By Victor Omondi
Nguyen made the comments while taking a driving tour of the district together with people from the media. She was responding to a question about what kind of business would thrive in the neighborhood, whose population has declined since Hurricane Katrina in 2015.
“I’ll be candid—having Wal-Mart come to the neighborhood, it ain’t gonna happen,” the councilwoman said. “This is just a reality, OK, and this is not putting anybody down: I think people in the Lower Nine like those greasy fried chicken.”
“I don’t like to have conversations just to sugarcoat people and say, ‘Yeah, we can get a Raising Cane’s,’” Nguyen said of a popular chicken chain. “You know very well that people here like those chickens, those fried chicken … you can’t ask people to start up a business and not be able to make money.”
However, Rep. Jason Hughes was not pleased with Nguyen’s comment. The Democrat whose District overlaps that of the councilwoman said he was “shocked, appalled and insulted” by Nguyen’s words.
Since 1985, the councilwoman is the first non-Black to represent the District where most residents are Blacks.
According to NOLA.com, the current population of the city’s Lower Ninth Ward is only a third of what it was before Hurricane Katrina. It is estimated that there are about 1,600 residents in the area, indicating a significant drop from 5,000 before the Hurricane.
During the tour, Nguyen also said, “You know what I really want to do with all this? Burn it down,” pointing at a site of illegal dumping. She claimed that clearing it would cost the city more than $40,000 and burning it down is the best way to get things going.
Nevertheless, Nguyen is advocating for a Black Lives Matter mural in the neighborhood, as well as affordable housing.
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