The Katrina job fair in Austin

Neal Boortz:

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... On Friday I mentioned a job fair that was held in Austin for Katrina evacuees. I made it clear that my information was sketchy and unverified, and asked for some verification. Here is the email I plublished from an
Austin listener:

Last weekend FEMA, the City of Austin, and the Texas Workforce Commission set up a job training/hiring, interview job fair for Katrina evacuees to be held at the ACC campus on Webberville Rd. in East Austin. Evacuees complained that they did not have transportation so the city of Austin and FEMA provided transportation. Nine buses and vans ran from four locations in Round Rock and five locations in Austin. The vehicles were brought to their residents. Drivers knocked on their doors and did everything possible to reach potential job seekers. At the end of the day, the nine vans and buses transported a total of one person. Not one person per bus --- one person. The cost to FEMA was $7800.00.

Well, wouldn't you know it? The information in that email was incorrect. According to the Friday edition of The Austin American-Statesman, there were 12 busses, not 9. I did get the total number of riders right, however. One. One Katrina evacuee on 12 busses going to a job fair. The cost was close. The newspaper says it was just a bit over $7,000.

Bit by bit more and more people are coming to the realization that those Katrina evacuees with any sort of a work ethic and sense of self-reliance are already on their way with a new home, new job and a new future. For the most part those that are left have simply taken their culture of dependence to some other city, in this case Austin. They have adopted a lifestyle of living off the work of others; or using the government as an instrument of plunder to seize money from those who have actually worked for it. The migration of these people from New Orleans to Austin will turn out to be good for New Orleans, not so good for Austin.

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