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Nagin Apologizes for Bashing Philly

Monday, April 23, 2007

PHILADELPHIA - April 22, 2007 (WPVI) -- New Orleans' mayor now says he's sorry... he didn't mean it. A spokesman for Mayor Street says Nagin has apologized for his remarks that Philadelphia is a dirty city, and that he didn't mean to offend anyone. He added that he had a great time while he was visiting here last week.

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Nagin was in Philadelphia last week to see the city's anti-blight program, the Neighborhood Transformation Initiative, in action.

Saturday, while speaking to New Orleans residents about their recovery from Hurricane Katrina, Mayor Nagin compared what he sees in New Orleans to what he saw during his visit to Philadelphia.

"Let me tell you something. I want you to go to Philly, and you will appreciate how clean New Orleans is. Just go and walk around Philly a little bit," Nagin told the crowd Saturday in New Orleans. "You will appreciate – am I lying? You will appreciate New Orleans. We still have work to do but we definitely beat them by a long shot."

Late Sunday night, Mayor Nagin's office finally responded to our calls and emails looking for comment as well about what he said. Nagin tells us he was trying to focus on the positive in New Orleans and its rebuilding efforts.

Nagin said, "I intended no disrespect to the City of Philadelphia. We are truly thankful for the generosity of our hosts and look forward to a long, positive working relationship between our cities."

Apology or not, his comments aren't sitting well with many of you.

Sunday morning, Action News showed some tape of Nagin's comments to people at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, including Philadelphia City Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell (D) whose legislation helped start the city's anti-blight programs. They are programs that Mayor Nagin commended during his visit to Philadelphia last week.

"I don't know what parts of Philly he saw. Certainly we do have areas. That's why we had to float this $295 million bond and why we had to work so hard to tear down blight. That's what it was for," Blackwell told Action News on Sunday morning. "But we have many areas. Nothing's more beautiful than the Art Museum everywhere you look."

"It's taking shots where it doesn't belong," Amy Jubelirer of Abington said. "We should all be working together to clean up both cities and not spend our time insulting someone else."

Linette Black of Chestnut Hill told Action News, "This is a wonderful city. Basically, very clean. It's disappointing that he went to areas where we have bad days just as other cities do."

"I think this is a very clean city," Al Black of Chestnut Hill added, "with a lot of energetic people that help keep it clean."

Many people Action News spoke with thought the remarks by Nagin were inappropriate, especially since Philadelphia opened its arms and took in a number of Hurricane Katrina victims.

Although Philadelphia Mayor John Street didn't want to comment publicly Sunday afternoon, a spokesperson for the mayor said Nagin requested to bring about 20 officials with him to come to see how Philadelphia was coping with its blight problem. They toured sections of the city that had seen some work and some that have not.

Mayor Street's spokesperson told Action News that Nagin said the work being done was "phenomenal" and throughout the day he talked about how impressed he was with what had been accomplished.

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