Louisiana Senator Tells Buckhead Coalition New Orleans Surging Back

U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana might come from New Orleans, but on Wednesday she made Buckhead feel as much like her home as the French Quarter.

In a warm-hearted address at the Buckhead Coalition's annual meeting,  Landrieu cited the deep connections between Atlanta and New Orleans, calling the two Southern belles "sister cities."

Buckhead Coaltion President Sam Massell said he'd known the moderate Democrat since she was a teenager. Massell was mayor of Atlanta at the same time Landrieu's father, Moon, was mayor of New Orleans, and the two forged enduring ties.

The close friendship was shown in Mary Landrieu's flying from Washington to speak at the Buckhead Coalition meeting, attended by an array of city, Fulton County and state political, business, nonprofit and media leaders.

Landrieu, whose brother, Mitch, is now mayor of New Orleans, cited the city's progess in recovering from the devastation of flooding caused by Hurricane Katrina, which in August 2005 caused massive breaks in the city's levee system.

"Our city is litterally rising out of the ashes and slop of a flood," she said, adding that "80 percent of the residenital neighborhoods in the entire city were destroyed." Landrieu's family lost their longtime home in the Lakview section.

She thanked Atlantans for their contributions to the Crescent City's recovery, saying, "it takes a whole country like ours to build a community." Now, she said, New Orleans is "building a city we dream we can be."

Landrieu cited the massive reforms of the city's public school system, long considered one of the worst in the nation even before the flooding. The city is building a new system of public charter schools, she said."Middle class whites and blacks and Latinos are returning to the public schools."

The city, led by her brother, is also taking steps to "create an ecosystem for entrepreneurship," she said.

As chairman of the Senate Small Business Committee, Landreiu said she is seeking to do the same on a natinal level as sponosor of an entrepreneurship bill to support small businesses. She said she wants to bring the same kind of financial resources to Southern states like Georgia and Louisiana that venture capital firms provide to California and New York.

She also expressed support for walkable, sustainable communities, saying that after years of the country being built for automobiles, "wouldn't it be nice to build it for people?"