Mayor Cantrell touted the new system as a major improvement over what her predecessor put in place. Author: By David Hammer / Eyewitness Investigator Published: 6:36 PM CST January 18, 2021 Updated: 10:53 PM CST January 18, 2021 NEW ORLEANS — Echoing more controversial comments made exactly 15 years ago in the infamous Chocolate City Speech by former Mayor Ray Nagin, Mayor LaToya Cantrell seized on the symbolism of Martin Luther King Jr. Day to announce new efforts to expand access to public contracts for disadvantaged businesses. “This community remains an Afrocentric community,” Cantrell said, offering her words of encouragement in a far less polarizing context than when Nagin promised on Martin Luther King Day 2006 that a New Orleans emerging from Hurricane Katrina’s devastation “will be chocolate at the end of the day.”