each contractor was given the responsibility for the pickup of the debris in that particular zone. i think that is what you are running into. there is no scenario that i can think of that if you are picking up debris that you would go to jail for violating some zone that was set up. >> i called the police for him. .t was the idea let me just make sure you understand the situation that we are in. the city of new orleans is it has no revenue streams coming in so we are for loans begging

from the federal government and from chase bank. all of the moneys that are being used to clean up the city are being can -- is being controlled at a whole another level. all we can do is go to the politicians and say -- we want this young lady to participate. that is what is happening. that is how the zone thing came into being. [indiscernible] i wish i could pay you to do the work. you're not hearing what i am saying. >> they are getting half of what i am paying. >> it is a little deeper than

that. what can we do to help? i have a license and i believe i should be able to go anywhere. you said you wanted cleaned up, i will go pick it up. don, can you help this lady and help her get through some of this your accuracy. bureaucracy. mr. mayor, i live in the triangle. i would like to thank you and the members of the council for all of your efforts. i know at times it must feel like a thankless job. these are difficult times. i am very proud of everyone that has worked for the city and for us to i hope you can help me with my problem. they are minor compared to others because my house was not flooded. my neighborhood where i've been living for a number of years -- the crime there is bad and i am not getting a lot of help from

the police. people that have moved into dilapidated houses in my neighborhood. these are people who are not working. they are drunk in the morning and at night. they are selling drugs in front of my house. and i have called the police. i have been referred to different sergeants in the police department. different task forces. i have called and left my name and number. i have gotten no response. group of last week, a these guys that are living in this one house half a block from my house were having a big party with a little bonfire out front on the sidewalk. shooting off firecrackers including bottle rockets. i called the police. they said they would let someone know to drive by. i waited but nothing happened. the other issue is trashed.

there is a 10 of trash in our neighborhood that is not getting picked up. trash inis a ton of our neighborhood that is not getting picked up. i have called the police and i am not getting call back. i got wasesponse that -- how do you know they are selling drugs? >> that is pretty obvious. lady her contact information so we can get that to the police chief and we will get some action going. >> good afternoon, mr. mayor. house is near plymouth.

becausea unique problem as you said earlier, if your home is in the flood zone and your 50% or more damage, you have to raise your home. as you know, most of the homes there are on slabs. our only hope seems to be to have our damages estimated low 50%, which is becoming a logistical nightmare even with. i have been to the permits office after times. thateverything that it -- they have asked me to bring. i have tried to get my damage is not above 50%. put ittime, they had below and when i checked again they had put it above to 54%. betweenple there are

51% and 55% estimated damage which meets that we will have to elevate our structure. we are also being told that if we do not do this, we will not be able to get insurance. i have not been able to find any law on the books. that if you have four or more claims, that exceeds 5000 dollars, then and only then can you be denied insurance coverage. if we could get some clarity about that and maybe some help because a lot of it is really petty. 51%. very easily get below that. we have elderly people in our neighborhoods. raising their houses is not an option. question deals with the process of appealing the 51% damage. >> that and where we can find the law that states that if we do not, if we have had -- if we

have not had some of the situations that i talked about earlier, that we will be denied coverage. let greg answer that. he is responsible for that. >> those are good questions. first, on the law part. it is not a city thing or a state order. the federal flood insurance act of 1975 meaning anything built after 1975 to get flood insurance, the feds mandated that all of the cities in the country have had to buy into this ram. is the 1975 flood insurance federal act that mandates that. that said, when it comes to the of, it is really more

actually an object to help you do what you need to do for the house. what i mean is that if you are over 50%, and thereby you have timeise it, it is a good with fema here to match that of the $30,000 to raise that. >> i think the problem with that is that for a slab house, $30,000 is a drop in the bucket. -- i have a slab house i would spend more than what my house is worth to raise it. that is not feasible. i am not a wealthy person. most of us are working class people. we can look at some other standards. we have people in those situations. notfor the fact -- we are

talking about people who voluntarily wanted to remodel. maybe we should look at it from another angle to help people get below that. even with the raising of four fee, people have 10 feet of water. >> i think we can help you on that. -- we are notht arbitrarily deciding 50%. from thes down foundation and the formulas that fema has given. if you are in that gray zone, in cannotse, if the city support -- can support the citizen, we will. cusp, are right on that we are going to allow you you to send that on the feedback page.

you can internally appeal that we can take a second look. realityally about the of what happened and it is not an arbitrary decision. we have a lot of elderly people that are not well versed in using the internet. they cannot get this information. >> you can also call. >> a lot of people do not have phone service. is there something you can put out in the neighborhood that they can go up to and read. something very practical. >> we will work on that. we have tried to put the information at city hall but we will come out to the community and see if we can get it to similar people. >> first thing i would like to

do is make some comments. you are doing a good job. the word that is on the streets is that you stayed with us for the aftermath and that counts for something. are not just talking about people but we are talking about souls. [indiscernible] i am a poet. what can i say. brother,on is for my

besides the storm, i lost two brothers. i am trying to get my family together. but if i could give you a card and maybe you could help me out. i would like to bring my family back together. >> are you looking for some work? >> i am looking for my brother. don over here is helping

people find work. i am a local attorney and a young businessman here. i up she you going to the different cities -- i appreciate you going to the different cities. the rest of the country has forgotten us and you need to keep on letting people know about our situation. the people that are here like me and other young businesspeople -- how long can we stay here? no people, no business. we need to bring the people back. mortgages are coming up. everyone will be dealing with mortgage companies. we need some help. how do we bring the people back? we need trailers and electricity. we need to tell the people out of state that they can come back. do we have to wait for fema to bring us trailers?

we cannot wait. as far as energy, i know you guys are in trouble. we need power. the trailers are no good without power. i cannot do my job, i will get replaced. if energy cannot do the job, we need other power companies to get down here and do the job. there are people that cannot come back to new orleans. how can we have mardi gras when the people of new orleans cannot even come home. the people of new orleans should be able to come home. eight days of prism is great. we do not even have the housing

for the citizens of new orleans. when they come back, they bring revenue. not just eight days of mardi gras. >> think you. -- thank you. we will see of the state can help us with the trailers. mardi gras is a whole other discussion. hello mayor. my name is loretta brown. i no longer have a house because it is under 10 feet of water. the house is gone. i am here today because you called my husband back to work. he is in law enforcement. when we got back down here, they

told him he would have housing. here, there was not enough of we took it upon ourselves to find a hotel. we found a hotel and pay for it out of our pockets. what i had to do initially was called fema and asked for more money. they initially give you some money and after that you have to write a letter. i applied for a loan. i thought it was a blessing that i got the loan. it looks like it has turned into a nightmare. they say that hurricane katrina was the worst thing that could happen to us. is i think hurricane fema worse. could no me that i longer get any assistance from i was approved for

a loan earlier. i got the money at a low rate. i have received that, fema will no longer assist me with anything. we have bills coming up. once their money. everyone wants their money. fema,stion to you is, to why can fema no longer help you if you have received a loan. you end up getting into more date -- debt. that is the first time that i have heard that one. so you got a loan and that has triggered -- tothey up moved us up $98,000.

and i said that my flood insurance was supposed to cover $70,000. the more money i get, the less the loan is and it does not benefit me. i have no money to survive. >> let me see if we can get an answer from fema. >> we will have someone talk to you one on one. there must be some misunderstanding because just loanse you have had your approved, does not mean that fema automatically cuts you off from our temporary housing in. program.ary housing to make the statement that we realize that your loan has been approved, but you still need to do the work to repair the house and you still need a place to stay. if you have been receiving the --tal assistance from fema

and we will clear that up. as long as you have taken that money and used it to rent a -- yes, you still can receive housing assistance from fema until you get that loan in your hands and make the repairs. was one of the unfortunate people that get stuck in the convention center. please, i need some help. i was in houston, texas and i met two been ladies from lake charles. do you know those ladies?

i think i do. praisedpleased you -- you. you are responsible for us. and we do not have anywhere to live here. in algiers.e i was at the council meeting. i have been formally affected. victed. i am relying on you. i know all of this is state level and federal level. meoted for you to represent on the local level. i don't know where else to go. i don't know what else to do. 24 hours after today, my family

and displacedotel you areu said that holding us responsible to come back. i am ation is -- homeowner. i was renting because of cindy. is in the area that seems to be forgotten. that everything is a process. my problem is that when is this whole catastrophe going to be reclassified because it was not a flood due to water from

nature. and theue to hazards breach of the levees. how do you get this reclassified? i know there is something in place that was probably due to you needil members -- a crew because everything is referred to you. i know you put some things into place for the land owners and the tenets but there is nothing in place for the people that are here that are being priced gouged. i do not know what to do and i am on the street in 24 hours.

>> let me see if i can try to answer some of the things that you brought up. gouging isent concerned, we are starting to get more complaints about that. part of the powers of the mayor is to enforce the current laws on the books. we are trying to use everything in our power it legally to see what we can and cannot do. we may need some new laws. berkeley, california has a landlord, tenant association. please refer to someone. we have come home. but we have nowhere to go. agree with you.

we do not want you to be homeless. >> i am, effectively today. child will be displaced. to move her to another school. now, i have to displace my three kids one more time and i have here so that the city can have revenue. everyone is segregated. youet's see if we can get -- if you are going to get -- kicked out tomorrow, let's see if fema can help you find some comparable place to live. hopefully, we can do it in the same area.

let us see what we can work out. i live in the lower ninth homeowner of a double house. my concern is that you do not forget about the lower ninth ward. i am concerned that the things that have been taken away from the ninth ward. i am concerned that we will be forgotten. stated thats always we are a part property area. i do work two jobs. the only name on that property is mine.

i am working hard to keep my property. i just paid five notes on my house because of everything that has been going on. i want to know when we are going to get down there to do what we have to do. i am fully insured. it is not enough and it's not your fault. what is actually going to happen to us? know, december the first, thursday, we have fully opened up the ninth ward to full access. you live in the holy cross area. probablycross area is going to be on a much faster track than any other area in the ninth ward because the water got out of there the quickest. you should be able to get utility services much quicker than anyone else and start the rehab process in the ninth ward. that, my job

required a mandatory stayover. i have not left. my job has me up in a place to live. i went to my neighbors. i have gone back to my house every chance that i got. i have spoken to my neighbors to find out who was rebuilding. we only have four rental properties. they are all returning. people are willing to return. people are willing to do what they have to do. please do not forget about us. do we have to raise our houses? if you are at or above the

floodplain, you do not have to raise. >> i do appreciate you taking this time. please do not forget about us. thank you. you six, -- back in in two thon said cameras to new orleans to take a look at events that were going on there. it was a documentary that we put together which you can still see on our website. in the documentary you met a lady named sue sperry. during the documentary you heard her talk about the markings that were used on the buildings that were going on during the search and rescue effort there. here is a little bit of that documentary. [video clip] >> this is search-and-rescue markings. this is such a painful reminder for everybody who lives here -- here. i

we just love it when people come back and the first thing they do is paid over. over.nt on the left side is the agency ,r unit who did the inspection maybe a troop number there. 118, i'm not sure what that is. means that no entry, they could not gain entry to the house. the bottom quadrant is how many were found dead. they are still finding bodies weekjust about every because there could be somebody stuck in that attic or the house collapsed, or it is really unsafe. the phoneing us on right now is sue sperry, 80 world is resident, joining us to talk about the events from 10 years later. thank you for joining us. guest: thanks for having me. host: where do your thoughts center on these 10 years? guest: i have to say i am kind of mixed about it.

there are so many good things that have happened, but then i just deliver my grandparents didn't celebrate the depression, you know, with -- we have just come a long way. i said that during the documentary, as i have to say i don't think i was right with a lot of the things that i said. for those who did not get a chance to see the documentary, give us some thoughts. what did you think that and how has that board itself out? guest: i think the one thing that i talked about -- i talked for a while about neighborhoods and liability, and neighborhoods needing to get organized and improve their viability and get involved. if you want commerce in your area you have to get involved and go out and get it. the same thing with bringing .esidents home

cantrell is a good example, she is on our city council right now. when i first met her she headed the improvement association and they were supposed to be bringing green space to the whole neighborhood. she led the fight. backneighborhood has come and it is better, but it is not gentrified. it is not that much different, it is just restored and it has some additional services. you've got to fight for your neighborhood. as neighborhoods go, talk a little bit about the neighborhoods. where are some of those neighborhoods that are still hardest hit, we still see clear evidence of what happened 10 years ago? guest: some neighborhoods, yes. say someld neighborhoods have been surpassed -- have surpassed what anyone could imagine. the whole area of the lower

ninth ward, that is where brad pitt has built all those homes. side, or close to the levee side, where mark and i , therer the documentary is really not much going on there. not many people came back. that was a lot of older people. retired, elderly, multigenerational families lived in the family homes, and once everybody dispersed they did not come back. host: you talked about gentrification. talk a little bit about that. where is it happening within new orleans? is that a good thing or a bad thing to you? guest: it's good and bad. an economico have , tax dollars. it is good to have services and in the but right now --

city's original footprint, rents are very very high. home prices have skyrocketed. it has become expensive to live in new orleans. because so many people came here and fell in love with the city and not leave. but it is a delicate balance having a good tax base, having good residents, and attracting commerce, and then the flipside which is it prices people out of their traditional neighborhoods. orleans younew don't have to have a car to live here. a lot of people don't have cars. don't have a car and you are forced to go to a suburban location, how do you get to work? who canen it comes to afford to live in new orleans,

how does that deal on the racial aspect? are people able to afford rent or live in communities that have been restored after hurricane katrina? becoming a bigger , andof their income devoted to housing. more than 30% in some cases. our racial makeup is similar to what it was before. you can't afford to live in places that you might want to live. no sue sperry, you did not escape personally. your home was damaged. in fact we have photos of before and after. talk a little bit about the extent of the damage or comes up. what is happening now? flooded. my whole neighborhood flooded because the parish president of the time it all of the pump operators to where you could not get them back. know, allople don't of the water that new orleans

has to be pumped out of the city. because there was no one to turn the pumps on when the water started rising from the levee breaks, everybody flooded out. thee i live, which is on northwest part of the city, it's kind of like a shallow bowl. the bowl filled up. no one was here to pump the water out. far as your personal home, we just saw pictures. what was the extent of the damage dr. -- what was the extent of the damage? guest: everything that i had. it flooded, there was no way to get here for such a long time. no power. when i came home like two months there was laundry that was wet, still wet from two months

before. everything was moldy. apart, iture had come was everything. everything i own. the first thing i had to do with pitch a tent in the backyard and lived there until i could get the house gutted. and then i took my time with workingng because -- at the preservation resource center, i was really helping other people. i was from what experiencing that if i could tolerate waiting, and i had a trailer also, a few months after that, then the chances of me getting quality work done was going to be greater if i wait. sperry, youat is to met her in our 2006 documentary taking a look at events in new orleans and talking with us today about how the city has recovered 10 years later. any final thoughts before we let you go? are, imy final thoughts

think we have an awful lot to be proud of. nothing does that has ever happened anywhere in the united states. i think everyone learned a lesson from it, and the city has recovered. people really thought we never went. but we did. it's not perfect. go, but have a ways to living here you just have to be proud of what has been accomplished. host: >> on the next washington journal, a look at the may 16 presidential race with bloomberg national political reporter michael bender. he will talk about recent events with the candidates and how they are polling in iowa and new hampshire. also, a discussion regarding with danielchange

weiss and the league of conservation voters. we will take your calls and look for your comments on facebook and twitter. >> florence harding once said that she had only one hobby and that was warren harding. she was a significant force in her husband's presidency and adept at handling the media. scandals,rdships and as well as her own poor health, she would help define the role of the modern first lady. florence harding, this sunday eastern,8:00 p.m. examining the public and private lives of the women who filled the role of first lady and their influence on the presidency. from martha washington to michelle obama. on american history tv on c-span3. former president george w.

bush traveled to the gulf coast region on friday to mark the 10th anniversary of hurricane katrina. one of the stops included gulfport, mississippi for a ceremony honoring first responders. this is 10 minutes. audio] governor andh: ever, you are very kind to welcome us. i cannot think of a better place i would like to be than here honoring the sacrifice and who dealt withe hurricane katrina. when i was thinking about katrina, the first person i thought about was haley barbour. i will never forget when he said -- if someone shoots you when you are looting, we will not

prosecute the shooter. [laughter] [applause] guess what happened? there wasn't any looting. haley and marsha were the face of the recovery and they were fantastic leaders. it is a reminder that during these major catastrophes, it is important to have strong leadership at the state level in order to help the citizens, their respective states, and haley barbour provided that leadership. people ofat, the mississippi are grateful to you, haley. [applause] be here on theo state two fine united states senators. was the senator during this. of time. trent lott.

wicker.th congressman they did you all a service by making sure that billions came down here to help in the recovery. i kind of got tired of their phone calls. said we need a little bit more money. the money was well spent. this part of the world is coming back stronger than it was before. we are grateful to be in your presence. [applause] i want to thank billy hughes for welcoming me and laura, to this important city. the last time i was here, it did not look as pretty. the place was devastated. to see all of the boats and cranes is a testimony to the recovery of the gulf coast. katrina, i ofbout

course think about the lives lost. 238 here in mississippi. i know you join me over time to pray for the loved ones that still more in the lives lost. it is important not to stay stuck in the past. it is important to realize how positive the future can be. i never forget flying over benny was the mayor. -- i mean tommy. my old friend tommy. tom a, when you were mayor, you had a better seat. [laughter] at age 69, it is hard to see that far but i did see you waving. i remember eddie.

eddie?s eddie, did you ever change your shorts? you still have them on. that itell you though looks like you might need a size larger. pohlman. a joy to meet these local officials. how about my friend aj -- all the way holloway. there he is. remember when we were walking through biloxi? -- there was a dial -- there was a doubt in everyone's mind as to whether the cities could recover. it was an impressive display of leadership down here on the gulf coast. i do not know if brent is here.

great to see you. .illy skelley i think the governor made that billy was on the job for one day. that is what we call a test of leadership. these theant to put first responders who are here. i want to praise our military. the devastation of that storm was unbelievable. most americans have no clue what it was like. they could see it on tv but you could not get a feel for it unless you are here. what most americans cannot get a feel for is the current and perseverance and dedication of the thousands who rushed into harms way. many of whom are in this audience. america and the people of mississippi ou a huge debt of gratitude. you a huge debt of

gratitude. this is a good opportunity to honor your current -- courage and resolve. it is good to remember that we live in a compassionate nation. there were church groups all around the nation who came down here to help feed the hungry, and house those who had lost their homes. no law or government edict said you need to go down and help. in my judgment, they responded to a higher calling. to love a neighbor like you to be loved yourself. it is a great testimony to the character of the american people. for people to come and help total strangers. i remember walking the rubble whomeeting a baptist group were feeding people. i was kind of hungry so they fed me. it was so inspiring. i hope you remember that.

i hope the people of the country who are honoring your sacrifices as they pay attention during this 10th anniversary, recognize the uniqueness of america is found in the compassion of the citizenry. this storm brought that out a lot. andnt to thank the governor his team as well as the business people, the workers who have worked to get the gulf coast back up and running. everyone is going to tell you that there is more work to be done. have the not perspective that i have which is my memory of what it looked like , it may be hard to see how much progress has been made. you have made a lot. a lot. this is a vibrant part of our country. [applause] by the way, --

[applause] people ask me all the time how he is doing. i say -- just fine. say, just fine. he still has his sense of humor, he was the guy who said, who would've thought getting out of bed at age 81 -- 91 would be more dangerous than jumping out of an airplane 89? [laughter] and the gray fox is still feisty. [applause] they asked what life is like after the presidency. it is great. i'm glad to be living in texas. we love texas. it is our home. we are happy to have returned. when you are over 65 years old and you're sitting around your friends, all you do is talk

about medicine that you take and your grandkids. [applause] we finally got two, they will be the smartest grandkids on the earth. i mean, mila can speak mandarin life is wonderful. we are thrilled to be back here with you and we thank you for the example you set. it is a great state for the great people. god bless. [applause] [applause] >> monday night on "the

communicators. this marks the 20th anniversary of modern television. discusses how it has changed. >> many of us are watching in a multiscreen world and that has been one of the more exciting outcomes of this digital revolution. the used to be there was a stationary screen and with a big-screen tv there was internet in a living room. , noneth things extending you have tablets and smartphones and wi-fi all over the place, such that monday is not just a leading back experience in the living room, it is a mobile experience wherever you want to go. etmonday night at 8:00 p.m. on c-span2.

♪ i am so thrilled and excited to be here and i want to thank c-span for covering this national book festival. we have a beautiful sunny day and i hope the camera shows behind me how huge the crowd was. >> there is one thing to remember about exceptional presidents -- they are the exception. [laughter] thank you all for coming. it has been said that heaven is a library. if that is the case, heaven has gone outside today and we are in heaven at this national book festival. >> young people are not the leaders for tomorrow. yourself i am a youth leader for today. >> there was an article for the atlantic trying to show we have

this red-blue map. when you interviewed people the divide was not a chasm. it was a little divide. political scientists were just in town. the idea that the country is as polarized as washington is wrong. people willat all realize that whatever they have done in life is something that ought to be recorded and passed on to the next generation. future byor the trying to understand the past. >> you talked about when they were mating in guam, you only talk about saipan. why did you do that? >> this is a great question. it goes to the heart of almost all the questions we are talking about. we realized that there is no way to tell the whole story. there is no way to be -- short

of an encyclopedia or having it read like a telephone book, and the telephone book is not a story, to do justice to everything. >> i think all of the opportunities are open for women now. when i was in law school, there were 13 women in my class of 500. today the law schools are 50-50. >> the key to understanding what people is he never liked who put profit above the common good. his view was these books belong to the american people for generations unborn, and needed to be handed on. >> i have made a career out of my love for books. to help spread that love i helped found the texas festival and the national book festival. while i love reading, i never thought i would write a book.

certainly not one about myself. >> the goal is in some ways a sense of urgency, to go to the oldest people in our families and to find them and get the story before it is too late. i have had a father and a daughter in los angeles, who both came together. after hearing the talk and hearing about the book, the daughter said to the father, i am taking you to the coffee shop and you will tell me the story. people formillion this health insurance bill, that will be quite a change. theartin luther king said, moral mark of the universe spins slowly but it's been stored justice. there are things wrong with the health care bill, but you know what johnson would have said?

the important thing is to pass it. once you pass it it is easy to fix it. >> the true calling is to bring back the dead. not only withthat the eisenhower's and patents, but generals ted roosevelt junior. life ihis stage in my don't think i can afford 10 years on millard fillmore or franklin pierce. there is no person to go to easily so i am bringing them all in the room at the same time and i will write about leadership. that is really what i care about. [applause] oh, thank you. i am just starting. c-span is going to have questions called in and c-span will now answer. >> " the atlantic" recently

hosted a daylong conference examining new orleans 10 years after katrina. one of the discussions included the state of new orleans housing and development. this is 20 minutes. ♪ >> hello, again, everybody. i am james bennett from "the atlantic." conversation will be about housing and neighborhood development. 70% of all homes were damaged and more than 700,000. people were displaced. living inho had been

places for generations other whole neighborhoods become uninhabitable overnight. we have had the fastest housing recovery in the history of the nation. but how might neighborhoods and housing change yucca were able to discuss this at the other and of the couch on the far end. it's a national developer headquarters here in new orleans. among other roles he chaired -- cochaired the new orleans housing task force committee.

to his right is the president of the urban institute who is our partner and putting on this event. she was previously the deputy to economic policy. before that she held a role at the department of housing and urban development. left is theate other cochairman on housing during the transition. james perry who is also the greatest -- director. severaln which he won large settlements on behalf of people whose homes were damaged in the storm. i thought we might start with you and at the big picture level , the mayor has called and we

heard some of this again today. orleans is the leading laboratory for social change. i recognize that language is not universally popular but it is a way to express the idea. what is your idea of how that has played out in housing and has the experiment then a success? >> let me start off with a vignette. we have a rather large firm headquartered here and 60% of employees lost their homes in katrina. so we decamped to a city called huoma, and we moved our offices there. the third or fourth day after the storm, my president and i outlined a budget for the louisiana. we couldn't get anybody on the phone.

worked with the governor and we outlined a proposal for help to the city including we needed it to send down a great bundle of money for housing that was later called the road home program. we were concerned they would end up re-concentrating poverty. change all theey rules to allow funding for mixed income housing and we ended up getting $11 billion-$12 billion. millionved out a 700 mixed income program which they called the piggyback program. buildingirm ended up

about 1000 homes. i believe it there. doubt that itr would be rebuilt as some suggested? >> i was a bit of a talking head and i remember jostling with a fellow from seat -- a fellow named stevens who suggested new orleans not get any money and the question was whether the government would grace us with the funding we need and we ended up getting about $142 billion. 60% from the fed, bp oil spill's insurance, philanthropic -- in the early days we didn't know what was coming and if it did not come we would not be having this conference. how do you think this character of the city and its neighborhoods was different today than it was before the storm. as a result of the redevelopment?

>> it is dramatic. to back up a second i would say -- we chatted about this a bit backstage. mayor usese that the referring to the city as a laboratory is language that a lot of people reject. i'm not sure that people uniformly agree that the city is a laboratory. dangereir lives are in and their struggling to recover they struggle with that language. , the numbers sometimes tell the tale of how different the city is.

affordry different to the purpose of a home at this purchase of a home at this stage. rent was more affordable before the storm. it's true that a number of neighborhoods were more integrated before the storm. it is also true that because of the dramatic change in housing it was a different city. 100,000 african-american residents have been displaced. you can presume they had an important role in the makeup and culture. -- in culture. is the city better or worse? i don't know. i think it is a different city. we are interested to see what the future of the city will be but certainly different.

>> the experience of this city is completely exceptional but how different are the patterns of habitation that we are seeing here and nationally and other cities across the country. not anme just say i am expert in new orleans and i am here with the folks who are. much on the shout out and the amazing team at the data center. datave a network of open network partnerships and they are rock stars in that group. if you look at the larger picture you have to remember when you look at data that you are talking about the places people live. a lot of the science research tells us that they have confirmed what we instinctively know, places where people have

built the social fabric of their lives and neighborhoods that was so deeply disrupted. places where people also access opportunity. to buildn opportunity a city which does a better job of creating access to the infrastructure that helps people strengthen their lives and improve it. disasters tendd, to -- was already suffering from population decline and challenges for affordability and it was already suffering from income disparity and all of that grew worse to the crisis. when you look at the trajectory , those are now challenges that are also national across many of the other cities that we see across

the country. costs, antal housing gulf between the cost to support rental or home ownership and unfortunately the stagnant wages. or those jobs are being created they are not in the place were they can support the cost of housing. orleans is a city of neighborhoods. are but we really have interesting neighborhoods. everybody in the world knows that and after the storm, the money did not come in initially. there was a great number of year lag. groupshborhood

frustrated by not getting the funding they needed band did together and started to plan. national and international city planners said new orleans is where i want to be. and when the money started to flow these neighborhoods started to prove -- i am one of those that believe new orleans is a far better city than before katrina. but you have to look at housing overallontext of the neighborhood improving. a tale of two cities. it was said the other day we people waiting0 for vouchers and public housing and if you opened it up today

you might have another 50,000. >> it is been closed since 2012. >> those are staggering numbers of people that are in need paying too much percentage of their income. extent, we have an issue that is more serious than many cities in the country, but only also indicated what is happening all over the nation. wasefore the crisis there an affordable, available unit for one out of every three who were in need. today that number is one out of four people. if the federal housing assistance was not available that number would be zero. there would be none. >> to ask a stupid question, james, this sounds like an opportunity for a developer.

there is tremendous demand. there is a lot of pent up demand for housing stock. so, why isn't the right stock getting created? >> let me posit for a second and say that preston is absolutely right -- let me just pause for a second and said that reston is absolutely right. it is a tale of two cities. some neighborhoods are doing remarkably well and there are others that could be better. it's like the ninth ward that couldn't be doing worse. question of looking at a community with so much demand is sondering -- there much opportunity for developers, where is the housing. the challenges that we have got to a point where there is a huge amount of need that as has already been mentioned.

wages are stagnant. there is need for more housing, but there is not enough capital to meet the demand. i think that the only way that you can cause more housing to be built is really through government subsidy. the greatest challenge is in this political environment, i think it is extremely unlikely that they will be dramatic government subsidies to build enough housing in new orleans, but probably anywhere in the nation, to meet the affordable housing need. >> the two cities we talked about, and i want to emphasize, i think your lens is on the --. new orleans is on the right trajectory. what we do with the next 10 years will likely tell whether we will reach a self-sustaining, healthy climate. i think we are heading that way.

from a developer perspective, we need both affordable and market rate housing. what we are seeing, because new orleans is a series of interesting neighborhoods, it is attracting people from all over the country to live here, and is bringing in people from the region. in orleans parish, which is 400,000 people of the 1.3 million that we have, you are seeing a great demand for housing. if you are a developer, it is a very good economy. you are seeing a lot of product being developed on all these neighborhoods that you can see right from this hotel. on the flipside, if the numbers are anywhere near what the head of the hanno says, you have 60,000-70,000 people in need of an affordable place. you are talking about, let's say you need a gap check of 70,000. do that math.

that is a $5 billion shortfall. james is absolutely right that the city, which does not have any largess in financing, the state which has a tremendous deficit, the federal dollars have been spent, we really have a challenge. i think we need to take our case to washington. maybe he will tell us how to do that. >> across the country, there is this challenge of this cap between what a modern -- gap between what a low income family can afford to pay in rent, and the cost of building a unit. even if there is need, there is not enough income. you can only produce so many apartment complexes. there is not enough demand. the work the president is trying to do to move down the income spectrum is great. you need to have more subsidy. bending the cost curve, we will talk about that in the health care crisis, bending the cost

curve on housing is i think a huge conversation we are going to have to have. how do we make it less expensive to produce more units so that we can close the gap between incomes? we also have to work on the income side. while it is an enormous credit that a city who lost more than 100,000 people, is creating jobs, creating a lot of jobs, those tend to still be in the service sector and in tourism, and not in the places that produce higher incomes. creating more income as well as lowering the cost of how raising test housing units has to be part of the conversation.

>> let's go to the audience for questions. >> i am a small rental property owner and i wanted to say that everyone always concentrates on the affordable housing, but neglects to mention how the road home small property housing program has become cost prohibitive with the cost of insurance eating up the meager profits that rentals may produce. it is basically state-forced charity that i'm providing. what can be done to help people in this situation? >> i am not sure i heard that the question. >> she asked out the small rental property program that was set up. the small rental program that was set up by the home program. the core of the question is, what can be done to help landlords who participated in the program? i would just start by saying that i agree that program, i think it was inherent in your question and i agree the program was just a disaster. it was a terrible set up and it did not help very many people. i think that it was not helpful

to renters and it was not helpful to landlords who sought to help renters. i am somewhat removed from the program at this point, so i am not sure about how or whether or not landlords can get out of the program. contact my former office at 596-2100. they do have a program that has worked extensively to try to get that program to work well. unfortunately, no one was successful in getting it to work well, but hopefully they can help you find a way out of your predicament. >> james, if i could -- there were two key insights in the question. most of the folks who do not rent do not rent from complex owners, they rent from small

owners. someone who owns an individual home or a multiunit property. figuring out how to provide capital to that is a huge problem nationwide, especially loans -- new orleans has a lower homeownership rate than other parts of the country. homeownership has been available at a lot of income levels. a lot of owner occupied homes for very moderate income families, and the very, very tight access to credit that we have had since the mortgage bust has meant that homeowners in neighborhoods that went through stress of horrible trouble refinancing their homes. we are starting to see a tiny bit of loosening. seconduld back up for a and say that the idea hide the , for all of the people who owned single and double properties in new orleans

who rent one half of their property it would be an opportunity for them to get some of that recovery money and rebuild their homes. something that stacy has really pushed on this entire time. she was forceful about this idea that all of the recovery money go to big developers and said, have to find a way to make it work for small mom-and-pop landlords. it was so frustrating to see this program fail so dramatically. i share your frustration. frustration, ie am afraid this is where we have to leave things. this is a conversation we will be picking up throughout the course of the day. it is a core issue that presents so many compelling questions. thank you all very much. [applause]

>> up next, bloomberg political reporter michael bender. and a discussion on climate change and clean energy reutzerds with david k and daniel weiss. washington journal, light at 7:00 a.m. et on c-span. on "q&a," miss brown talks about the u.s.

insurgency efforts in afghanistan. >> the u.s. did achieve improvements, but if it is worth it depends on how it ends. here is where i hesitate, but i increasingly interrogate and question myself. we don't know how it will aend. things may collapse. it is also possible that five years down the road there will be another civil war and afghanistan. isis is slowly emerging in the country, much worse than the taliban. the taliban is deeply entrenched and hardly defeated. youou end up down the road, have safe havens for the taliban and isis i will say it is worth -- was it worth the price? >> tonight on c-span's "q&a." >> a look at efforts to