| V1#11 |
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True Transparency: Interview with James Carter
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During the forum, he came off long-winded and highfalutin, and I had initially pegged Carter as a high achiever making an upward career move.
Now he is in a two-way run-off with fellow Algiers resident, Kristin Gisleson Palmer.
After a friendly greeting he says, “Oh man, I’m not feeling so good.” Allergies are giving him trouble. Sneezing and coughing, he is clearly dragging himself through the day; but he talks at some length, and answers questions as long as I ask them.
My first question is about his major at New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts (NOCCA) a secondary school on the river in District C. “Theater,” he says, adding ruefully, “but they had me do some dance too.” He is a big man, about six feet four, and looks like a pro football player. Presumably his dance experience did not go well.
Before NOCCA, Carter went to McDonough 35, a “college prep” magnet school. He later got degrees in philosophy and law at Howard University in Washington, D.C. After returning to the city, he made a deliberate decision to move to the Bywater because of its “historic disposition.”
“Why else would we choose to stay in New Orleans,” he says, “other than our love for its architecture and culture?”
He lived in a shotgun double in the Bywater, and says that a shared “natural affinity towards local architecture” was one of the things that brought him and his wife together. She lived in a shotgun double in Algiers. In 2001, after two years in the Bywater, he moved to Algiers, where his wife is the principal of Martin Behrman Elementary. “A very intelligent lady,” he says.
Carter’s biggest campaign theme, along with crime prevention, has been open communication with constituents. At the Marigny forum, all the candidates promised to be guided by what residents want, particularly in regards to local planning questions, but Carter repeated the mantra most often.
I ask whether he’s familiar with a recent deal between the City and the Port that was made without consulting residents. (The Port Authority and the City made an unannounced agreement to share power and be more cooperative over Riverfront land. This brought angry complaints from the Marigny neighborhood association, among others, which is concerned about the specter of high rises going up on the Riverfront.)
“This deal is the antithesis of my idea of how government should work,” Carter says. “What you won’t have under me is peekaboo politics. We need true transparency.”
Then he shifts into a higher emotional gear, adding, “I’m the candidate who’s going to bring democracy to New Orleans.” Then, reflectively, “I can’t even say bring democracy back to New Orleans, since you may not have ever had democracy in New Orleans in the past.” This is a grand claim, the one about restoring democracy, and perhaps overambitious, but he makes it with simple assurance, and it doesn’t sound like an empty campaign line. I’m willing to believe he thinks he can make it happen.
This democracy mission seems to be reflected in his position on the issue of the power of the City Planning Commission. (Given the current state of the city’s housing and infrastructure, the Planning Commission may be the most significant issue in all the city council races. Will the City Council elect to keep its power to override the Planning Commission, or will it give the Planning Commission full autonomy? In other words, will the Commission have complete power over rebuilding, or will the Council maintain its veto?) Carter wants the council to keep its power to override, because “nobody elects the Planning Commission. If the planning commission has “’unfettered power,’” he says, “you end up with an all-powerful mayor, since the planning commission is appointed by the mayor.”
His other concern, however, is individual council members wielding too much power. When a council member wants something done in his or her district, he or she must get the approval of the rest of the Council. But while this system ought to act as a check on individual members, Carter says there is a “you scratch my back” reality in which “Council members fall into lock step” to approve each other’s pet projects. This is a process Carter says he will “absolutely stop,” adding, “I will not be a rubber stamp for other City Council members.” Instead he’ll review each case on its merits.
Such balance of power issues, he says, are why an individual with a law background is a good person to have on the council. There is a “natural entrée into a legislative position,” he says, “for someone in the legal profession.” Here, and throughout our conversation, his occasionally academic or legal language seems much more natural than it did during the forum in the Marigny. I realize its part of who he is, something he perhaps can’t help overdoing, rather than something he’s putting on.
Finally, I ask what he has learned from his campaigning. “One big thing I’ve learned,” he says, still sneezing into a handkerchief, “is that if you listen to political prognosticators, they will discourage you from running based on shallow things, such as race.” He’s found that, in fact, people are more interested in competence and credentials. “Folks have viewed me from a human level.”
| JAMES CARTER ANSWERS THE ESSENTIAL 5 | |
| 1. The Editorial Board of NOLAFugees.com advocates secession for the city of New Orleans. While they do not expect any candidate to endorse such a plan, they would like to know whose face you would most like to see on our new currency. | My father |
| 2. If elected, would you promise to read “A Bend In the River,” a novel by Nobel Prize-winning author V.S. Naipaul, within 6 months of inauguration? The editorial board of NOLAFugees promises to send you a copy. | Yes |
| 3. Politicians and weather people are always telling us to have an evacuation plan. What is your evacuation plan? |
“I first make provisions for my wife and child, (he has a three year-old son) as well as the oldest lady in my church. She’s 90 years old.” He then calls other family members to make sure they have the means to leave, as well as providing “monetary assistance” to other non-family members who need it. “I’m in the hole several thousand dollars,” he says, as a result of providing such assistance during Katrina. |
| 4. Multiple choice: What is the greatest track to come off the Cash Money record label?
“Back That Azz Up,” by Juvenile |
“Bling Bling” because of its universal appeal. (Carter notes that B.G. tried to copyright the phrase, but failed because of its widespread use.) |
| 5. Agree or disagree with the following statement:
“Faith may be optional, but belief in quasi-public utility monopolies is mandatory.” |
Disagree |
Simon Hand, NOLAFugees.com's own Malcolm Muggeridge, is marrying Sarah DeBacher on May 21.
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