Ed Blakely was hired by Mayor Ray Nagin as the the chief Recovery “Czar” for the city of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Although he is renowned for his writings and expertise on disaster recoveries around the world, his tenure in New Orleans was marred by several political missteps, either promises that he couldn’t deliver on, or quotations attributed to him.

His most famous quotation, promising “cranes in the skyline”, which is documented in Land of Opportunity, was widely mocked by frustrated New Orleanians who did not see enough progress on the ground in 2007 and 2008.