It's a sad day in the city of new orleans when a hero makes a decision like this, ... He leaves the apartment in pretty good shape and with a significant amount of leadership.

It's such a sad day to come here, ... My sympathy goes out to all the families whose loved ones have been identified and also for the families who are still seeking their relatives and loved ones who are still missing.

If it were my decision, I'd knock the Superdome down. If I couldn't knock it down, I'd just open the roof and gut the whole inside - totally modernize it. If you just dust it off and paint a little bit but don't reimage it, the legacy will be horrible.

The reality of Katrina didn't really strike me until the first time I flew up in a helicopter and saw areas of the city that I had ridden my bicycle as a youth being fully flooded.

The task at hand is to bring New Orleans back, ... However, we want everyone to assess the risks and make an informed decision about re-entry plans.

Basically, the start of my thinking process is: 'OK, if you didn't have to worry about re-election, what would you be doing?' That's kind of how I'm starting to think.