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The former Six Flags site in New Orleans East has been languishing since Hurricane Katrina. Even city councilmembers admit it's not well-secured or maintained. Mayor Mitch Landrieu's administration put out a call for bids Wednesday, hoping a developer will bring the abandoned property back to life.
Read more from WWL/New Orleans.
The city still owes $13 million in loans taken out to build the park in the 1990s.
This is literally the last sentence of the article. Let us pray the mayor is not going to ask the taxpayer to foot the bill for the new bids too. Sounds like New Orlean's has leadership that does not understand the difference between subsidies and tax incentives. Had they used the latter in the "1990's" the city/taxpayer would not owe a dime. Instead they had the taxpayer subsidize a risky project that should have never been built. This park was in trouble BEFORE Katrina. Six Flags actually caught a break from mother nature. Besides lip service, they never lifted a finger to re-open this place. When the private sector needs public subsidization to fund their projects, this is typically a red flag that the project is riskier than advertised.
With Moody's threatening to downgrade city and states ala S@P...I'm guessing New Orlean's might have difficulty getting loans in the near future.
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