Katie Couric's Notebook: Sad Friday
Video: Three days after Fat Tuesday, it's Sad Friday -- and sad everyday -- in New Orleans.
The New York Times reported yesterday that Habitat for Humanity--which promised to build thousands of homes after Hurricane Katrina destroyed almost a quarter million--built just 36 new homes in New Orleans.
And the housing crisis-which, as we've reported, has caused a 400 percent increase in depression among displaced kids--isn't the only big problem facing the Big Easy.
Historian and CBS News consultant Doug Brinkley, who lives in New Orleans, told us that "the inability of the Police Department to get a grip on crime, the inability of the school system to educate students, and the inability of the city to attract private investment makes a lot of us wonder...what are we staying for?"
At some point, Brinkley says, New Orleans' extraordinary culture may not survive extraordinary mismanagement.
That's a page from my notebook.