Our social structure, our architecture, our body of literature. We even have our own funerals. So we measure quality of life by way of life, if our way of iv is intact and our culture is intact, then thats fine. And we dont really, in a big part of our way of life is to be comfortable with our otherness. We really dont aspire. We love to go to new york. We love to go to las vegas, and we love to go to washington, or anywhere. Rose even paris. Paris who wouldnt, you have have to be who wouldnt, we love it but what we like is when we come back home we come back to a way of life. We little a little dichbly and are comfortable. Rose a place to raise your kids. That was the pivoting factor. Because they have had all kinds of exposure in washington, of course, but it r8, when you send your kid out here you know 12,000 and they know, more importantly, they know 12,000 moms have eyes on them. Mom also call you and say i saw your kid so that, we feel very safe about that. But theres, it really is a tight community and everybody is great values here. What we didnt expect and what i am really loving was, because we love politics, were never going to not love politics and policy, the rate with which and the speed but the beauty and the lack of acrimony in progressing as the mayor seven years ag ago Officials Say we are 15 feet underwater, now look where we are. We are brain gain, were not just a come to destination. Were not just a travel and leisure place. Were really making huge reforms that are going to be necessary if were to make progress across the country in the 21st century. We hope to be able to share them with other urban areas so we can reenvironment allize this country from the cities out. The wall street journal recently said young nerds with laptops. My favorite, my boyfriend. Im a cougar to the young nerds with laptops. Rose are moving to new orleanses from new york and san francisco. Yeah. Rose so these are smart people looking to have a good life, who know that in todays world where you can be anywhere, where distance and time are no longer as big a factor as it used to be you can do it all. Let me give you an example what this means. Music is huge, clint davis, he puts on gas ferx the super bowl. I said clint, what is the status of music right now. He said were in a golden era. We have street bands everywhere. There are 150 different bands that are playing this weekend in new orleans. And so but what is happened is if you think of a street band, the way this guys exist is by tips. And whether what do we carry that young people dont carry, cash, money. Okay. And so theyve developed an app, these silicon via guys that you can tip with your cell phone. So the guy puts it out there so the street musicians are playing, and you just, they have a thing, if you want to tip them five buck, you dont have five bucks you can tip with your cell phone, that is where Technology Technology makes culture. I was having a great time sort of commuting back and forth between here and new york and never really thinking about this as a place that i would build a permanent life. And one of the reasons that was, was because it wasnt a city where people were really taking responsible for themselves any more. There was no civic you know there was no sense that you do get the government you deserve. You need to fight to make things better. I mean i grew newspaper a small town in mississippi but there was more civic activism in a place like that, still, now, than there was in new orleans for a long time. People just had kind of given up. Oh, the School System will never be okay so were not going to do anything about it well just move out of the district. Or you know of course young people are being to leave because theres no jobs. I mean our jobs, talking about the super bowl, we always do big parties well. I dont know if you were at the Republican Convention in 88 was one of the greatest convention ever, wasnt it. I mean would you rather be here or rather be in detroit or wherever else. So that was a great convention. We always did that. But the whole damn economy was based on throwing parties. And now weve got a real economy with young people knowing that they have jobs. Rose and young people coming in because of the way of living and because the world is obviously as tom friedman said flat. So time and distance are shorter and all that. And why not live here. Yesterday, monday morning i flew to new york. My plane was late because it was raining, and snowing on the ground at laguardia. I left, it was just a gorgeous day like this i was almost crying in my driveway as i got to the car to go to new york, because it was such a Beautiful Day here, why leave. Rose we continue this evening with the mayor of new orleans, Mitch Landrieu. It was a tragic moment in that building just outside of our window that had 13,000 american citizens in it. It had the roof peeling off of it. And it was just a bad time. And since that time the people of new orleans did something that i think is pretty miraculous. They didnt accept the fact that the city was going to continue dying. In fact, katrina and rita didnt cause all of our problems. We had many of them before the storm started. But what happened was the people like james and mary, julia, other people came back and said you know what, that place is worth saving the. New orleans people themselves said were not leaving. Rose also the man doing the playbyplay for cbs sports jim nans. We made a stop in the mid 60s for almost four years and it coincided with the birth of the new orleans saints. So the first Football Game i ever saw was september 17th, 1967. They were playing the los angeles rams, first game in saints history, it happened to be the first game i ever witnessed in my dad got standing room only tickets. We sat in the aisle, two rows from the top, just in time to watch john gillium, famous down here in new orleans, return the opening kickoff, 94 yards for a touchdown. At that point i was hopelessly in love with the nfl. Had no idea that i would one day be calling the nfl or that i would am could be ba and have a chance to call a super bowl here in new orleans. Rose we conclude with an owners perspective on the nfl, robert kraft of the new england patriots. My philosophy in any of our business to get the best people we can get. That doesnt mean the person i might choose might not be right for you. But it is right for us. And i have to feel that i can build a relationship with key managers. And if i cant, then we usually dont do it. And they dont teach this stuff at Harvard Business school. I mean its just something you mel and you feel and its right or it isnt right. Rose a program note, more of my conversations about new orleanses with james carville, mary matalin and julia reed will be seen next week. Tonight, the city and the game when we continue. Funding for charlie rose was provided by the following captioning sponsored by Rose Communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. Rose Mitch Landrieu is here, the mayor of the city of new orleans. Since he took office in 2010 hes had to deal with a daunting area of challenges from government corruption to oil spills. He has tackled reform and regeneration with gusto. Newsweek named him one of the countrys five most innovative mayors. Im pleased to have him on this program. Welcome. Thank you, charlie. Great to see you. Rose we have listened here this program on this day, car ville and matalin, and mary matalin, love new orleans, talk about it with enthusiasm, the challenge, julia reed who loved the city and talks about all that it means for her as a writer. Tell me where the city is through the eyes of the man responsible for taking it to the next step. Well, first of all, you know how spectacular this place is. It has something about it that is just very, very unique. Its hard to explain but its a very deep, rich, comfortable feeling that people have when they come here. When katrina hit i think its fair to say that the nation really gasped for a moment at the possibility that we would lose not only a Great American city but this particular American City which is so very different from any other place, that really represents the soul of america through culture, art, music, historic preservation. You know our history, we are the only city in the nation that had the flag of france and spain it is just a very rich place. And the nation also got to witness really probably one of the worst days that was seen with so Many American citizens left behind it was a tragic moment in that building just outside of our window that had 13,000 american citizens in it. It had the roof peeling off of it. It was just a bad time. And since that time the people of new orleans did something that i think is pretty miraculous. They didnt accept the fact that the city was going to continue dying. In fact, katrina and rita didnt cause all of our problems. We had many of them before the storm started. But what happened was the people like james and mary, julia, other people came back and said you know what, the place is worth saving. The new orleans people themselves said were not leaving. They began slowly to stand back off, to kind of dry off to say to themselves, you know, this is a very bad thing that happened to us. We had 500,000 homes that were hurt, 250,000 that were destroyed, we lost 1800 people. But they decided they were going to build back and they werent just going to build back the way they were they were going to take this opportunity to really think about the way new orleans should have always been, to correct the mistakes of the past. And to think about building a new American Building would look like if you were able to maintain the deep and authentic history. This game is really just a symbol of that. The game is in the middle as you know of mardi gras. It is a symbol of new orleans going from a physical structure that was completely destroyed to now a building structure. That is a pretty good symbol of resurrection and redemption for a people that were really down for a long time. Did you in your own mind ever doubt that new orleans wouldnt survive and that what made it an unbelievably unique place would survive the culture, the sense of something that was deep in it. I never had any doubts. I really did not. Because i am from here. Im born and raised and i think that most people from new orleanses who love this place, love it in an unconditional. And they love it hard and they love it deep. I never had any doubt that the city of new orleans would survive. I did have questions about whether or not the city and its people could ever find their footing, and find the ability to build something that was new. To build something that was the way it always should have been. And the reality is, and because its not a at the time a come pli, it takes work every day. You really have to commit yourself to being blifern. And because new orleans is so old and authentic, we are not used easily to change. But its been an amazing run so in education reform we have done something very different. Healthcare reform, weve done very different. Government reorganization weve done differently. Weve managed in a very short period of time to really try to maintain that authentic culture but actually try to find a new way to do business going forward. As you know when hurricane hit here it hit the northward with huge force. And so many people suffered so much. And questions were raised about race and other issues. Where are you in rebuilding the northward . Where are you in trying to, whatever those scars were, get them to heal. Yes, well let me say this. The storm did not discriminate. This storm, and people have a hard time envisioning this, really put the entire city underwater, not just the 9th ward. The lake view, again tilly, black neighborhood, white neighborhoods, old neighborhood, newer nab hoods got completely wiped. Not every part of the city is back. And this is not a surprise. The best quote about it he said when it gets cold, the poor get korld and when if gets hot, the poor get hotter. And we have found that in the recovery as well. For people who had change in their pocket, who had insurance, generation, those neighborhoods both black and white have had an easier time coming back. The ninth ward is still struggling. They had 15,000 people in it before the storm, they have 2500 people now. The city on the other hand as a whole is, as a u. S. Census bureau noted briefly, that were growing faster than any other city in america. Now forbes is says were one of the best places to do business. And theres a lot of great stuff going on. But it going to take us time to rebuild the entire city. Will you have the same exact experience in the northeast as you try to rebuild the rockaways and will you see some neighborhoods that come back faster than others and frustrations with fema getting money to the ground. The essential component is for people not to build it back like it was. To really think about what it should have always been. So for example, in concrete terms, if a School Building got destroyed, instead of putting that Building Back and painting it like it was, build a new 21st century school. Build a sustainable school, build a School System that is going to teach to knowledgebased economy. That is what we have done in new orleans because we realize that the foundations that were in place were taking us someplace where we didnt want to go. And thats why we had to reconstruct our heal care Delivery System from a centralized system to, of 88 primary Health Care Clinics that provide preventive care, things like that, you see them now taking root in the city of new orleans. And its quite impressive. But like anything else, its hard work, you have to keep your shoulder to the wheel every day and you got to stay vigilant. Some people have suggested that everything was not good before the hurricane hit. There were a lot of things that needed improvement. It was not necessarily a great time in the life of new orleans but that the tragedy of this has caused new orleans, and given new orleans an opportunity to move beyond wherever it was before the hurricane came. Thats a very true and astute observation. Like Many American cities you see this with detroit. You see it with others, they have seen better days and new orleanses had seen better days. Remember after september 11th, the economy in new orleans went down huge tourist town so when people quit flying and people quit going to conventions because of the terrorist attack and the fear that engulfed the nation, it hurt us. The Tourism Industry that is responsible for this event now is a 5 billion industry, with 70,000 employees. So we suffered tremendously after that as soon as we got back katrina hit. Then rita hit. Then ike hit, then gustav hit. Then we had the National Recession and then we had the bp oil spill. So in the midst of all that, while the nation was in two wars and not fully capable of reaching down as much as they would have, you know, this thing happened to us. And it happened to us in a time when new orleans wasnt doing well. Our Education System wasnt forming well, our Healthcare System wasnt. And so the cathartic event that occurred is very common to most people in their personal terms. When you have a near death experience in your life from personal illness or somebody close to you dies or something happened, it clarifies your mind. When you think that you are on the verge of not being there any more. And you either choose to go forward or choose to quit. You choose to get better, you choose to stay stagnant. The people of new orleans chose not to quit and they chose for the first time in a very long time, maybe 50 years, not only to get better but really to reach out and to take not just the opportunity but we kind of call it the responsibility to get it right this time. And i think that there is a lot of evidence that were beginning to get it right. Now as i have said, i dont think our future is assured. Its just one of these things where you have to be vigilant and work at it every day. But there are some good signals. Some will also argue that new orleans has had a bad has had a hard time with corruption and government. Thats true. Thats absolutely true. There is no question about it. When you think back to, for example, 1960, the city of new orleans was bigger than atlanta or in 1960, we had 680,000 people here. And at the time both atlanta and houston were smaller than us. So over that very long period of time from 1960 to 2005 something happened, bad decisions politically, bad decisions from the business community, from the faith community, we just never got to where we needed to be. Corruption not only in new orleans but i dont need to tell you because you travel to washington, d. C. And the state houses, its endemic all over america and in our business counsels as well. Its good to recognize it exists and its good to say its not tolerable. And i think we have turned the course on that in the city of new orleans. And in the last couple of years have basically said look you have got to have an honest government. People need to know they work in confidence and they have a competent government work on top of that the other thing that is happening too, this is the ingredient that really has made this different. We dont have idea logical fights like they have in washington d. C. And we know that the only things that work here are those that have partnerships between the Public Sector and the private sector, with the Faithbased Community and the not for profit os involved, all heading in the same direction. When you have that kind of partnership, when you are able to find that, then we find that you are able to produce a successful result. And that is the model that has taken us to where we are today. If we keep doing that, and we do it every day and we do it over a long number of years, hopefully we will change the way that we have done business and become what i would consider to be a 21st century knowledgebased economy. What is exciting about that for you because you were a c. E. O. Of a city. Right. It is that urbanism is a broad, defining event of the 2 1s century. People want to move to cities. They want to be there because of culture, because of opportunity, because of education, a whole range of other t