NEW ORLEANS (AP) — It’s not easy being Ray Nagin.

The New Orleans mayor, now midway through his final term, envisions his legacy as leader of a sweeping rebirth of New Orleans from the ruins of Hurricane Katrina.

Despite bouts of government infighting and red tape, many residents see hopeful signs the city is righting itself. Supporters see Nagin as a man of compassion and faith. Aides say he is working behind the scenes to build a stronger New Orleans, and that he’s more interested in getting the job done than getting any credit.

But many others are losing patience. They view the mayor as ineffective and out of touch. They say he’s failed to articulate a clear vision for the city, wrecked when levees broke in August 2005.

With the city moving into a leading role in its recovery, the mayor sees 2008 as a pivotal year. In his recent State of the City address, he expressed optimism and spoke of being ready “for the final push over the next two years that will drive this recovery to its highest levels and ensure the growth of our city for the next 50 years. …

“I have kept my word to you that I would not let New Orleans die.”

Handsome, tall and tailored, Nagin has been known to pose for photos with tourists before returning to the work of the recovery. A former cable TV executive, he was laid-back and little known before Katrina.

During the immediate post-storm chaos, the perfectionist Nagin found much out of his control, and he lashed out. He grabbed the national spotlight with a desperate public plea to federal officials to “get off your asses and do something” as the city stood under water.

He found himself in the national spotlight again after a 2006 Martin Luther King Day speech. With thousands of New Orleanians still displaced, he declared that the predominantly black city would be “chocolate” again, upsetting some whites who saw it as a sign they were not welcome. Nagin later apologized.

Despite shaky voter confidence and a big field of opponents, leaders in the black community, including members of the city’s powerful ministers’ alliance, pressed Nagin to run again in 2006.

If he didn’t, some argued, he would have left an awful legacy as the black leader who ran away when the city needed him most.

“I told him he had to run because he could not leave the city in this state,” the Rev. Willie Gable said. ” … I said to him, ‘As a mayor and as a black mayor, you have to come back and attack this problem and start the rebuild.'”

Nagin was re-elected, beating the state’s lieutenant governor, Mitch Landrieu, whose family had been a power in local politics for decades.

Early in the recovery, Nagin embraced a market-based approach, casting aside suggestions that chronically flood-prone neighborhoods should not be rebuilt.

In December 2006, he hired urban planner Ed Blakely as the city’s recovery director.

Blakely, whose resume includes helping the city of Oakland, Calif. recover after the 1989 Bay Area earthquake, spoke of targeting recovery spending. He envisioned almost startling transformations in New Orleans, including a revived Lower 9th Ward that would be as vibrant as the French Quarter — but with an Afro-Cuban flavor to its restaurants, music and art. But Blakely’s prediction of “cranes on the skyline” by September 2007 became a local punchline as money was slow to flow and development sputtered.

Problems remain: Homelessness is up, and violent crime has grabbed national headlines. Affordable housing, health care and high-paying jobs are scarce. Some homeowners are still waiting on funds to rebuild their hurricane-damaged home or raise their property to help keep it from flooding again.

Nagin himself has voiced frustration with the pace of progress — neighborhood rebuilding has been spotty, and some high-profile real estate, including downtown office buildings, remains closed. But he says funding for rebuilding is now flowing and it’s up to the city to put it to use.

And Nagin can claim successes.

He’s added millions of dollars to the police department budget for equipment and recruiting. He says the city, propped up by loans, is on track to be financially self-sufficient by 2011. Unemployment is low. The city’s population, about 454,000 before Katrina, is now, by one estimate, at least 307,400.

Nagin says $1 billion worth of rebuilding is on tap or under way, and the city is pushing a $54 million mortgage-assistance program aimed at creating more homeowners and stabilizing neighborhoods in a city long-dominated by renters. He also has traveled internationally, trying to bring new business to the city.

Many residents welcome Nagin’s upbeat words but would like to see him take a more public stance on recovery issues.

“We need someone out there, among the people, trying to motivate them and let(ting) them know he’s working for them,” said University of New Orleans political science professor Ed Chervenak.

The Rev. John Raphael Jr., who works with young people in crime-troubled neighborhoods, believes Nagin has intentionally avoided news cameras.

“I think the problem was, the community, it was so skeptical about the authenticity of the leaders’ concerns, and I think there was concern that if cameras were seen out there with him as he tried to interact with people, that (the public) would view that as a news media event and not genuine concern,” Raphael said.

Baty Landis, an activist with the anti-crime group Silence is Violence, doesn’t buy that. “He doesn’t seem to hear how much we hurt when we lose people, and how fearful we are.”

Aides say Nagin’s faith hasn’t been shaken by criticism and that he works long hours for the city.

Others have long since gone. Gov. Kathleen Blanco, also caught up in the post-Katrina chaos, didn’t seek re-election in 2007.

It’s not clear what Nagin will do when his term runs out in 2010, in the midst of what’s expected to be at least a decade-long recovery.

He flirted last year with a possible run for governor, though political analysts see him as a longshot for statewide office. Some say majority-white Louisiana has historically had a low opinion of New Orleans and that outside the city, Nagin, like other government officials from that time, is negatively associated with Katrina.

There was also speculation that Nagin would be a favorite if he ran for the seat held by indicted U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, a fellow Democrat who represents New Orleans. But Jefferson announced Tuesday that he would seek re-election this year, and Nagin insists he intends to serve out his term as mayor.

Gable, one of the people who urged Nagin to run for his second term as mayor, still thinks he has the city’s best interest at heart.

But he has some advice for Nagin when his term ends: “You should leave (politics) alone. Enjoy your life.”

Some current and former aides predict history will remember the mayor kindly.

Nagin says he simply wants his legacy to be one of bringing integrity to local government and “just fixing a city that was broken for a long time.”