Casual Corruption and You

Are you a crook? I’m not. Nor am I tolerant of crooks.

But, you’d never guess that after reading this USA Today article:

For a small state, Louisiana has a lot of crooks

The lead is not too bad.

Despite its ragged reputation, Louisiana isn't the worst state when it comes to public scandals.

The author then rags our reputation.

From 1995 to 2004, there were 871 federal public corruption convictions in California, according to the U.S. attorney general's office. Florida had 813 convictions. New York had 790. Ohio and Pennsylvania were even with 515 convictions each. Louisiana's toll: 310.

Still, Louisiana has nothing to crow about. California, the USA's most-populated state, has 36 million residents. Louisiana, No. 24 in population size, claims just 4 million residents.

The point: For a small state, Louisiana produces a lot of crooked politicians.

Oh, is that the point? Breaking down the numbers, I see that we have a little more than three times as many convictions per capita than California. That is *more* than California, but, is it *a lot* more? Twenty times, that’s a lot more. Ten times, sure. But three?

Do we have corrupt politicians in Louisiana? Yes, at least 310 in the last decade according to the article. But I don’t think we live in the complete culture of corruption cited by this expert:

Louisiana's historically cavalier attitude about corruption also sets it apart, says Fred Smith, president of the Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C.

In most jurisdictions, public scandals are considered highly embarrassing events, but in Louisiana, he says, they're practically a point of pride.

"Corruption exists in every culture," says Smith. "But in Louisiana it is accepted to a level that is unbelievable."

I think that quote is unbelievable. What is also unbelievable is that this expert is from Louisiana:

Smith, a native Louisianan, thinks it all comes down to the region's Big Easy style: It embraces debauchery and eschews anything that smacks of convention. Mardi Gras, a weeklong hedonistic celebration, is the ultimate symbol of the city's sensibility, he says.

Look, I might be completely wrong here, but this doesn’t sound like anyone in my circles. I don’t know anyone who is cavalier about corruption. As far as embracing debauchery and eschewing convention, I don’t see how that leads to corruption. And I am going to have to remember that Mardi Gras is a “weeklong hedonistic celebration” next time I am on St. Charles with my family enjoying a parade.

Except for a couple of interviews with an expert and an official, what real journalism was done here? Does a reader not from Louisiana actually learn anything from this article? Or, does the author simply reinforce negative stereotypes of the region?

Funny. I wonder how we got our “ragged reputation.”

The Other Man-made Disaster

While we are fighting terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan so that we can’t build levees here, Osama bin Laden has released another tape. On this one he offers a truce.

Of course, truces don’t involve blowing things up, so the Vice President’s reaction was predictable:

"We don't negotiate with terrorists," Vice President Dick Cheney said in a television interview. "I think you have to destroy them."

But not right away:

"I think we have to assume that the threat is going to continue for a considerable period of time." the vice president [sic] said in an interview with Fox News Channel. "Even if bin Laden were no longer to be a factor, I still think we'd have problems with al-Qaida."

Get ready for the Eternal War on Terror.

Or maybe not, according to White House spokesman Scott McClellan:

“The terrorists started this war and the president made it clear that we will end it at a time and place of our choosing”

So let me get this straight. We don’t negotiate with terrorists. We destroy them. We can do it at a time and place of our choosing. However, we won’t do it for a considerable period of time.

Makes sense to me.

How to Make a Chocolate City

Mayor Nagin so eloquently expressed his idea of how to make a Chocolate City:

“You take dark chocolate, you mix it with white milk, and it becomes a delicious drink.”

However, the census data tells a different story: you make a Chocolate City by taking the white milk out.

The Irish Channel is a good example:

In 1970, the Census reported that the Irish Channel was a predominantly White and working class neighborhood (CensusCD Neighborhood Change Database). With 62% White residents and 38% Black residents, the Irish Channel had a greater percentage of White residents than the city as a whole (Orleans was 55% White and 45% Black). At that time, the poverty rate in the Irish Channel (27%) was the same as the city as a whole (26%).

Today, as of the 2000 census, the Irish Channel is 68% black and 26% white.

That didn’t happen because more dark chocolate was added:

The changes in the Irish Channel since the 1970s have been dramatic. The total number of residents has declined 36% since 1970, from 6,692 persons to its current size of 4,257. The rate of population loss of the Irish Channel far exceeded the decline in population in New Orleans as a whole (the city lost 19% of its population from 1970 to 2000). Most of the drop in the Irish Channel population took place between 1970 and 1990 (down 38%).

New Orleans did not become a majority African-American city because God wanted it that way. It happened because of white flight, fueled by a city and citizenry incapable or unwilling to care for its black residents.

It doesn’t matter how high you build the levees. If we don’t confront racism and segregation and the systemic policies that lead to it, it won’t take a Cat 5 hurricane to destroy New Orleans. We’ll do it ourselves.

New Orleans is not a blank slate. But there has never been a better time to fight for what is right and just. It is right and just for all New Orleanians to be protected by an effective levee system. And it is right and just for all New Orleanians to be a part of the new New Orleans.

If God wanted the Irish Channel to be a chocolate neighborhood, maybe she has changed her mind. After 20 years of population loss, according to the census data, the last 10 years have seen a population increase, property values have gone up, the faces moving in are looking a little more café au lait, there are less vacant houses, and poverty is down.

It’s a start.

NOTE: There is nothing wrong with a “chocolate” city or neighborhood in the sense that it is majority African-American, or with a “vanilla” city or neighborhood that is majority white. Areas of concentrated numbers of the same race are common in every human settlement of any size. The problem is segregation and discrimination, when the numbers are unusually lopsided and when power and wealth are concentrated in only one group. And that group doesn’t necessarily have to be the one with more people.

$82 Billion?

Some senators toured the area yesterday to see how the recovery was going, or *not* going, according to one senator:

“We have appropriated $82 billion and we haven’t seen $82 billion worth of progress,” Sen. Mark Dayton, D-Minn., said.

This echoes something Moldy City pointed out that the President said last week:

Signing all the legislation I've signed, the federal government has committed $85 billion so far to helping folks and to help rebuild the Gulf Coast of -- (applause.) Of that $85 billion, about $25 billion has been spent. So $85 billion is available, $25 billion of it is already in the pipeline -- that's $60 billion more coming your way.

Where are these more than $80 billion numbers coming from?

And the Minnesota senator shouldn’t be too surprised with not seeing $82 billion worth of progress when, apparently, only “$25 billion of it is already in the pipeline.”

Here’s how I can account for $67 billion of it, which leaves around $15 billion I’m not sure about.

If the Gulf Coast is getting $15 billion dollars more than I think it is, that would be great. I just wish it was a little easier to determine where it was coming from.

Chocolaty Fun

Yes, the Mayor said some stupid things. But don’t tell me you didn’t have fun with them.

Damn, since Nagin made his chocolate comments I haven’t stopped laughing. The chocolate jokes keep coming. Just re-reading his explanation of how to make chocolate, that delicious drink, made me tear up laughing.

I am glad Nagin made his chocolate comments. I needed that laugh.

Don’t worry about losing any federal funding over this. They are not giving us enough money anyway.

If anything, stupid comments by local politicians should be welcome. It’s a sign that New Orleans is coming back. It makes me almost miss the school board meetings.

God, Chocolate, and New Orleans

Nagin the Prophet:

“This city will be a majority African-American city. It’s the way God wants it to be,” Nagin said. “You can’t have it no other way. It wouldn’t be New Orleans.”

He then held up his staff and yelled, “Houston, Atlanta, Baton Rouge… Let my people go!”

Okay, he didn’t say that last part. But he did say this:

“It’s time for us to rebuild a New Orleans, the one that should be a chocolate New Orleans,” he said. “And I don’t care what people are saying in Uptown or wherever they are. This city will be chocolate at the end of the day.”

As a rule, we are all allowed one post-Katrina breakdown. Nagin just had his.

Later in the day, a reporter asked him to clarify his chocolate comment, to which he responded:

"I'm asking you, do you know anything about chocolate? How do you make chocolate? You take dark chocolate, you mix it with white milk, and it becomes a delicious drink," Nagin said.

Yes, a delicious drink. I think we have our new city slogan: “Chocolate New Orleans, a delicious drink!” It will make a nice t-shirt.

Because of the one post-Katrina breakdown rule, I’m going to cut Nagin some slack.

Yesterday was MLK, Jr., Day. He was speaking at a MLK, Jr., Day march. He was surrounded by black leaders. His mannerisms and inflection were more that of a preacher than a politician. Therefore, I am going to assume that I, da po’ boy, a white dude in all my vanilla goodness, was not his target audience.

However, if my assumption is correct, I think it is sad. I hope Nagin doesn’t think that he has to play preacher to reach his black constituents. I believe they are intelligent and discerning enough to understand a calm, rational discussion about the future racial make up of New Orleans. It is too important a topic to be dressed up in preacher prose and racial code words.

Anyway, it’s what you do, not what you say. And up to this point, Nagin hasn’t done much to get all New Orleanians back. Where are the basic services? Where’s the housing? Where are the trailers? Where is the plan for a hurricane-safe New Orleans?

If Nagin wants a chocolate city, how does he explain his appointed BNOB commission’s plans for a city of 250,000 residents? That number is going to require a lot of black residents *not* coming back.

Why? It’s a numbers game. Before Katrina, New Orleans was, roughly, 67% black, 27% white, and 6% all others, with a population of around 480,000. That’s 321,600 black residents and 129,600 white residents (using rounded figures).

Were those percentages to remain true in a city of 250,000, there would be 167,000 black residents and 67,500 white residents. So, basically, the new New Orleans would be less chocolaty to the tune of 154,100 and less vanilla by 62,100.

But that’s not going to happen. Let’s assume all the people who had minimal or no flooding stay. That would be 80,400 black residents and 64,800 white residents. Most of the white residents who did get flooded lived in Lakeview. Given the economic breakdown of Lakeview and their post-Katrina organization, we can assume that a lot of those white residents have the means and the desire to come back.

So let’s guess that half of the white residents that got flooded return. Now, the new New Orleans would have 97,200 vanilla beans. With 6% non-white or non-black, that leaves room for about 137,800 black residents to add up to 250,000 total. That breaks down to 55% black, 39% white, and 6% all others. Still an African-American majority, but it is starting to look a lot more like café au lait rather than that delicious drink chocolate.

If that’s the way it plays out, great. However, I really don’t put much faith in my ability to predict the racial make up of the new New Orleans. Plus, I think more than 250,000 residents want to come back. They just don’t see anything in New Orleans to come back to just yet or don’t have the financial resources to do it right away.

Nagin the Prophet might turn out to be right. Or not. Either way, I’m cool with 67%, 55%, 1%, or 99% - as long as everyone who wants to come back can.

Oh yeah, and about the Uptown remark. That might have been targeted at me, although I sincerely hope not. Whatever.

UPDATE: Schroeder doesn't believe in the one post-Katrina breakdown rule.

The Wisdom of Crowds

Groups of humans are generally more intelligent than any one human in them, and their collective decisions exercise an ability to predict future events any mere individual can recreate only by pure luck.

So when three people are shot at the All-Star Second Line, the consequences can be determined in the wisdom of the crowds:

“This is not what I came back here to see,” said Delanda Garner, who was scheduled to head back to Houston today.

***

“We want to come home, but we don’t want to come home to this,” Jenkins said.

***

“Out of 50 second-lines, 39 to 40 are going to have a shooting,” he said. “If I’ve got a beef with you, I can guarantee you I’m going to see you at a second-line.”

New Orleans is not a blank slate. We will be rebuilding on a lot of history that doesn’t just go away. The problems we ineffectually dealt with before the storm are still around.

Violence, poor education, poverty, and segregation are all ills that will persist in the new New Orleans, unless we address racism in our city.

We can build better levees and have a dialogue about racism at the same time. Just as old problems don’t go away overnight, nor do solutions for those problems arise overnight. Nor do they come in the recommendations of an appointed commission.

Let us consult the wisdom of the crowds. They know what city they want to come back to. Let’s hear it. This is a democracy, right? So let’s vote.

More Wetlands, More Levees, More Rebuilding

A lot of people are calling for a levee system that will protect the city from a Category 5 hurricane. Then they are saying we should not rebuild every part of New Orleans.

If we have an effective levee system, why can’t we rebuild everywhere?

Also, if you say that New Orleans East and the Lower Ninth Ward should become green space or marshes, you are also saying that St. Bernard Parish and Lower Plaquemines should become green space or marshes. I am not prepared to say any of that.

Instead of thinking 4 months ahead, we need to be thinking 40 years ahead. We have to think generations ahead.

Levees aren’t enough. We need our wetlands back, our defensive line. The levees are our linebackers. And, yes, I would prefer to have the Dome Patrol back there mopping up what the wetlands can’t stop. A strong secondary would be nice, too, maybe in the form of a smart rebuilding plan – but one that includes everyone.

And I am adamant about including everyone. If people can’t come back in four months, we give them 12 months. If they can’t come back in 12 months, we give them 24 months. If they can’t come back in the long term, we set up a “right of return” policy for future generations. That way their family retains the right to their land if it is ever developed in the future.

(Warning: The following scenario assumes a very positive population growth for New Orleans over the next 50 or so years. Obviously, I think it is possible because I wrote it, but many readers will no doubt disagree.)

We seem to be preparing for a city of 250,000 people with a lot of green space where people used to live. In the future, when that 250,000 grows to 300,000, then 350,000, and then 400,000 – because you know people want to live here – will we then start building on that green space?

You bet we will. I would hate to have to explain to the world why we kicked a family off of their land right after a catastrophic flood destroyed everything they owned so that in the future a developer could make millions of dollars selling it to someone else.

Here’s the other thing. Black residents of New Orleans were more impacted by the flooding than white residents – over three quarters of the black residents received *more than* minimal flooding as opposed to half of the city’s white residents. I need not remind you that there are many more black residents in New Orleans than white residents. The areas most likely to not be rebuilt, with the exception of Lakeview, are majority black. If land is taken away from a large group (both in real numbers and percentages) of black residents – compared to a much smaller group of white residents – and then sold away in the future… well, that just ain’t right.

Right now, I feel like everyone should be allowed to rebuild and the city should accommodate them. Then, allow time for the city to adapt to the new layout and figure out the best way to serve its residents.

In the meantime, wetlands and levees, wetlands and levees, wetlands and levees…

This One Time, at Band Camp

A world class post at World Class New Orleans about three local high school marching bands uniting so that they can march in parades this year.

You know, I am warming up to Mardi Gras ’06. As much as I want the city to focus its resources (money, workers, time) on rebuilding, I also just want to bring my kid to a parade.

And then there’s the music, and those who play the music. To see World Class’s pics of the three bands jamming warms the heart. While every city in the nation has its high school bands that march in parades, there is something special about the way New Orleans bands do it – the sound, the look, the way they march. And especially the tubas.

I was a band geek (I mean that in a good way). At Jesuit High School I played woodwinds – clarinet, saxophone – in the marching band, JROTC band, and the jazz band. I started playing clarinet when I was in 3rd or 4th grade. My grandfather taught me how to play. He had a swing band in the 1940s and gigged around town.

He taught me all the old standards: “Just a Closer Walk,” “Do You Know What It Means,” “When the Saints Go Marching In,” “If Ever I Cease to Love” – there’s too many to list them all.

When I was a senior at Jesuit, I was burned out on playing music. I didn’t plan on being a professional musician, so I guess I just didn’t see the point. I was focused on SAT scores and getting into a college and music wasn’t necessarily going to help me with that.

Then I heard a tape playing in the band room. It sounded like the New Orleans music I knew, that I had been playing all my life, that my grandfather had taught me. But it was more vibrant. It felt new. It made you want to move. It made you want to groove – even a white boy like me.

It was the Rebirth Brass Band. And it was the rebirth of my passion for music. My senior year, I put down the clarinet and picked up a tuba. I didn’t know the fingering, but my grandfather had taught me to play by ear. So I faked my way through all the marching band songs – sometimes playing what was written, sometimes playing something that sounded better.

My tuba playing career ended on a high note. In the last parade of the season, as we rounded Canal Street and headed back towards the river, the band played a song that showcased the tubas. After the song ended and we lowered our instruments, I heard a voice from the crowd exclaim, “That’s pretty good for a white boy.”

How can you top that? The people of New Orleans know what good music is. We are not born with the knowledge, but we pick it up because we are surrounded by it. When you go to a CD store, there is always a New Orleans section. I don’t see a New York section, or an Atlanta section, or a Houston section. And it’s not just New Orleans artists. It’s New Orleans music, a genre all its own. No other city has this rich a musical heritage.

That’s what I am going to be looking forward to this Mardi Gras more than anything – the music. That’s something that Katrina couldn’t take from us. But it is something in a post-Katrina world that we will have to hold on to a little tighter.

NOLA: Not Ready for Tourists

At least, the Delta Queen Steamboat Co. thinks so:

Company President Bruce Nierenberg said that with local hotel rooms scarce, restaurants understaffed and flights, taxi service and streetcar service limited, his company concluded that New Orleans is not properly equipped to handle its guests at this point.

Will all this magically change by Mardi Gras?

The Delta Queen Steamboat Co.'s decision not to operate from New Orleans this year reflects the tourism industry's Catch-22 in its efforts to restart: The city needs tourists to restart the economy, but some tourists may be reluctant to come until there is more proof that the city offers the services they expect.

I don’t know if this is a Catch-22 as much as a natural consequence of your city being flooded for two weeks.

I still don't see how we can do a city-sponsored Mardi Gras with so few services. We are asking tourists to come down to a city that is not fully functional. After seeing yesterday's BNOB meeting, I don't think the city is mentally functional.

And in reallocating resources to deal with Mardi Gras, we are losing time. June 1st won't come eight days later because we decided to celebrate Mardi Gras. Hurricane season is a deadline we can't push back.

But there are some deadlines we can push back:

Some of the hurricane evacuees living in New Orleans-area hotels at government expense could count on staying until March 1, the day after Mardi Gras, under a plan stitched together Wednesday in U.S. District Court.

Hotels are going to love that, given recent efforts to evict evacuees.

This doesn't seem fair to the hotels or the evacuees. But the only way to make things right is to have a safe New Orleans for both tourists and residents. Let's hope we're not eight days too late in achieving that next hurricane season.

If we are not ready come June 1st, it wouldn't take a Katrina-type storm to cause problems. Another Cindy might be just as bad.

A Simple Question

BNOB Commission, why don’t you want everyone to rebuild their homes?

Thanks for all the details on the light rail system, the parks, the commuter trains to Mississippi, the bridge to the moon, and all the other cool stuff engineers can do while they are not building Cat 5 levees.

But why can’t people just rebuild their homes?

Bringing Back New Orleans in Four Months OR ELSE

I wish it were bringing back New Orleans in four months or less.

Instead, the report that will be presented to the Mayor today says they have four months to prove their neighborhoods can “reattract ‘sufficient population.’”

The report does not specify what the threshold will be to satisfy that requirement, though some commission members have indicated they'd favor a requirement that well over half of residents signal a plan to return.

I like this part of the plan:

The report is silent on the mechanics of how planners would seek input from displaced residents.

Aren’t they the ones we need to ask if they are coming back or not?

I like this part, too:

In hopes of helping people make their decisions, the panel is urging the Federal Emergency Management Agency to release within a month the advisory floodplain maps the agency is now creating.

Having to meet new elevation requirements and how much your flood insurance will cost are important variables in deciding whether or not to rebuild.

I don’t like the sufficient population criteria. We don’t know yet who wants to come back. Not who *plans* to come back. Who *wants* to come back. Not every family can bounce back fast after a disaster like Katrina. Four months might not be enough time for a lot of families to make plans to return, even if they want to.

And if they can’t, the Crescent City Bulldozing Corp., I mean Redevelopment Corp., will come a-knockin’:

The corporation's powers, as envisioned by the land-use panel, would be broad. It would be the central authority empowered with executing the redevelopment plan developed by the mayor and his commission, meaning it would buy properties and "dispose" of them for redevelopment. It would have the power of eminent domain, but only to be used "as a last resort," the report says.

Scary.

I am not saying we rebuild every house in every neighborhood in New Orleans. But, before we make plans for a city of 250,000, we need to do everything possible to make sure that it is not 350,000 that want to come back. Otherwise, we will be shutting the door on our own people and essentially saying they don’t fit in the new New Orleans.

According to the T-P article, here’s a summary of the plan to be recommended:

- A four-month period to decide how many residents are coming back and where

- In the meantime, a moratorium on building permits in hardest hit areas

- The assumption that “not every neighborhood will be sustainable”

- The creation of a public agency to buyout and in some cases take property in areas that won’t be rebuilt

- A plan to buy homes in areas that will not be rebuilt at full pre-Katrina value minus insurance settlements

- Homeowners not in buyout areas getting full value for their damaged homes if they buy a new house in the city

- Designating “neighborhood planning areas” that must “prove their viability to rebuild” by attracting a “sufficient population”

- Meetings for residents of these planning areas held in New Orleans

- Parks:

…depending on whether those areas fail to recover fully: Broadmoor, Gentilly, the 7th Ward, the Lower 9th Ward and two sections of eastern New Orleans between Chef Menteur Highway and Interstate 10.

- Umm, infill development areas?

The report also recommends that a number of large tracts be demolished and repackaged as "infill development areas" for commercial or industrial projects with housing for workers nearby. The dozen sites identified in the report include a number of public-housing developments, including one in Central City in the vicinity of the C.J. Peete and Guste complexes; a huge parcel in the area of the Florida and Desire complexes; and another around the St. Bernard complex.

Other areas are identified as "infill" sites as well, including the portion of the Lower 9th Ward on the lake side of North Claiborne Avenue.

- Also, “a light-rail system, large mixed-income neighborhoods and new parks that double as additional flood protection”

- Outside of its scope, but still recommended: wetlands restoration, closure of MR-GO, pumping stations near the lake, and one levee board

I think that’s everything. Nagin, the Louisiana Recovery Authority, and the White House all have a say before it goes into effect.

My question is: Do the people have a say?

Build It Up to Tear It Down

The Wet Bank Guide pointed me to this NY Times article previewing Wednesday’s big announcement:

All Parts of City in Rebuild Plan of New Orleans

I like the headline, but did the person who wrote it read the article?

But ultimately, the areas that fail to attract a critical mass of residents in 12 months will probably not survive as residential neighborhoods, Mr. Canizaro said, and are likely to end up as marshland as the city's population declines and its footprint shrinks.
People who rebuild in those areas will be forced to leave, according to the proposal.

Those two things don’t go together in my book. You can rebuild anywhere, but in a year the city might force you to leave your house. That sounds to me like you can’t rebuild in all parts of the city, unless rebuilding means tearing down your house after a year.

I expect more from the author of the plan, Joseph Canizaro. He is, after all, a Bush Ranger. Okay, maybe that is what I expect.

Everyone seems to be afraid they will be the only person to move back into their block. I don’t get that. People want to live in New Orleans. People need to live in New Orleans. They will come back. I think we can hit the critical mass in every neighborhood even without all 480,000 residents coming back.

But, not if everyone waits for someone else to pull the trigger. That’s where the leaders come in. They are supposed to lead their people in the right direction. And the right direction is a rebuilding plan now, not 12 months from now.

Nagin doesn’t have to choose the Canizaro plan. Instead, he can lead his people in the right direction – before they are no longer his people to lead.

“The Big Creepy”

4+ months A.K.:

Only a fifth of the city's population of half a million has returned, most to areas that did not suffer flood damage and where services have been restored.

***

Fewer than half of the city's fire stations are fully up and running. Concern over the department's response capabilities has made some insurance companies reluctant to extend policies to New Orleans homebuyers.

The ranks of the police force, its reputation sullied when officers were accused of looting and desertion in the post-Katrina chaos, have thinned.

Only about 200 hospital beds are available, leaving patients waiting an average of three hours in ambulances before they can be moved inside to emergency rooms, according to the mayor's office.

A man living in the Ninth Ward:

"I like to leave signs like I'm living here. I'm just hoping police see it and know there's somebody living here," he said. "I pray hard every night, and I keep a gun loaded. It's sad to say, but I have to do it."

A man who won’t live in the Ninth Ward:

"I want to go back, but I'm scared," said Antoine Shropshire, a 41-year-old truck driver visiting his house in the Ninth Ward. "There's no people. It's creepy here. It's too weird.

"You don't see anyone you know any more. If I sit too long, it brings tears when I think about what it'll take to get it back around."

If our leaders wanted people to come back, conditions would not be like this. The United States of America has the resources to make New Orleans livable for those who want to rebuild. When we invaded Iraq, we set up all the services we are lacking here – temporary hospitals, fire prevention, security, utilities. If our leaders wanted those things down here, we would have them.

I don’t think they want people back. I think they want everyone to stay out of the way while they decide what future New Orleans works best for them.

It can’t happen that way. We live here. The future New Orleans has to be the one that works best for us.

You can’t plan that. It has to evolve. In the course of living in an area, the plan that works evolves. Do you think the first settlers of New Orleans, if they had not stayed an entire year and seen where the river overflowed its banks, could have planned where the best place to build would be?

We are the new pioneers. We need to be down here, living in New Orleans, experiencing the new New Orleans, and coming up with the best plan that works for us. Let New Orleanians re-settle New Orleans.

Feet Don’t Shrink

There has been a lot of talk about the footprint of New Orleans shrinking. I don’t see how that can happen.

New Orleans’ footprint is already laid out. If the city decides not to rebuild New Orleans East and the Lower Ninth Ward, these areas will still be there. They will just be abandoned. They won’t become green space on their own. And they won’t become marshland. You don’t create an ecosystem like the marshes by designating them.

The land will be there, so people should live there. I don’t understand why it’s taking so long to figure that out.

It’s a Fact

T-P:

That Katrina's floodwaters affected black residents more severely than white residents is a matter of statistical fact. Using flood maps and block-by-block data from the 2000 census, city consultant Greg Rigamer estimates that about half of the city's white citizenry experienced minimal or no flooding. By comparison, fewer than a quarter of black New Orleanians were so lucky.

Given that discussions of shrinking the city tend to focus on abandoning flood-prone areas, a reduction in the city's size would likely have a disproportionate effect on areas largely populated by black residents.

If we focus all of our resources on the un-flooded areas as the Mayor has suggested, we will shut the door in the face of a lot of New Orleanians. More resources need to be used on the areas that need it more.

I understand that New Orleans needs its economic center to generate money. But, we need to ask why are we generating money? Why are we building business in the area? Why are we collecting taxes?

For the residents. All of the residents. And if we focus on rebuilding the areas that didn’t flood, we are building a better New Orleans for just a few of the residents. It’s not hard to figure out which few.

Oliver Thomas says “some African-Americans take as gospel that there is a ‘conspiracy theory’ afoot to keep them from returning.” I don’t know. Conspiracy theories are usually done behind closed doors. This is being done out in the open.

He's No Brownie

Time Magazine interviewed Coast Guard Vice Admiral Thad Allen who is leaving New Orleans at the end of this month. He jumped in after Michael Brown was sacked and did a heck of a job.

Why? Because he knows what he is doing. And what he doesn’t know, he finds out:

I had to get knowledgeable right away on the inner workings of the Disaster Relief Fund and the Stafford Act (the law under which FEMA operates). It's very technical, a lot of arcane issues, and it's played out in very emotional issues like what can be paid for and what can't.

How did you do that?

I read it. I stayed up late at night reading (laughing).

He even did some outside reading:

Actually, my flash of optimism came after reading Rising Tide [John Barry's book about the Mississippi flood of 1927]. Have you read it? I had a sense that if you didn't have New Orleans, you'd have to create one. Because of the requirements of commerce, where it's at on the river and so forth. So it's not a question of whether New Orleans comes back, it's how New Orleans comes back.

I hope he tells the President that.

I’m not so sure about this, though:

When we hit that tipping point and the city flooded, it was not within FEMA's mission, capabilities or competency to go out and direct actual rescue operations. The Coast Guard came in and did it because we're trained to do that. And whatever issues there are with FEMA as an organization, I hope the public does not generalize to a larger responsibility for FEMA.

I don’t think anyone expected Michael Brown to jump in a helicopter and rescue people off the rooftops. Besides, he probably would have dropped them. But we did expect him to have a plan to evacuate (rescue) the people at the Superdome and Convention Center, or to at least know there were people *at* the Convention Center.

Just for kicks, here is FEMA’s mission from their official website:

As it has for more than 20 years, FEMA's mission remains: to lead America to prepare for, prevent, respond to and recover from disasters with a vision of "A Nation Prepared." At no time in its history has this vision been more important to the country than in the aftermath of Sept. 11th.

Except for, say, in the aftermath of Katrina.

The Tao Te King Cakes

I bought a king cake yesterday. And, I always have this problem when I get a king cake: I don’t know where to start cutting it.

Because it is shaped like a circle, there is no beginning or end. Where do you start? You might choose the biggest piece. Or a certain sugar color. Or maybe a piece with icing. Or not.

So I looked at my king cake, and I thought.

I thought about circles. I thought that wherever you start on a circle, you also end. You always wind up where you started.

Then I thought about life. Wherever you were before you were born, you probably go back there when you die.

Then I thought about cycles – how things move in circles and then do it again. I thought about the four seasons. Then the hurricane season.

This led me to think that wherever we are right now, we are somewhere on a circle. If we don’t like where we are, we need to just keep going because we will eventually get back to where we want to be.

This is no great revelation. There is nothing here worth adding to any philosophical debate.

The thing is, before Katrina, I never would have looked at a king cake and then pondered the meaning of life. I would have just thought, “Which piece has the baby?”

Apartments in the Mix

This is the first I have heard of apartments being used to temporarily house New Orleanians.

The Governor, the Mayor, and two city council members met yesterday along with FEMA to soothe the differences between City Hall and the City Council concerning where returning New Orleanians should live:

More than 46,800 families have requested housing assistance from FEMA. Blanco said 21,900 of those families can place travel trailers on their own property as they rebuild their homes. The mayor has approved sites for another 8,000 trailers, and an estimated 10,000 apartments could be readied within a few months.

That leaves city, state and federal officials searching for places for about 7,000 families.

This looks like a step in the right direction. Apartments are much better than trailers. They are coming up with a plan and talking numbers.

And the Mayor even said he would cede some of his power to the council:

Nagin said council members would be able to veto trailer locations in their districts.

I am curious how many residents are represented by “more than 46,800 families.” It seems like it would be a big chunk of the population that hasn’t returned yet.

Since I frequently point out when the city is sending the wrong message to misplaced New Orleanians, I must say that this is the right message.

Another Katrina Mystery Solved

If you drove up and down Claiborne Ave near Central City in the weeks after Katrina, you may have seen flooded hearses on neutral grounds or in other odd areas, as Schroeder shows in this series of pics. I saw too many of them for it to have been a random thing.

Well, I was talking to a funeral home director a couple of days ago and he told me that he had to buy new hearses because a depot that housed his old ones near Jackson Ave was looted and the hearses were stolen. That explains that.

Except for the “stolen” part. This might have been a Kanye West moment where “stealing” to some might mean “surviving” for others:

Some of the first vehicles to arrive on dry land at Algiers Point loaded with New Orleans evacuees were not operated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) or any other government authority. They were two hearse and limousine drivers equipped with a ravenous determination to save lives at any cost.

“We were known as the renegade squad.” Williams said she and Jackson ‘borrowed’ the vehicles, although in what has become Katrina lingo, they ‘commandeered’ them to rescue themselves and others stranded by the floodwaters.

Apparently, it takes specialized knowledge that I don’t have to commandeer limos and hearses:

“Panicked residents were screaming, the car alarms were blaring. There was chaos everywhere. We used screwdrivers to bypass the alarms and hotwire the ignitions.”

Cool.

A Katrina Mystery Solved

When da po’ ma qualified for a SBA loan, I was confused. I thought she might have been operating a little something on the side and not telling da po’ boy. I thought maybe my prospects in her will were looking up.

Alas, it turns out that in times of disaster, you don’t have to own a business to get an SBA loan (WaPo link):

Though its usual mandate is helping small businesses, it is charged with helping homeowners and renters as well as all businesses damaged in disasters. That is because a New Deal program coupled the two loan programs during the Great Depression of the 1930s, and both were transferred to the SBA when it was created in 1953.

I still think it is strange that the SBA is handling non-business owners’ loans. Wouldn’t that cause some confusion? I mean, *I’m* confused:

Another quirk makes it necessary for homeowners with low incomes, who wouldn't qualify for a loan, to go through the process at SBA anyway. That's because FEMA, which give out grants in disasters, can consider only those who have been turned down for a loan.

So you have to be refused a loan in order to get one? I don’t get it.

But I am not here to get it. That is proven to me everyday.

Also, the SBA has declined 70% of the loan applications they have processed and only approved 21%. And they have processed less than half of the applications they have received.

In the midst of all this SBA confusion, I completely missed that the article was about Hubig’s Pies, which is back up and running.

Of course, the SBA hasn’t approved their loan yet.

How Did We Get to This Point?

The city wants to get on with the rebuilding.

The people who have lost so much do not want to lose what they have left.

Why aren’t the two sides talking?

With a cell phone crooked in her ear and scores of activists cheering her on in the 2000 block of Reynes Street, lawyer Tracie Washington sent a backhoe and its crew packing from the Lower 9th Ward Thursday morning.

***

Washington and her colleagues raced to the corner of Reynes and Galvez streets after a tipster called in an SOS that the bulldozing had begun — in clear violation of an agreement the city made Dec. 28 not to demolish any homes until a hearing in Civil District Court, she said.

***

The machine seemed to be collecting rotting boards piled up where lawns once were. But to Washington and her circle the materials were not storm debris ready to be discarded, but rather someone’s property.

To me, this shows that the lines of communication between the city and its people have been severed. The people now feel they have to show up to physically impede the unwanted bulldozing of their homes.

It makes no difference whether this crew was simply “collecting rotting boards” or preparing to bulldoze a house. The people perceived the latter. One man’s debris is another man’s home. The city doesn’t get it.

The question of who gets bulldozed and who doesn’t can not be settled in the courts. It can not be a forced decision. It must come through dialogue, with the wishes of both sides present in the final outcome.

In the end, no one will be happy. We have all lost so much. But, adding to the grief is not an option.

How did we get to this point?

Buc Fan Offended at Saints Game

No, it wasn’t the way the Saints played that offended him:

Tampa, Florida - Like most Bucs fans, Bob Corry says he enjoyed Sunday's game against the New Orleans Saints at Raymond James Stadium. Everything, except a song played over the stadium's loudspeakers at halftime.

Bob Corry, Offended By Song:
"The first song that I hear is 'Rock You Like a Hurricane' by The Scorpions and I thought to myself, 'Is it me, or is this just totally out of place and inappropriate?'"

I don’t know. I think it’s kind of funny. Although, I personally feel anything by the Scorpions is, as a rule of thumb, “totally out of place and inappropriate.”

More Tools in Washington

It's a poor workman who blames his tools:

"The enemy has not gone away. They're still there," said Bush. "And I expect Congress to understand that we're still at war, and they got to give us the tools necessary to win this war."

It's also a poor tool who blames his workmen.

The Bridge over Troubled Waters: Closed

When tales of roving bands of thugs up to no good were being told in the days after Katrina, the actions of the Gretna police may seem more acceptable. They blockaded the Mississippi River bridge and fired warning shots over people trying to cross it from New Orleans.

However, now that we know those tales were exaggerated and the roving bands of thugs were just groups of evacuees looking for shelter, the bridge incident isn't going away:

The Aug. 31 confrontation in which Gretna police blocked the Crescent City Connection, preventing evacuees from fleeing deluged New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, remains under investigation by Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti.

***

The probe is expected to determine whether the civil rights of evacuees were violated. Foti has said criminal charges could be filed against officers.

Meanwhile, state Sen. Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge, and state Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-New Orleans, have filed a lawsuit against the city of Gretna and its Police Department in federal court, saying the officers used "unreasonable, unnecessary and excessive force while refusing plaintiffs to travel through" the city, violating their rights.

The discrimination issue aside, why didn't the Gretna police just help these people in need? These weren't people from outside the disaster area trying to get in. They were people from inside the disaster area trying to get out. While so many law enforcement agencies were working together to help those affected by the storm, the Gretna police were refusing aid. I don't get it.

One can only assume that the Gretna police thought the people coming over the bridge looked like trouble. And, if they were going by looks, then the discrimination lawsuit has a chance.

Letters from FEMA

Louisiana received a letter from FEMA December 29th. Inside was a couple of bills totaling $155.7 million:

The bills signed by FEMA Chief Financial Officer Margaret Young include a collection stub, with notification of "Make your check payable to FEMA" and an Atlanta address to a FEMA lockbox to send the check.

The collection stub was a nice touch. And the Atlanta address? Priceless.

Let me tell you about another FEMA letter, sent in October to St. Bernard Parish President Junior Rodriguez:

To demonstrate what he has called "federal confusion," Rodriguez showed WWL-TV a letter from FEMA stating that he and his wife did not qualify for further relief because they did not live in a disaster zone.

FEMA sent the president of a parish that was completely inundated by storm surge a letter saying he did not live in a disaster zone. When he received the letter, he was living in a trailer still in the disaster zone, in the government complex set up near the Wal-Mart.

I know some people who *didn't* get letters from FEMA, as in the ones containing 2000 bucks. And they deserved it.

What's going on with the crazy FEMA letters? They want us to pay 25% of the disaster assistance they gave us. In the shape Louisiana is in, how can we pay this bill in 30 days before interest starts accruing?

I'll tell you what. We'll pay our 25% percent to the federal government when we get our 25% of oil revenues generated off the Louisiana coast. Oh, wait a minute. We might not even need your assitance if we got that.

I have a couple of letters for FEMA: F - U.

I Don't Know Where to Begin

There are just too many things wrong with this article in the Columbia Daily Tribune.

Like the title:

Relocating New Orleans picks up support

Really? Because, that's the first I had heard of it. And I am down here. I would like to know about it if the rest of the country was planning on relocating me.

The article focuses on Tim Kusky of 60 Minutes fame, who called for a gradual pullout from New Orleans. After he said that, more than a few people disagreed.

The article gives us an update:

Now Kusky believes he is being proved correct because fewer people are deciding to move back to the Big Easy.

"I'’ve gotten hundreds of e-mails," Kusky said in an interview last week. "At first they were about half and half. Now they are almost all supportive."

That's funny. I just read this in the paper on Sunday: "New Orleans' population is coming back more quickly than expected."

"Hold on," you say. "He's getting more supportive emails than before. He must be right!" They're probably all from his mother.

He continues:

"Many of the e-mails I'’ve had from people there are from scientists who are afraid to speak out for fear of retaliation from others down there," Kusky added in an e-mail message. "But the science must be heard to protect the people and their property."

That's all we're saying, too, that "the science must be heard to protect the people and their property." What we are hearing, though, is that it can be done. It's just a matter of doing it.

Now, on to the other scientists in the article:

"I don'’t want to say it should not be rebuilt," said Robert Young, a geology professor at Western Carolina University.

Thanks for not wanting to say we should not rebuild, except:

In testimony before a congressional committee, Young has recommended the federal government stop helping to rebuild southern coastal communities repeatedly hit by hurricanes.

Umm, okay.

But, wait. There's more:

He has called for the creation of a commission such as the one that assesses the value of military bases. The new commission would decide what areas would not eligible for federal rebuilding subsidies.

I am sure the parts of California being flooded right now would just love that idea.

Then, there's J. David Rogers, a professor in the University of Missouri-Rolla Geological Engineering Department:

The ridiculous result Rogers sees from Katrina is that some New Orleans residents who lived within dike-protected lands were not part of the National Flood Insurance Program.

"We'’ve allowed people to build in these areas, and we are not charging them the freight we should for living in those zones," Rogers said in an interview.

Look, we are not the only city protected by levees (dikes, whatever). And a lot of us were under the impression that we didn't need national flood insurance because the national government told us the levees would work.

As far as not being charged the freight we should be for living in these zones, I believe the inestimable Humid Haney has already shown us the definitive explanation as to why New Orleans is where it is, and why we live where we live. And part of that is so the good professor is not charged more than he is already charged for the freight he buys because we live in these zones.

Feel free to point out any more goofiness you might encounter in this article.

In Times of War

No, not the Iraq war. The war against time:

Can the Army Corps of Engineers restore the levees to at least pre-Katrina strength in the five months before the next hurricane season kicks in?

***

"If the corps will recognize this as a wartime situation and act accordingly, they can sheet-pile the entrances to those canals and get big diesel-powered pumps up on platforms to pump rainfall that collects in the canals right out into the lake," said Robert Bea, a professor of engineering at the University of California's Berkeley campus. Bea is a leader of the National Science Foundation investigation of the levee failures that led to catastrophic flooding after Hurricane Katrina.

"It won't be pretty or permanent, but it will work," Bea said, "and it can be done by June 1."

To the people living inside a decimated levee system, this *is* a wartime situation. Come next hurricane season, life and property will once again be at risk, even if the levees are restored to pre-Katrina status.

Why isn't this like a "wartime situation" for the Army Corps? It is "us versus the hurricanes", right? Or is it "the U.S. versus us"? I ask because the first shot was fired when the Army Corps didn't build the levees correctly in the first place. And, now independent engineers are saying the Army Corps isn't doing everything it can to repair the levees by next hurricane season.

Jeez, we at least deserved a warning shot.

2005 is Over Already?

Where did September go?

I meant to start this blog in late August. Great timing, huh? Anyway, this is what I had to say in 2005.

On how to tell when things are back to normal:

This is now my litmus test for when things are back to normal in the GNO area. When I stop getting flats, things are back to normal.

On Presidential obligations:

Mr. President, reclaim New Orleans. Come down to the Cabildo and sign a new Louisiana Purchase. Buy not the barren land you see before you, but the awesome potential that lies in its regeneration. Raise the American flag over New Orleans once again so that your citizens will know they have a home and will be protected by a great and caring nation.

On defeetists:

We all know the defeetists. And they are not justified by the facts. When they say “I betcha five bucks I know where ya’ got dem shoes,” we know they do not really know.

On the war in Iraq:

Oh, that’s right. I forgot. We’re fighting them over there so that we can’t build bigger levees over here. Priorities!

On the federal government's response after Katrina:

We might find at the end of the day that it is not black New Orleanians that the federal government has neglected, but New Orleanians of every color.

On Mardi Gras 2006:

Yes, having Mardi Gras next year will send the message that the Mayor and the tourism industry want: New Orleans is open for business. But, to cancel Mardi Gras would send a more powerful message to the nation: We are not back to normal and we need your help.

Which one is more accurate? Which one helps us in our mission to rebuild?

On the correct way and the Orleans Levee Board’s way of inspecting a levee:

Eight engineers versus grass cutters. My head hurts.

On Army Corps workers being threatened:

If people in the Lower Ninth were threatening ACE workers, it probably went something like this:

"Dude, your levees suck."

That's not a threat. That's a fact.

On Rumsfeld’s Thanksgiving epiphany that they Iraqi insurgents weren’t insurgents:

I am glad that when I have an epiphany, it does not become national policy. My epiphanies are limited to things like better ways to wipe my ass. I can't imagine the entire country all wiping its ass just like me.

On water:

Southern Louisiana evolved over millions of years to take a big hurricane every now and then, so there is a place for the water to go. We need to find where that place is, figure out a way to channel a massive storm surge there, and get it done. If we raise our structures off the ground and build them strong enough to withstand the movement of the water, the whole city can be a channel for the storm surge to go to a happy place.

Or, we could just rebuild the city every fifty years. Either way.

On that stupid question that stupid people kept asking right after Katrina hit:

The question shouldn't be: “Why rebuild in New Orleans?” It should be: “Why build in areas which may flood?” And the answer is because people live there. New Orleans is not the only place protected by levees, and the country needs to invest in plans to keep those places safe.

The first real post:

I started this weblog four days before I packed my family in a car and ran from a storm called Katrina. I wanted to speak for my city, New Orleans. I wanted to promote what was going right in my city, shine a light on what was going wrong, and hold the powerful accountable for the plight of the powerless. While I believe these goals to be valiant before the storm, I see them as essential after Katrina. The problems of my city are now out in the open. The solutions are scattered somewhere in the debris that still lines our streets weeks after the hurricane made landfall. As New Orleanians return to their city, they are going to talk about what happened. And they are going to talk about it like only New Orleanians can. And they are going to find solutions like only New Orleanians can.
Down here, we speak a different language. We speak New Orleans.
On this blog, I’m going to speak New Orleans. Feel free to listen.

That pretty much says it all.

Thanks for tuning in.

Why I Don’t Like Tourism

The Sheraton Hotel sales director Tommy Morel had this to say:

"A person could fly into the airport, stay in a top hotel, eat in the best restaurants and visit our most famous jazz bars and never know anything was wrong with this city," says Mr Morel. "Visitors should not feel guilty about coming back. They are helping the city recover."

This is what I have to say:

“Residents could fly into the airport, stay here, eat at the best restaurants and visit the most famous jazz bars and know that nothing is wrong with this city. They should be able to come back and help the city recover.”

What is the goal here, to attract tourists while we keep residents away? How does the city benefit from that?

The Disaster was Natural

The catastrophe was human-made:

The bodies of at least 588 people were recovered in neighborhoods that engineers say would have remained largely dry had the walls of the 17th Street and London Avenue canals not given way.

588 is more than half of all the Katrina deaths in Louisiana – 1,096 as of 12/28/05. A levee system built as advertised would have saved most if not all of those who died in the “would-have-remained-largely-dry” areas.

Let’s see. We built the ineffective levees. We built the MRGO/Katrina Storm Surge Funnel. We contributed to the significant loss of coastal wetlands over the past 40 years.

Remind you of Pogo, anyone?

We have met the enemy and he is us.

Those that we have elected have failed us. But as our representatives, they have failed us in our names. Ultimately, it is we who have failed to elect those who would act in our best interests. We are to blame.

I’m not big on guilt. No pity parties on da po’ blog. So what are we going to do about it?

Fill in the Blank

When I want meat cut, I talk to the butcher.

When I want my hair cut, I go to the barber.

When I want my dreams of hurricane protection by next season cut up into little pieces and then flushed down the toilet thereby clogging up the pipes and flooding my bathroom, I listen to Walter Maestri:

"We're six months from the next hurricane season," Maestri says. "There is no way known to man, with all of our technology, that we can deal with all of this. And I don't know that any of us… can tell people that they should come back and experience this again."

If there’s “no way known to man” that we can be protected by next season, then we need to get a woman working on this because that is *not* what I want to hear. If they say there’s no way known to man or woman, then I want a hermaphrodite to start working on the levees. If they say there’s no way known to man, woman, or man-woman, then I want some alien species to apply their superior technology to fix the problem. If they say… well, you get the picture, and I really don’t know where to go after that.

I like this quote by Walter Baumy of the Army Corps:

"We will have hurricane protection in place by next year's season."

Hey, buddy, there’s an adjective missing there:

"We will have _____________ hurricane protection in place by next year's season."

The best ever? Adequate? Category 3? 2? 1? Shitty?

It’s just like Mad Libs! How would the experts fill in the blank?

Jefferson Parish Emergency Operations head Walter Maestri:

"As far as real protection is concerned for the community, I just don't see it."

LSU Hurricane Center scientist Paul Kemp:

“Will we have things we can depend on for resisting wave forces and surges of 17 or 18 feet? No, we won't.”

National Science Foundation member Robert Bea:

Bea says officials at the Army Corps need to tell the nation that they will not be able to protect New Orleans anytime soon.

The experts choose: shitty! Just like the levees were before!

Oh, yeah, and about the shitty way they were built before:

Baumy says that the Corps still doesn't know how many miles of levees were built that way and need to be rebuilt.

I believe this is a FYYFF moment.

Okay, I Tried…

But it didn’t feel right.

I reviewed my posts over the last few weeks and realized that they all seemed negative. I wanted to post something light, quippy, maybe funny, or at least positive. (See last few posts.)

But, that’s just not the way I feel. I don’t feel light, or quippy. I laugh, usually at some sarcastic remark, so I guess I can feel “funny.” Most unfortunately, though, I am not positive.

Such is the post-Katrina world. At least for me.

So, back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Arty Gras Must Go On

While we agonized over whether or not to have Mardi Gras next year, the residents of Worcester, MA, had an agonizing choice of their own:

“In February we were debating the direction of this year’s show,” said Joyce R. Kressler, executive director of First Night Worcester. “It (the ‘Arty Gras’ theme) was chosen because of the culture that is Mardi Gras and that Mardi Gras is a celebration. And it was a play on words. We never could have imagined the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.”

***

“We didn’t want people to think we were using the theme to capitalize on the tragedy … We actually toyed with the idea of not using the theme.”

Nay, good people of Worcester, Arty Gras must go on. And it will.

Sure, this festival is far from New Orleans and Louisiana, but it is still helping out by employing local and regional bands. They also bought “500 pounds of Mardi Gras beads that First Night ordered directly from a company in the Louisiana Gulf. The company’s factory was destroyed by Katrina, Kressler said, and is currently conducting its business out of trailers.”

So, all together now: “Arty Gras mambo, mambo, mambo… up in Worcester!”

Jazz Fest to Have New Orleans Theme

About time, you say? Well, it’s not THAT Jazz Fest. It’s the one in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Organisers of the week-long jazz and blues extravaganza have confirmed that the event will pay homage to the "home of the blues" and will raise money for people whose homes and possessions were destroyed by the hurricane.

How important is New Orleans to the world? Ask the Scots.

5… 4… 3… 2… 1… 1…

Happy New Year!

"Enjoy New Year's Eve a second longer," the institute said in an explanatory notice. "You can toot your horn an extra second this year."

(I just wanted to write that title.)

Thanks to That Guy

When I go to work, I always say, “Time to make the donuts” – like that guy in the Dunkin’ Donuts commercial.

That guy died over the weekend.

I guess I should say thanks.

What Image Problem?

From Market Watch:

Divided, corrupt past haunts Big Easy

It could be one of the biggest stumbling blocks for Southeast Louisiana as it seeks federal aid for rebuilding: its image as a corrupt, divided, disorganized and poorly educated region.

See previous post.

The Good, the Bad…

…and the NOPD’s image.

The officers who gunned down a knife-wielding man appeared to be justified in using lethal force, but the death will be perceived as a black mark on the beleaguered police department, the head of a watchdog group said Tuesday.

Two quick points:

First, the shooting will only be “perceived as a black mark” if the press inaccurately portrays it as a black mark. If the police were wrong to shoot, report that the police were wrong. If the police were justified in shooting, report that the police were justified. If we don’t know yet, report that we don’t know yet.

Second, thanks a lot, “watchdog group.” You’re not helping:

"People will continue to have a negative opinion of police in this city," said Rafael Goyeneche, executive director of the Metropolitan Crime Commission of Greater New Orleans. "That goes back to some of the sins the department has been guilty of over the past 10 to 15 years."

Thanks for linking this unrelated incident to 10 to 15 years of “sins” committed by the department (as if a department can commit a sin). And thanks for giving this reporter and countless reporters afterwards a green light to rehash all the bad things people inside the NOPD have ever done over its entire history (i.e. Len Davis).

Look, I am not a cheerleader for the NOPD. It seems excessive to me that three officers shot a total of nine times at a man with a knife. That is for another post.

I am, however, a cheerleader for accurate reporting. And it is not accurate for a reporter to write the shooting “appeared to be justified,” then say it “will be perceived as a black mark,” and then proceed to portray it as a black mark. Remember, it “appeared to be justified.”

The NOPD has an image problem. New Orleans has an image problem. And though some of the negative image is deserved, headlines like “New Orleans Shooting a New Mark on Police” don’t help, especially when the shooting “appeared to be justified.”

NOTE: Just or unjust, the shooting was unfortunate. The purpose of this post was not to address whether the police were right or wrong, but to address how the media’s coverage of the story will be perceived as a black mark on the beleaguered city of New Orleans.

This is Happening in My Backyard?

A selection of quotes from the Times-Picayune article “‘Not in my back yard’ cry holding up FEMA trailers.”

(Read the article for context, but don’t expect the quotes to look any more justified or less sad.)

“It's a nice and quiet and safe neighborhood, and that's how I'd like to keep it,” Galatas said. “I don't want my neighborhood ruined because theirs is.”

***

“It makes me feel like a second-class citizen, like we're diseased or we're some kind of criminal because we don't have normal housing.”

***

“We're not trying to be obstructionist,” Councilman Jay Batt said. “We just want this done intelligently and methodically.”

***

Councilwoman Jacquelyn Brechtel Clarkson, whose district includes Algiers and the French Quarter, said she has fought for trailer parks in her district to be in locations that “don't intrude on our lifestyle.”

***

“Nobody can guarantee that the price of my property won't be affected,” Meskill said. “Compassion is all right, but compassion can't be at the expense of my property.”

***

“You used to have murders on the news every night. Nobody would want to live next to that.”

***

“That's what they forgot about. We weren't the enemy, but now it seems that we are. My city appears not to want me. That's the worst part.”

Where did the forest go? I can’t see it through all these trees.

Holidays Reclaimed

What the L.A. Times taketh (previous post), they giveth.

I knew Mr. Bingle was back, but I didn’t know he was a survivor:

The storm collapsed a levee just a few blocks from the industrial district where Mr. Bingle had been stashed. Every nearby warehouse was destroyed — except the one housing him.

I’m gonna go play with lil’ po’ boy, now. It’s a merry frickin’ holiday after all.

Coal in my Stocking

I was hoping to post something for the holidays that was positive. Reading over my last few posts, I realized that I need to lighten up.

However, Christmas came, and I found coal in my stocking. Thanks, L.A. Times:

Levees Weakened as New Orleans Board, Federal Engineers Feuded

Quick points from the article:

1) It was the Army Corps versus the Orleans Levee Board, not the Army Corps *and* the Levee Board, working to protect the city from a major hurricane:

Corps engineers wanted to install gates in front of the city's three main internal canals to protect against violent storm surges from Lake Pontchartrain. The Orleans Levee District, the city's flood protection agency, preferred to build higher flood walls for miles along the canals. For five years, neither side yielded.

Higher flood walls didn’t work, and the plan on the books now more closely resembles the Army Corps’ early plans.

2) Just because you are politically connected doesn’t mean you can’t be effective. However, this doesn’t look right:

All three engineering consultants who were selected by the Orleans board to design the levees contributed to the political campaigns of officials with sway over the board.

***

Levee board contractors also frequently gave campaign money to Francis C. Heitmeier, a powerful state legislator from New Orleans who has long wielded influence over Orleans levee district affairs.

***

Just last month, Heitmeier again played obstructionist, helping to snuff out a post-Katrina attempt by reformers to create a unified state levee board.

3) Sometimes people say that East Jefferson was lucky because the breach at the 17th Street Canal could have been on the E.J. side. But, luck probably had nothing to do with it:

Harvey recalls staring jealously at East Jefferson Levee District's well-trimmed border of the 17th Street canal, then at untamed foliage and trees massed along the Orleans levee wall. "I'd look at the Orleans side and get depressed," he said.

Neither the corps nor the Orleans board had a rigorous program for scanning for structural defects. Instead, the two agencies joined twice a year for five-hour-long inspection tours. A caravan of officials would make random stops along the floodwalls. Sometimes corps officials issued citations. Then they would head out for long lunches.

Merry frickin’ holidays.

What is the Media Doing?

In a Reuters article entitled “Immigrants find opportunity in ruined New Orleans,” the author ends with this:

The immigrant workers do not feel too threatened by competition from the local Americans. They point to the back of the parking lot where the only "gringos" in sight are sleeping on sheets of cardboard or sitting on wooden boxes, surrounded by empty beer cans and booze bottles.

"There are a lot of drunks here," said Delgado.

When asked where the American workers were, Del Rio shook his head and said, "Who knows? It just seems like the Latin race likes to work more."

Do I even have to comment on the absurdity of this?

First of all, the term “American workers” does not exclude the “Latin race.” And I refuse to believe that Americans are lazy and there are “a lot of drunks here.” After all, New Orleans drunks are the good, functioning kind of drunks. (Ha, ha – joke.)

Any story on the influx of migrant workers in the New Orleans area that does not point out that the city, state, and federal government have not done enough to return local workers is not a good story. That is the only reason why there is a gap to be filled by the migrant workers. The article even says “While New Orleans residents are slow to return…,” but does not tell us *why* they are slow to return. In fact, the article implies that we are slow to return because we do not want to work.

I am here. I am working. If the others were here, they would be working, too.

Overall, the media is really disappointing me. Are there any well-told, accurate stories out there?

Great Pains

Last Tuesday the USA Today wrote:

Neither Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco nor New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has articulated a detailed vision for the city's future.

Blanco and Nagin responded:

We are moving forward and rebuilding our home. We trust that Americans will understand if we take great pains to do it right.

Translation: We’re not moving *slow*. We’re moving *deliberately*.

As long as it is not deliberately slow.

The USA Today is correct to point out the lack of a detailed vision. But, that’s easy for them to say. Because they are farther from the disaster, they are more interested in symbolic victories. It would make them feel better if a politician got up and gave an “I have a dream” speech about the future of New Orleans.

When you are living here, you are interested in tangible victories – ones you can feel, like electricity to see, gas to take a hot shower, a place to live, schools to bring your kids to, a hospital to treat your Katrina cough.

We need both. We need more of a vision to make us feel better. And, we need more infrastructure to make our lives better. A leader’s job is to do both.

Though our leaders' views on whether or not to rebuild have been consistent, a vision of rebuilding has been absent. We like the tangible victories, but I don’t think we would mind a little uplifting symbolism every now and then.

How Many More?

Via Polimom Says..., another body was found in the Lower Ninth Ward Thursday. That makes two found this week.

The Wet Bank Guide points out St. Bernard has found a lot of the people on their missing list alive, but:

The results in St. Bernard, which are more likely to track those of New Orleans, found only 75% of the missing. The rest can't be accounted for, and the search for bodies in the marshes has begun.

Are there many more to be found? Do we know? Are we doing enough to find them?

The politicians are asking people to come back. In January, many will return after staying in other cities for the school semester. How can we ask people to come back to an area where they are still finding dead bodies?

Once again, this adds fuel to the sense of neglect many Ninth Ward residents are feeling. They felt neglected before the storm, and now they feel like they aren’t wanted back.

We want everyone back.

It was Inevitable

The Suspect Device Blog finds a rare incident of Mike Brown being right.

In 2003, he sent a memo to the Homeland Security Secretary about the retooling of FEMA under the new department:

The inevitable result, he wrote, would be "an ineffective and uncoordinated response" to a terrorist attack or a natural disaster.

Give that man a Presidential Medal of Freedom!

It looks like Brown knew something bad was going to happen:

"The slogan was 'Do No Harm,' but we were doing harm," Brown said. "People became distracted from the mission, because we spent so much time and energy fighting for resources and working on reorganization. It just disintegrated our capacity."

I got news for you, Brownie. You don’t get points for seeing it coming.

Sssssss… (Air Escaping)

In the last two months, between my work vehicle, my personal vehicle, and da po’ wife’s car, we have had seven flat tires.

Three tires had to be replaced, two were patched, and I currently have one flat and one slow leak.

That ain’t right.

This is now my litmus test for when things are back to normal in the GNO area. When I stop getting flats, things are back to normal.

A Recommendation for the New NOLA

Hybrid cabs.

Maybe we can replace all those flooded RTA and school buses with hybrid buses, too.

Fun with Numbers

I was surprised to read that only $5 billion dollars of the Katrina aid package approved by the Senate yesterday was new money:

Most of the hurricane aid — $24 billion — has already been authorized by Congress as part of a federal Disaster Relief Fund. The money now will be diverted from the fund, overseen by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and sent directly to Gulf Coast states and victims.

I am not ungrateful for the $5 billion dollars, but I was under the impression that this was an additional $29 billion on top of what was originally given to FEMA (I believe $62 billion).

I am now wondering why that $24 billion dollars wasn’t already earmarked for spending and how much more money is just floating around waiting for direction. There’s nothing I dislike more than directionless Katrina aid.

What is Victory in Iraq?

define: victory in iraq

Anyone?

Rumsfeld gives it a try:

"Victory in Iraq will be a situation where the political process will be successful, where the security forces are sufficiently competent to take over the security responsibilities and we can pass it on to them and we can draw down our forces ...."

At least he’s trying.

It’s the Little Things that Fatigue

This scenario is probably playing out in many communities around the south that have taken in Katrina evacuees:

"The county is not in any financial problems" due to its support of the housing program, she said. "We are not struggling."
***
[County Auditor Linda] Breazeale stressed to the commissioners the current FEMA program is "time and labor intensive" to oversee and that it could have an impact on her 17-person department's ability to issue the county's certificates of obligation and road bonds for 2006.

FEMA will reimburse this community and all the communities that are helping evacuees for any money spent - so money is not always an issue. But, it is still more work for the same number of workers. So, when we see Katrina Fatigue set in, it might not be because the fatigued are tired of Katrina. It is more likely that they are just tired.

All the more reason to get the evacuees back home.

Why ANWR? Why Now?

The Senate approved the provision of the defense spending bill that would give $29 billion in aid to the Gulf Coast. But don’t start signing your checks just yet. Since changes occurred in the bill, it goes back to the House to be approved. Again.

One of those changes is the removal of a provision opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for drilling.

Could the bill have passed “as is” without the ANWR provision tacked on? Maybe. In that case, the $29 billion would be a Presidential signature away from heading to the Gulf Coast. Instead, it's headed back to the House.

So, why stick ANWR on this bill? Supplemental appropriation bills are often attached to unrelated spending bills to send money quickly to an area after a disaster. But there is no disaster in ANWR. There is no pressing need to start drilling for oil in the Arctic Refuge.

But to Alaskan SenatorTed Stevens, there is a pressing need. It has been pressing him for 25 years:

Back in 1980, the deal went like this: Vote yes on setting aside 19 million acres of wilderness, said Sens. Henry "Scoop" Jackson of Washington and Paul Tsongas of Massachusetts, and Congress will support permission to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Stevens agreed. Tsongas and Jackson, meanwhile, died before Congress could grant permission to drill.

Their debt survives, Stevens insists. And he's playing procedural hardball to make the Senate pay up.

And hardball is definitely his game:

"It's going to be awfully hard to vote against Katrina," the Alaska Republican said.

Wow.

He made a strategic decision to pit Katrina aid versus drilling in ANWR.

Wow.

Stevens lost his bid to open up the spigot of ANWR. We lost one more day to shore up our levees before the start of net year’s hurricane season. In my opinion, that’s his debt repaid. We sacrificed one day for his 25-year-long fantasy. I hope it wasn't the day we needed.

Stevens said that “he wouldn't withhold hurricane aid to get ANWR passed.” Apparently, he couldn’t do that if he wanted to.

Louisiana and the “Resource Curse”

As the Vice-President rushes back to provide the deciding vote (if needed) on the latest deficit reduction bill, and as Congress battles over whether or not to drill in ANWR, Louisiana’s fortunes are once again tied to the future of domestic oil drilling. $29 billion dollars of Katrina relief are in the same bill as the provision opening up the Arctic Refuge in Alaska to drilling. And the vote appears tight.

Once, Louisiana was an oil state. Big Erl made its millions here as it did anywhere else in the world where there was oil. But the oil slowed down, the profits went down, and Big Erl left town. And we were left with the aftermath from what NY Times Magazine contributing author Peter Maass calls the “resource curse”:

Though it seems counterintuitive - countries with a lot of oil are lucky and rich, right? - a succession of studies… show that countries dependent on natural-resource exports experience lower growth rates than countries that have nonresource economies, and they suffer greater amounts of repression and conflict too. The reasons are complex - and there are exceptions to these dismal rules - but in general, a reliance on oil discourages investment in other industries, makes governments less responsive to the desires of citizens and fosters corruption by officials seeking and receiving funds that are not their due. An oil state is, almost by definition, a dysfunctional state.

He’s talking about countries. But, it sounds like Louisiana, doesn’t it?

Maass makes some good points:

The latest battle has not touched upon a depressing fact: every barrel of oil that is not extracted from America must be drilled from someone else's backyard, often with little regard for the consequences. Because our appetite for energy has grown over the decades, new drilling, along with the damage it tends to create, has not been halted; it has been outsourced.

And asks some good questions:

If the protection of our environment comes at the expense of others, might it be an expression of selfishness rather than virtue? The more we focus on defending our environment, the less we may focus on environments outside our borders; activism can become anesthesia. Domestic restrictions on drilling have had the unintended effect of insulating our tender consciences from the worst impacts of oil extraction. Out of sight, out of mind.

From reading his article, I would think Maass is basically saying: If we are to do ugly things, should we not be ugly ourselves?

I don’t know about that. I’m not into self-flagellation. I want to do pretty things and be pretty. I don’t want to drill for more oil here, nor do I want the Saudis, Iraqis, Iranians, Venezuelans, Bruneians, or anyone else drilling more oil in their countries for me.

But, I want $29 billion dollars to come to the Gulf Coast. So it’s drilling in ANWR versus not getting aid – kind of like Edwards versus Duke. I don’t know how I would vote. It seems to me that to be a politician, you must defy your principles equally as often as you uphold them. It must be fun.

Who, following Maass’ criteria, is being selfish in this case? We who want to sacrifice the environment of ANWR for our $29 billion dollars? Or, those who wish not to pay *us* back for *our* environmental sacrifice without dooming another region to the same fate? Just asking.

(This boring post inspired by The Oil Drum.)

They Found a Body

From ABC 26 News:

Contractors gutting a home in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans made a gruesome discovery Tuesday morning. They found a body, apparently left there since Hurricane Katrina.

Walter Smith says they spotted the body before they even entered the home in the 1300 block of Tuplelo [sic] Street.

Given the level of destruction in the Lower Ninth, I can understand that people are still finding bodies. But, contractors “spotted the body before they even entered the home?” Even though “[m]arkings on the front of the house indicate it was checked at least twice for bodies?”

C’mon. Justified or not, the people of the Lower Ninth feel like they have been forgotten. This only adds to their despair. And Tupelo St., while not a main street, is a divided and well-trafficked street, near Jackson Barracks.

It may turn out that the body was not there since Katrina. But the damage was done today:

The discovery fuels a sense of hopelessness in the Lower Ninth Ward. Much of the neighborhood is still frozen in time and little has changed since Katrina flooded their streets and destroyed their homes.

ALL of New Orleans needs to be rebuilt. And progress needs to be spread out. If certain areas are mending while others languish, the tension between residents allowed to come back and those still on the outside will rip apart whatever good is accomplished.

I don’t know if New Orleans ever really was a completely functional community. But, now we have the chance to be, unless we keep neglecting the Lower Ninth.

Court Upholds Science

Many of us knew this before, but now it's official:

However, the fact that a scientific theory cannot yet render an explanation on every point should not be used as a pretext to thrust an untestable alternative hypothesis grounded in religion into the science classroom or to misrepresent well-established scientific propositions.

I wish we could apply this to political policies and the realm of politics.

(P.S. The posse's getting bigger!)

Are You Serious?

This happened in America?

UPDATE: Okay, maybe it didn't. Link brought to you by John McAdams.

UPDATE 2: Good, it's not true.

NEW BEDFORD -- A senior at UMass Dartmouth was visited by federal agents two months ago, after he requested a copy of Mao Tse-Tung's tome on Communism called "The Little Red Book."

Two history professors at UMass Dartmouth, Brian Glyn Williams and Robert Pontbriand, said the student told them he requested the book through the UMass Dartmouth library's interlibrary loan program.

The student, who was completing a research paper on Communism for Professor Pontbriand's class on fascism and totalitarianism, filled out a form for the request, leaving his name, address, phone number and Social Security number. He was later visited at his parents' home in New Bedford by two agents of the Department of Homeland Security, the professors said.

I hope this is the iceberg, not just the tip.

On This Day in History…

The American flag was first raised over New Orleans, December 20, 1803.

That year, President Thomas Jefferson considered New Orleans so vital to the United States’ interests that he had sent his representatives Robert Livingston and James Monroe to France to solicit the purchase of the port city.

They ended up buying all of the Louisiana Territory, which was really just lagniappe. New Orleans was the prize.

Woe that today’s President does not value New Orleans so. Nor does he value New Orleans’ contribution to the growth of the country whose Constitution he has sworn to defend.

If he did, he would not let New Orleans and the cities that have grown up around her lie bare to the winds and waters that surround us.

We need more than money. We need more than levees. We need more than rhetoric. We need more than what may filter down through the bureaucratic levels of our government.

We are lost. Lost to the Gulf of Mexico. Lost to the floods of Katrina. Lost to years of neglect by our politicians. Lost to years of failing schools. Lost to our own apathy and short-sightedness. Lost in cities all around the country, and unable to find our way home.

Mr. President, reclaim New Orleans. Come down to the Cabildo and sign a new Louisiana Purchase. Buy not the barren land you see before you, but the awesome potential that lies in its regeneration. Raise the American flag over New Orleans once again so that your citizens will know they have a home and will be protected by a great and caring nation.