In light of the fact that the city of New Orleans has seen a lot of tragedy, suffered from a lot of underpreparedness, and now stands a shot at rebuilding itself to something better, I've been keeping up somewhat with its impending mayoral election to be held on 22 April (which is on a Saturday, but whatever--to each his own).

I'm surprised that there are actually twenty-four candidates running for the position. For a city that needs such a dramatic overhaul, I'm frankly surprised that anyone would be up to such a daunting task. To become new mayor of New Orleans at this time would have a drastic effect on one's personal image. Most of the citizens are looking for a fearless leader who will step up to the arduous rebuilding task, and the candidates are not lacking in their promises to do so:

Kimberly Williamson Butler, who was fired during her stint as CAO under Mayor Nagin's administration, claims: "I represent every person who feels that their voice hasn't been heard, every person who has been incarcerated, right or wrongly. I can rank myself among many heroes: Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi and Nelson Mandela.”

Ron Forman proposes to use the riverbank as a "new front porch for the city."

"Johnny" Adriani says, “Things don't really look any different than they did right after the storm. As I told my father, 'If someone doesn't do something, we may as well leave.”

Then there are candidates who propose holding regular emergency evacuation drills (for a population for 1.4 million in the Metro Area? Brilliant); some who put forth generic platforms that could be applicable to just about any city (one says New Orleans needs "an increase in affordable housing" and a resurgence of small businesses--wholly generic). One candidate even suggests brigning in revenue from other sources besides tourism and lists "shipbuilding" as an alternative (because it makes perfect sense that a city at such great risk to be devastated by a hurricane would do well in that respect).

It seems like all these people are pointing fingers and fussing about what should be done--none of their platforms correlate, so who's right about what New Orleans needs? As far as this cynic can see, each candidate's goal is not to be a servant of the city, but to one-up the other candidates and assume Hero Status as the Mayor Who Rebuilt New Orleans. I hope for their sake that they're already working towards helping the city, even if it means taking out time from their political platforms on high to go out and build a school or bring food to a homeless shelter.

I for one, agree with Mayor Nagin: New Orleans would be awesome as a chocolate city. Imagine being able to take a bite from a Godiva City Hall. Delicious.