BY MATT DAVIS

Academy Award nominated director Spike Lee is in New Orleans for the premiere of his new HBO documentary, If God Is Willing And Da Creek Don’t Rise, tonight at the Mahalia Jackson Theater. Gambit caught up with Lee over his second Arnold Palmer cocktail as he enjoyed some corn and crab soup in the French Quarter before the screening.

The following are excerpts from our interview, which will appear in the next issue of Gambit.

GAMBIT: How did it feel, asking Ray Nagin how he thinks he’ll be judged by history?

SPIKE LEE: Ray was kinda on edge, that interview, and it was really, we had Ray and we were supposed to interview Landrieu, and the only time Mitch could do it was right after Nagin, so were trying to keep them from seeing each other. We’d finished with Nagin, we were trying to get him to leave and he was staying in front! Someone must have told him that [Mitch] Landrieu was coming.

But for me that wasn’t the hardest question. The hardest question to ask him was to ask what he thinks about the most. And I think it was his best, when he talked about the eight hour window to call the mandatory evacuation, and he waited until the eighth hour, and I know…well, he didn’t talk about it, I didn’t ask him, I think that’s something that’s going to haunt him the rest of his life. It would haunt anybody. Because he knows, we all know that by waiting til the eighth hour, people are no longer here. That decision meant the difference between living and dying, and I give him, you know I respect, because he didn’t have to answer that, but he did.

When he got elected, he didn’t know the city was going to be 80% under water, there was no playbook, but I feel people’s problem with Nagin was really what he did in his second term, or what he didn’t do in the second term versus something that happens that he had nothing to do with.

…

Someone you’ve been critical of in the past was Larry Bird. Now Mitch is the first white mayor of New Orleans since his father, Moon Landrieu left office in 1978. Is Mitch Landrieu the Larry Bird of New Orleans mayors?

He can’t shoot like Larry. Or I’ve never seen him. I don’t know if he even plays basketball. But look, I like Mitch, I like his sister, but as he says in the film, he’s got a hard job. Right now New Orleans is on pace to have 203 murders this year, which by use of the population makes it the murder capital of the United States of America. Think about this: Greater New Orleans has 700,000, New York has eight million people. Eight million. They’re going to have more murders than New York City here, and New York City has eight million people! That’s, you’re talking about like, Iraq odds, I mean, crazy.

I know you interviewed [Tulane University homicide expert] Peter Scharf for the film.

Yes. He was very very informative. He’s the go-to guy for homicide. His figures he has are chilling, and it’s young black men killing young black men, and it’s not something that’s just owned by New Orleans. It happens everywhere.

SPIKE LEE, PHOTOGRAPHED FOR GAMBIT BY CHERYL GERBER

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On Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s 100th day in office, he held a town hall for City Council District A at Grace Episcopal Church in Mid-City. Landrieu, who is in the midst of conducting these “listening sessions” in every district, was joined on the dais by District A councilperson Susan Guidry and deputy mayors Judy Reese Morse and Andy Kopplin. In the audience were NOPD Chief Ronal Serpas, Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman, Council President Arnie Fielkow, District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro and dozens of city managers from almost every municipal department, all of whom took notes as members of the crowd stood and spoke about the improvements needed in their neighborhoods.

District A City Councilmember Susan Guidry and Mayor Mitch Landrieu take notes as members of the crowd speak at last night’s town hall in Mid-City.

“I think it’s fair to say we’ve put the pedal to the medal,” Landrieu said, outlining the six “priorities” of his administration, which he said were developed in the many task force meetings held by the new administration. The six, in order of importance, were: public safety; children and families; economic development; sustainable communities; open and effective government; and innovation. He warned that the city’s $67 million deficit would require some “tough decisions and bad choices,” and added that the findings from these community meetings would steer the direction of the final municipal budget.

Audience members had filled out cards with questions and comments as they entered, and moderator Vincent Sylvain handed them to Landrieu one by one. Each person had two minutes to pose a question, during which Landrieu — in loosened tie and rolled-up shirtsleeves — took copious notes on the most tangential of complaints on pages of yellow legal paper.

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(Clarification: Recycling at City Hall and the Main Library is in-house only. Recyclables will not be accepted at those locations.)

As members of City Council try to squeeze the return of citywide recycling pickup into Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s budget, Landrieu announced a compromise: At the tail end of his first 100 days as the latest Hizzoner, Landrieu opened a city-provided recycling drop-off site at 2829 Elysian Fields Ave. Beginning Saturday, Aug. 14, Orleans Parish residents and small businesses can drop off recyclable materials between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. every Saturday.

Landrieu also announced the return of recycling at City Hall and at the city’s Main Library branch (219 Loyola Ave.)

“We heard citizens loud and clear asking for recycling again, and this is a first step in the right direction as we continue to research ways to grow the program,” Landrieu said in an Aug. 10 release.

This is a first for post-Katrina New Orleans, where, under the direction of former mayor Ray Nagin’s sanitation director Veronica White, recycling has been ruled out of the question due to budget constraints — but Landrieu announced the recycling return while managing a $67 million hole in the city’s budget.

Accepted materials include paper, cardboard, newspapers, magazines, junk mail, aluminum cans, plastic bottles and containers, tin, steel and metal cans, and up to four tires. The program does not accept glass. Materials don’t have to be sorted, and residents must bring a driver’s license to prove residency in the parish.

Mayor Mitch Landrieu, First Deputy Mayor Judy Reese Morse, Councilman Jon Johnson and Chief Administrative Officer Andy Kopplin heard the concerns of Lower Ninth Ward residents at a community budget hearing at the Martin Luther King Elementary School on Caffin Avenue this evening.

Landrieu and Johnson listen to Kopplin set the stage tonight, overlooked by an imposing portrait of Dr. Martin Luther King, jr.

Tonight’s forum followed on from Monday night’s community budget hearing in New Orleans East, where Landrieu raised the issue of race in the context of repossessing properties in the Lower Ninth Ward and New Orleans East.

Residents tonight were frustrated by many issues. They wanted to know what has happened to all the money allocated to the district since Katrina. They were frustrated by blight in the district, closed schools, torn-up streets, flooding, lack of street lights, lack of police and fire presence, inadequate recreation facilities, lack of facilities for senior citizens, the limited scope of Brad Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation, lack of supermarkets and amenities, by long grass, rats, rabbits, nutria, out-of-control mosquitoes, and the growth of disaster tourism.

“My mother’s house is around the corner, it sits vacant,” said Sharon Lamberson, a 59-year-old lifelong resident of the Ninth Ward. “The Road Home [program] gave her $17,000. That’s not enough to build a decent carport.”

“How come the only buses that are coming out here are looking at Brad Pitt’s houses?” asked another resident, Patrick Shannon Spears.

“There’s an equity ordinance, and somebody’s going to go to jail for failing to spend the city’s recovery dollars on the black neighborhoods,” said Vanessa Gueringer.

Jason Freeman: Angry about disaster tourism, long grass…

“I live right where the levy breach was between Prieur and Roman [streets],” said Jason Freeman. “I realize that we don’t have as many homes as the rest of the Ninth Ward, there’s only two of us on our block,” said “But the city cuts the grass once every eight weeks, on the unoccupied land the grass is taller than us.”

“There are all these people coming through the neighborhood — a lady told me she paid $35 at her hotel to come on a bus tour of the devastation in the Ninth Ward,” Freeman continued. “And none of that money comes to us.”

“When the tour buses come into the city to see Brad Pitt’s houses, the buses come past my house and they shake it. Who’s going to fix my house, now?” asked Rosa Ulmer. “And what do I do with the snakes? I had two in my yard yesterday. I have empty lots around my area, so that the snakes and the rats and the raccoons visit me on a daily basis. We have kids that want to play in the area but they can’t because of the snakes and the rats and the raccoons.”

One lady prompted laughter when said she called the police for snakes, and was told the police don’t come out for snakes. Read more — including Landrieu’s responses — after the jump.

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Residents of City Council District E can put in their 2 cents about how the city should spend its money at a community meeting in the Lower 9th Ward tonight from 6:30 p.m. (doors open at 6 p.m.) to 8 p.m. at Martin Luther King Charter School (1617 Caffin Ave.). Mayor Mitch Landrieu and District E Councilman Jon Johnson organized the meeting, which also will include Police Chief Ronal Serpas, New Orleans Fire Department Supt. Charles Parent, city deputy mayors and department heads.

Read Matt Davis’ Aug. 3 blog post about the first District E community meeting held Aug. 2 at House of Faith in eastern New Orleans to see what concerns were voiced and how Landrieu responded.

The mayor has planned a series of community meetings in various districts during August as part of his stated commitment to seeking public input concerning how New Orleans is rebuilt and the challenges it faces with $67 million in red ink.

Ryan Berni, the mayor’s press secretary, says Landrieu plans to release a calendar of future community meetings tomorrow.