After 2 years New Orleans Fire Houses still unrepaired

I came across an article on CNN today detailing the work of "The Leary Fighrefighters Foundation" to rebuild and repair fire houses in New Orleans. New Orleans had 22 of 33 fire houses damaged during Katrina and it's aftermath, and the city and state had yet to aggressively move to rebuild any of the destroyed and damaged fire stations.

Dennis Leary the star of "Rescue Me" stated the reason for his foundation's involvement in the restoration work, "I gave up on ever hoping that politicians in this country -- local, state or federal -- would step in to help these guys,"

While Frigidaire is partnering with the Leary foundation, as far as I could determine from researching a number of NO sites, the $9.1Million in FEMA funds for infrastructure had yet to be spent by the local government to repair any of the sites. According to Edward Blakely, the czar of New Orleans recovery effort "Under city law," he said, "there has to be enough money in city coffers to pay for a project before construction starts." Blakely added, "funding projects has become a shell game of sorts since Katrina." What astonishes me even more is that New Orleans still after 2 years hasn't figured a way to either correct their city laws to allow proceeding faster, or are unwilling to do so.

To me this is another in a long line of political boundaries precluding relief monies getting to where they need to get to as soon as possible, and is one of the most egregious public oversight.

If you are reading this and are as disgusted at the response of our government bureaucracy to step up to the plate and want to donate to the Leary Foundation to aid in this undertaking feel free to visit DONATE TO THE NEW ORLEANS RESTORATION PROJECT and help.