NEW ORLEANS (AP) – Eight years after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu focuses on both the city’s shortcomings and improvements.

“Structurally, the city is a much better place than it was eight years ago. The biggest challenge we have is blight,” Landrieu said, adding that 10,000 blighted properties have been removed from the cityscape.

For Katrina’s anniversary this year, Landrieu plans to attend a Thursday morning ceremony at a cemetery for those who died in the floodwaters that swamped the city in the days after Katrina pummeled the Gulf coast.

“We’re going to commemorate the anniversary of Katrina by doing the thing that really is important, just remembering those that lost their lives and just really spend the day in reflection about that moment.”

Landrieu said he’s intent on not repeating past mistakes.

“I think that we have successfully done the most important thing, which was to think about building the city back the way she should have always been and not the way she was,” he said.