A Big-City Mayor Who Seems to Believe There's No Such Thing as Bad Publicity

(Fox News) - New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin may be taking the idea of seeing a silver lining around a dark cloud —to the extreme. Nagin said last week that news of the city's escalating deadly violence is bad — but it does ensure that New Orleans will stay in the news.

"It's not good for us," Nagin said. "But it also keeps the 'New Orleans' brand out there, and it keeps people thinking about our needs and what we need to bring this community back. Sure it hurts, but we have to keep working every day to make the city better."

Anti-violence activist Baty Landis called the remarks "stunningly insensitive," adding, "New Orleans is not a brand, it's a city. We're not products. We're people with lives, some of which are being taken by other people."