Career
Role in New Orleans
Blakely was hired by New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin two years after Hurricane Katrina. [4]
Blakely's role in New Orleans was never far from controversy: he was criticized for describing New Orleans as a "third world country" [5] and its residents as "buffoons" [6] and for not accomplishing enough. [7] He alleged, in a speech in Sydney, that the actual population of New Orleans pre-Katrina was known to be slightly lower than the official number reported by the U.S. Census Bureau. He suggested this was not unusual since many cities need federal block grants based on population for federal grants. [8] On another occasion he also analogized New Orleans to divided neighborhoods of Sunnis and Shias; at Johns Hopkins University he was alleged to have said that New Orleans needed birth control (Blakely responded that he never said this, his actual statement being only that the New Orleans public schools were unprepared to enroll a growing population of children). [9] Additional targets of criticism were his "on loan" status in which he continued to receive part of his University of Sydney salary, which he was reportedly allowed since he had unpaid study leave accrued, while New Orleans paid him full-time [10] and his alleged involvement in transparency issues similar to the New Orleans e-mail controversies. [10] Blakely's New Orleans salary was $150,718 for 2007 and $154,510 for 2008. [11]
According to the Times-Picayune, "Blakely has acknowledged that trying to shepherd a clumsy and sometimes-inept City Hall bureaucracy through the maze of federal rebuilding rules has been a challenge. He admits perhaps some of his early promises about a speedy recovery were overblown." [12] Columnist James Gill used Blakely's resignation to poke fun at Nagin, who had professed being unable to remember the facts of certain controversies during Nagin's second term as mayor; Gill averred that Nagin and Blakely "complement each other admirably": "Nagin cannot remember things that did happen, while Blakely can effortlessly recall a bunch of things that didn't." [13] Subsequently, Gill's fellow columnist Stephanie Grace asserted that Blakely and Nagin have behavioral similarities such as "unfulfilled promises" and cited a 2007 comment by Blakely that New Orleans would soon have construction "cranes in the sky" as part of the rebuilding effort. [14]
In October 2009, Blakely again made controversial statements about the New Orleans recovery and his role in it. In a video interview on U.C. Berkeley's CalTV, [15] Blakely said "I should have left a little earlier, for two reasons: One, my health wasn't good. Secondly, I had other things I wanted to do, and administering a recovery is not one of them." In the same interview, Blakely claimed that the people of New Orleans were lazy and virulently racist, and that "Unless the next mayor is very clever, it's going to explode and there are going to be race riots." [16] Louisiana Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu responded to published reports of Blakely's comments, saying that they were "offensive and untrue" and calling Blakely's tenure in New Orleans a "complete failure". [17] To highlight Blakely's total failure at accomplishing anything during his time in New Orleans, he was quoted on February 23, 2011, as saying that about 30 percent of the New Orleans' residents flood victims have returned at the time of his departure. At the time of the interview two years later over 75 percent population increased with one of the highest numbers of newcomers to reach this figure. [18]
Return to Australia
On May 6, 2009, Blakely announced his intention to resign from his position as "Recovery Czar" in New Orleans effective 2009 July 1 and to return to Australia. Simultaneous with his resignation, his agency was renamed the Office of Community Development, supervised by Blakely's deputy director Austin Penny. [19] In a farewell presentation to the City Council's Recovery Committee, Blakely urged that New Orleans "face south" to increase trade with Latin America in view of the Panama Canal expansion project. He also recommended focusing the city's biomedical industry on tropical diseases and working on New Orleans East to rebuild Pendleton Memorial Methodist Hospital [20] and to "let people know we're in the technology business" by making the Michoud Assembly Facility a tourist destination. [21]
Shortly before his departure from New Orleans, Blakely was asked whether he would return if the city suffers a future disaster. Blakely's response:
- "You don't invest this much time, this much heart without coming back. . . . I'm an American. I'm not going to let this city become an embarrassment." [22]
When his role in New Orleans ended in 2009, Blakely returned to an appointment at Australia's University of Sydney. [23]
Blakely received multiple recognitions for his work in New Orleans including “Key to the City from the City of New Orleans; [24] The Eliot Richardson Lectureship & Award from the American Academy of Public Administration; [25] The Jay Blakely Chatterjee Award for Service to the profession by the Collegiate Schools of Planning; [26] Recognition for “social inclusion in disaster recovery” from UN Habitat; [27] and the Planners of Color of the Collegiate Schools of Planning established the Edward J Blakely bi-annual award for the academic planner who contributes the most to social inclusion scholarship and action.” [28]
Blakely's name continued in the New Orleans news, as when Nagin was quarantined in China while on the way to a University of Sydney conference where Nagin was to discuss, according to the printed program, how he "launched several high-profile investigations that resulted in a paradigm shift that unleashed unprecedented economic development"—a statement which attracted a quip from satirical columnist James Gill:
- "Shifting paradigms sounds like heavy work. Maybe Nagin borrowed a crane in the sky from Blakely." [29]
In 2011 Blakely published a memoir about Katrina [30] —a book which Gill reviewed scathingly, asserting that "It would take another book to list all the errors in Blakely's." [31]
After his return to Sydney Blakely served several high-profile roles including District Commissioner of a newly established body the Greater Sydney Commission from 2015 to 2018 and Acting Commissioner of the State of New South Wales Land and Environment Court from 2018 to 2020.
Blakely completed a master's degree in law from Northwestern University in Chicago in 2018. [32] He is currently a Justice of the Peace in New South Wales as well as a class B member (non-practicing) member of the New South Wales Bar. [33] He is a consultant working on Affordable and Indigenous housing in Australia and a member of the OECD panel on Economic Development and employment. [34] [35] [36] He is a regular visiting professor in Climate change and Disaster Management at the University of Venice, Italy. [32]
Blakely is also an active qualified field referee in the senior and youth divisions US Football (called Gridiron) In Australia. [37]
His most recent book with Richard Hu is Crafting Innovative Places for Australia’s Knowledge Economy 2019 Macmillan Books. [38]
Blakely is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration (United States). [39]
William Jennings Jefferson is an American former politician from Louisiana whose career ended after his corruption scandal and conviction. He served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for nine terms from 1991 to 2009 as a member of the Democratic Party. He represented Louisiana's 2nd congressional district, which includes much of the greater New Orleans area. He was elected as the state's first black congressman since the end of Reconstruction.
Clarence Raymond Joseph Nagin Jr. is a convicted felon and an American former politician who was the 60th Mayor of New Orleans, Louisiana, from 2002 to 2010. A Democrat, Nagin became internationally known in 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
John Leigh "Jay" Dardenne, Jr. is an American lawyer and politician from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who served as commissioner of administration for Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards. A Republican, Dardenne previously served as the 53rd lieutenant governor of his state from 2010 to 2016. Dardenne was Louisiana secretary of state. He was previously a member of the Louisiana State Senate for the Baton Rouge suburbs, a position he filled from 1992 until his election as secretary of state on September 30, 2006.
Ivor van Heerden is a South African-born American scientist, recognized for his work in the marine sciences and his significant contributions in the field of hurricane research. He was the deputy director of the Louisiana State University (LSU) Hurricane Center; however his tenure at LSU ended in 2010, when he was dismissed by the university under controversial circumstances following his criticism of the handling of Hurricane Katrina.
The first round of the New Orleans mayoral election of 2006 took place on April 22, 2006; a runoff between incumbent Mayor Ray Nagin and Louisiana Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu took place on May 20, resulting in reelection for Mayor Nagin. The Mayor of New Orleans is the top official in New Orleans' mayor-council system of government.
Jacquelyn Brechtel Clarkson was an American politician who served in the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1994 to 2002 and on the New Orleans City Council from 1990 to 1994, 2002 to 2006, and 2007 to 2013. She had been Honorary consul of Lithuania in New Orleans from December 2014 to her death. She was the mother of actress Patricia Clarkson.
Renée Gill Pratt is an American politician from New Orleans, Louisiana. She was also Director of the Center for Student Retention and Success in Southern University at New Orleans. On July 25, 2011, she was found guilty of racketeering. For this crime, she served a 4-year sentence.
Chris Rose is a New York Times Best-Selling New Orleans, Louisiana, writer and journalist. For years best known for light-hearted writing in the Times-Picayune, he gained greater attention for his chronicles of the effect of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans since 2005.
Ánh Quang "Joseph" Cao is a Vietnamese-American politician who was the U.S. representative for Louisiana's 2nd congressional district from 2009 to 2011. A member of the Republican Party, he is the first Vietnamese American and first native of Vietnam to serve in Congress.
James Gill is a writer and a columnist from the United Kingdom.
Victor O. Ukpolo is the former Chancellor of Southern University at New Orleans.
Stacy Aline Singleton Head is an American lawyer and former president of the New Orleans City Council.
Mose Oliver Jefferson was a member of the New Orleans family that includes his younger brother, former U.S. Representative William J. Jefferson. On 21 August 2009, Mose Jefferson was convicted on four felony counts of bribery.
Betty Jefferson(born 1938) is the elected assessor of New Orleans' Fourth Municipal District; she was first elected on 1998 February 7 and was reelected in 2002 and 2006. Before her political career in New Orleans she lived for a number of years in Chicago. She is an older sister of convicted felon former U.S. Representative William J. Jefferson.
Angela Coleman, daughter of New Orleans Fourth Municipal District Assessor Betty Jefferson, was one of four individuals indicted in 2009 by a federal grand jury for the U.S. Justice Department's Eastern District of Louisiana. The charges on violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act were also directed against Betty Jefferson, Mose Jefferson, and Mose Jefferson's companion Renée Gill Pratt.
Brenda Jefferson Foster was a witness for the prosecution in the 2008-2009 trials of her older siblings Betty Jefferson and Mose Jefferson, Betty Jefferson's daughter Angela Coleman, and Mose Jefferson's companion former City Councilwoman Renée Gill Pratt.
Michael Kirk Talbot is an American politician from Louisiana. A Republican, Talbot has represented the 10th district in the Louisiana State Senate since 2020, and previously represented the 78th district in the Louisiana House of Representatives between 2008 and 2020.
Edward Joseph Price III is an American former politician in Louisiana who served as the mayor of Mandeville in St. Tammany Parish. After first being elected in April 1996, he resigned from office in October 2009 while under indictment for perjury. He later served 40 months in prison on charges of income tax evasion and corruption.
In October 2009, Keith Bardwell, a Robert, Louisiana Justice of the Peace, refused to officiate the civil wedding of an interracial couple because of his personal views, in spite of a 1967 ruling by the United States Supreme Court which prohibited restrictions on interracial marriage as unconstitutional.
