Unassigned

  After recently visiting Philadelphia, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin had this to say about the city:

"Let me tell you something. You ought to go to Philly and you will appreciate how clean New Orleans is. Just go and walk around Philly a little bit and you will appreciate. Am I lying? You will appreciate New Orleans. We still have some work to do but we definitely beat them by a long shot,"

Here are some of the comments that viewers had in response to Nagin's remarks:

Anthony Choi said:

"I'm a Philadelphian born and raised in the NE, and I served in New Orleans, LA and Biloxi, MS for 3 months last year under the AmeriCorps*National Civilian Community Corps program. As a result New Orleans has a special place in my heart, so I will resist my urge to bash on the city as a whole. I will direct this anger towards Nagin, who once again manages to offend all the wrong people. If his words reflect any of the attitude of his "chocolate city", then New Orleans could also learn a thing or two about respect and true brotherly love. I cannot even express my irritation into words, as it would include a lot of expletives."

Dr. Jolie Harris, Hammond, LA said:

"I am a native New Orleanian. Regarding Mayor Nagin's comments about Philadelphia, ignore the man. We all do. All he is good for is stupid remarks that hurt the city. If an apology helps, I apologize for his words. It was unnecessary and rude of him. This does not negate the fact the media needs to carp on stupid unimportant things like this when a whole portion of the US is still suffering from awful governmental neglect. But that is a whole other topic. LOL!"


Carol King said:

"Of course we all know there some great sights here in Philly. Well
where did they take Mayor Nagin. But let's be honest there are also some real pits. Driving through more then a few neighborhoods here has the feel and look of some "third word" countries shanty towns. New
Orleans's disaster was an cat of God Philly's disaster is the lack of
care of the poverty stricken neighborhoods. He's right get over it!"

W. Hertlein said:

"It's good to hear the truth about Philadelphia. Thanks to the mayor for being truthful. Just maybe the right person heard him and will try to correct the problem. The plight is now coming to the suburbs just look at the sound barriers along the freeway in New Jersey."

Hallie said:

"I think Mayor Nagin speaks his mind, and I think he is right about what he said. Everyone is so politically correct these days and he is not. Good for him. Leave the man alone, he hit the nail on the head. The city looks like a trash dump. In my house we call it 'filth-adephia'."

Charles Law said:

"I couldn't agree more with Mayor Nagin's comments regarding the dirty conditions found in Philadelphia.

All it takes is a walk around Center City Philadelphia and seeing the plethora of hot dog wrappers, soda cups, and discarded cigarette packs. All of these could just as easily have been disposed of in the trash receptacles provided by the city.

It doesn't end there either. Along both city and state highways enough discarded materials could be salvaged to build your own automobile.

Philadelphia seems to represent a culture of use and discard. It's as if people just don't even notice the filth and squalor surrounding them.

An even greater concern to me, is that the people I saw interviewed seem to be taking issue with Mayor Nagin, rather than admitting to the problem. I also see no individual commitment to improve the situation by picking up trash rather than randomly discarding it.

Don't the citizens of Philadelphia travel to other major cities and notice how much cleaner they are than Philadelphia?

Hurrah to Mayor Nagin, for bringing this to Philadelphia's and the nation's attention."


Tonya Gass said:

"Mayor Nagin didn't speak nothing but the truth and we all know the truth can hurt, so Philly need to stop sucking like some little brats and just clean up their city.

Go Mayor Nagin for speaking the truth!"

Anonymous said:

"What's the "controversy" about Nagin's remark? A lot of Philly outside Center City is a pig sty with a lowlife mentality. When your taxes are paying for trash pickup in front of your house, why would you throw stuff down embankments (like along railroads) behind your home? Don't tell me people from outside the neighborhood do the dumping--why would they drag the trash around to the back of row houses and then to the middle of the block?
This is the only city where I've often seen people throw trash on the sidewalk three feet from a trash can."

Beth St. Clair of Germantown said:

"Although Ray Nagin may have been socially incorrect in his remarks, I think the city is in need of focused attention on the environment. There are numerous neighborhoods in which trash is a huge issue. Whereas Center City and some surrounding areas have extensive trash clean up, other parts of the city do not. Crime increases, business and social events decrease, and the city overall suffers. It's true that other cities are much cleaner. I'll be looking for a mayoral candidate interested in focusing on this issue. If we tackle the small things, we win the war on the big things.

Corinne of Manayunk said:

"I think that instead of spending this time defending a losing battle, maybe we need to take a look at why someone would say that about our city. When I look out of my window, I see trash and spray paint on walls. I live in Manayunk where I know the problem isn't as bad as in other Philadelphia neighborhoods. We should take what he said for what it is -- which is a comment based on observation -- and get out there and clean up our city."

Pam Seymour of Wallingford said:

"Obviously, the mayor saw something while he was here to cause him to make these comments.

Instead of attacking him, we should be thanking him for pointing out the mess and just go out and clean it up."

Anonymous said:

"Why should we call the New Orleans Mayor's comments controversial? They are the truth. We should not be outraged with him, but with our own lack of civic pride. Our streets are filthy. Suddenly everyone is upset because someone pointed it out??? Doesn't seem right to me."


Trevor Licwinko of Philadelphia said:

"I think that he is ignorant. He needs to come to Philly and give a public apology. He insulted New York and now Philly. Who is next. He can't even run his city correctly. So what gives him the right to an opinion on how our city is run."