That Tired Old Spin

Here's some spin from a campaign email sent out by Senator Karen Carter Peterson, legislative author of the bill that created the BioDistrict:

Forging Ahead for a Healthcare Game-changer in New Orleans


The legislature also resisted changes and roadblocks to the planned University Medical Center in lower Mid-City New Orleans. My priorities continue to be to vastly improve and expand healthcare in New Orleans, not just for the provision of care to our people, but also for the tremendous economic opportunity a medical-research corridor represents to our city.

Resisted roadblocks?  Like what?  Is she referring to HCR-59, which would have provided greater legislative oversight and public accountability in order to avoid a fiscal disaster?  If so, she's mischaracterizing the measure.  I'm not sure why she's so quick to trumpet the fact that she resisted changes to the UMC - changes are certainly needed if the UMC is to avoid becoming a boondoggle.

As with so many politicians in the area, she seems to be stuck blindly on the idea that the UMC must be pushed forward as proposed - that somehow alternative designs or sites nearby would not bring just as many jobs and economic development opportunities to the area.

And as for the "medical-research corridor" - read BioDistrict New Orleans - remember that Senator Karen Carter Peterson did not move to exclude Mid-City from the BioDistrict even after the Mid-City Neighborhood Organization publicly asked to be removed from the boundaries of the "vastly" large 1,500-acre district (and no, to my knowledge, the neighborhood was never asked if it wanted to be in the district at the outset).  She did not take action even though a relevant bill regarding the BioDistrict was moving through the legislature this session.