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Shut up.
Please. You're embarassing yourself when you try to act as an elder statesman and spokesman for your family.
Your credibility in this town is so poor that, yes, the Convention Center wants to downplay the Morial name because the first thing people associate with that name isn't your father's legacy.
It's YOUR reputation they think of when they hear "Morial," and that plays into the whole New Orleans-is-corrupt meme.
Your associates have been convicted of federal crimes, are cooperating with federal investigations that still may lead to your indictment, and some are already in federal prison. Corrupt activities on the part of your closest advisers have even brought down one of the city's best leaders and most promising politicians.
Your activities and those of your associates have resulted in your own brother becoming a federal felon.
In the wake of the storm, you've abandoned the city to live in New York City. When your name comes up, it's usually in either that context or within the context of criminal activity.
You're an embarassment to us, sir. Please just stop talking.
Sincerely,
YatPundit
Here on the Gulf Coast, the "greedy trial lawyers" meme is a dog that won't hunt anymore. All too many people know that their only hope of getting money back from their insurance carriers is an attorney. Others will gladly join class action suits over the flooding in Jefferson Parish and the poisoning of residents of FEMA trailers.
The latest Washington use of the trial-lawyer meme is over the FISA legislation. Wingnuts argue that Dems don't want to give amnesty to Telecommunications companies because they want to put a lot of money in the pockets of trial lawyers.
As mcjoan points out at Daily Kos, Republicans spend a lot of money on trial lawyers themselves. And it's not always money well-spent, given how many of them are ending up in prison these days.
The story of Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard's handling of emergency preparations for suburban New Orleans and his leadership post-storm have been widely discussed and documented. When Broussard stood for re-election, the division of the vote in Jefferson Parish was clear: Voters whose houses were flooded as a result of Broussard's decision to evacuate pump operators out of the parish voted against him. Voters in neighborhoods unaffected by these man-made floodwaters supported him.
Broussard and his assistants defended his actions. Parish CAO Tim Whitmer backed Broussard's decision in 2006:
Whitmer believes Broussard made the right choice -- "life over property." He adds that officials now hope to make sure "that no parish president will ever have to make that decision again." To that end, the parish has built pump station safe rooms, which are intended to eliminate the need to evacuate pump operators.One wonders if Whitmer still defends his boss, who, when under oath giving testimony in a lawsuit, said:
"Your question says that I knew the Doomsday Plan was going to be implemented," Broussard said. "I've already testified that I did not know this plan existed calling for the evacuation of the pump operators."Broussard stood for re-election as the man who made the tough decisions. He took full credit for implementing the "Doomsday Plan,"even going on the radio before the storm made landfall, urging FEMA to bring 10,000 body bags to New Orleans. When under oath, however, denied any knowledge of the plan.
OK, a politician who is a documented liar is not news. But a politician who may have lied under oath, well, that's something different. Walter Maestri, the parish's emergency preparedness director at the time of the storm, testified in a deposition taken on April 9th that Broussard knew full well about the plan long before landfall:
Maestri said he wrote two versions of the Doomsday Plan: one in 1998, during Parish President Tim Coulon's administration and when Broussard was council chairman, and another in March 2005, a revision requested by Broussard through Tim Whitmer, his top aide who supervises department directors. "Was it your impression at the time you had the meeting with Mr. Whitmer that Mr. Broussard was fully aware of the Catastrophic Weather Plan because he had in mind a change of the shelter location for parish employees?" plaintiffs attorney Richard Martin said. "Yes," Maestri replied.No wonder Whitmer so strongly defended his boss in 2006. He ran point for Broussard for the project.
Of course, it's always possible that Maestri is the one lying here. He'd have reason to sell out Broussard, since his old boss threw him under the bus after the storm. Maestri currently works as a consultant for Assumption Parish in SW Louisiana. So, the top Democrat in the parish is now not only a liar, but quite possibly a perjurer.
Die hard Broussard supporters will argue that any attacks on him originate from Republicans for purely partisan reasons. In the wake of the Democratic reaction to former NY-GOV Spitzer's legal/ethical/moral entanglements, is it right to defend Broussard, simply because he is a Democrat?
The price tag for the flooding of Jefferson Parish that is a direct result of the implementation of the "Doomsday Plan" is believed to be between $3-$5 billion. The lawsuits have begun, and will continue. Had Metairie not flooded, things might have gone better for recovery efforts in the city, since all the focus would have been there.
Where do we draw the line in defending liars?
There has been a disturbing increase of late in your ranks of the use of the term "Democrat Party." I'd like to politely suggest that y'all consider using the correct name for the party. The party's name is the "Democratic Party." While you may think you humble author and Companion of the Hubig's Lemon Pie is picking nits here, it's more than just two letters at the end of the word. Prior to the Bush Administration, referring to us as the "Democrat Party" probably would not have even raised an eyebrow. It would have been dismissed as a slip of the tongue. Since 2000, however, George W. Bush's and his political advisers, most notably Karl Rove, began to use "Democrat Party" regularly.
Why is this a big deal? It's like using a nickname that you know someone hates, like calling the girl who goes by "Elizabeth" a nickname she can't stand, like "Lizzie," or calling a guy named William, "Willie." The only reason to do it is to piss the person off. That's why Rove got his boy started doing it. Of course, it's easily dismissed when he does it, because so many people view him as a Texan who clearly has demonstrated on more than one occasion that his command of his native language is sorely lacking. The problem is that the term is not merely a slip of an ignorant man's tongue, it's a concerted effort to frame and characterize a group of opponents. The usage has spread from Bush to other White House staffers, to Congresscritters, to Fox News Channel on-air clowns.
And now to y'all.
Please consider correcting yourselves when making this reference. It's not like we refer to your party as the "Republic Party." We now return you to your regularly scheduled 10am discussions of where to go for lunch.
Love, YatPundit
I've been self-employed as an independent computer consultant since 1986. Cover-Your-Ass is what consultants do when the project craters. Clearly Blakely was in this for the money, and now that his work is being revealed as substandard, blame will be assessed everywhere but on the doorstep of the consultant.
The charter (and I find no references to this procedure changing since 1961) called for the council to choose between the two Councilmen-at-Large. At that time, Schiro was elected Mayor by a vote of 5-1 (he abstained). There was no special election; Schiro was "Interim Mayor" until the next election, when he ran and won.
So, were SeeRay to resign, the council would have to choose between Fielkow and Clarkson. The winner would hold office until the 2009 election cycle.
Tangipahoa, Washington, and St. Tammany Parishes make up the north shore component of LA-01. They are called the "Florida" parishes because they were part of Spanish West Florida. If you look at a map of the US and follow the northern boundary of Florida west to the Mississippi, you'll see the connection.
Tangipahoa Parish's largest city is Hammond. Prior to the storm, Hammond carved out its own identity between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Its population increased dramatically post-storm, as companies relocated to Baton Rouge. Southeastern Louisiana University, located in Hammond, has seen an upswing in enrollment since the storm, due in part to this population increase. Hammond is located at the intersections of I-12 and I-55, so you have to go through it when driving east from Baton Rouge or north from New Orleans. It's not a true ex-urban city that you'd find in metro Atlanta or in DFW, because Hammond had an established identity and the sprawl is reaching out to it. Outside of the creeping suburban sprawl, Tangipahoa is primarily rural.
Washington Parish is a mixture of rural and industrial. Lumber is the main industry, and the trees feed the paper mill in Bogalusa. The lumber and paper mills are the parish's largest employers.
The combined populations of Washington and Tangipahoa are around 144K, but that's census data, so factor in a 20% increase as a post-storm guesstimate. That puts the current number at approximately 172K. Both parishes have a significant minority population, about one-third in each.
Outside of Hammond, the residents of these parishes are country folks. They're overwhelmingly evangelical Christians in terms of religion. There is a strong Catholic influence in Hammond that does not really extend out into the rural areas. Racial attitudes in most of these parishes would be considered as far from progressive.
St. Tammany Parish was primarily a quiet, rural area until the 1950s. Before the Interstate highway system, the primary ways out of New Orleans were US90, west to Houma, Lafayette, etc., or east to the Mississippi Gulf Coast, US61 north-west to Baton Rouge, and US11, going North from eastern New Orleans, crossing the lake on the eastern side in St. Tammany, then progressing north to Jackson, MS. The Maestri Bridge was the only bridge across the lake until 1956, when the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway was opened. The Causeway links Jefferson Parish with the western part of St. Tammany, particularly the cities of Mandeville and Covington. Many believe the reason the Causeway was built in this location was because then-Gov. Earl K. Long so disliked the city of New Orleans and its mayor, Chep Morrison (who ran against Long for guv), that he would not agree to a more logical project that would have joined Orleans and St. Tammany together. When the bridge opened, wealthy New Orleanians began to acquire property on the north shore for weekend homes. As white flight built up Jefferson Parish in the 1960s, St. Tammany grew also. In the 1970s, the area became increasingly popular, as folks from other parts of the country moved to the area to work in the oil/gas industry. Many of them were already used to one-hour commutes and wanted to live in a less-densely populated area.
The 1980s saw an interesting phenomenon take place in the metro area. Instead of population shifting from the city to St. Tammany, many people from Jefferson Parish migrated north. In some cases, the attraction was to subdivisions with 1-2 acre lots. Others moved to St. Tammany because--get this--there were too many blacks in Jefferson Parish. Not that Jefferson was being overrun with the Eebil Coloreds, mind you, but there were a lot of folks who were so racist that they didn't even want to shop at the mall or the grocery with black folks. As a result of this second wave of white flight, St. Tammany became overwhelmingly white (90%) and overwhelmingly Republican.
In terms of government, St. Tammany is Everything That Is Wrong With Conservative Government. There's a story from the late 1980s, of a subdivision in Mandeville where a hog got loose and was hit by a car. The carcass remained in the street for several days, because the parish had no animal control department. There really wasn't a need for one in rural St. Tammany, since farmers and ranchers took care of their own situations. These followers of Grover Norquist created a suburban nightmare prior to the storm that has only gotten worse in its wake. Many of the major roads in the parish, such as US190, LA21 and LA22 are two-lane for long stretches. Traffic snarls are common, and drunk teens in SUVs often kill themselves and others at night. Schools are often overcrowded; in the 1990s, Mandeville High had to operate in "platoon" shifts, where essentially two separate student bodies and faculties used the same physical plant, one operating from early morning to the afternoon, the other from the afternoon into the night.
None of the anti-government attitude of St. Tammany stops these folks from wanting their share of federal pork, however. Like many conservatives, they feel they pay sufficient income taxes tht they want it back directly in terms of local programs and funding.
"Family values" is the tie that binds Catholics and Evangelicals together in St. Tammany (well, that and hatred of blacks). The Christian Coalition made serious inroads into parish government in the late 1980s/early 1990s, to the point where the parish school board voted to ban the book Voodoo and Hoodoo, by James Haskins, from public school libraries in 1992. The ACLU sued, and the Fifth Circuit tossed the appeal (backed by the Louisiana Christian Coalition) in 1997. The case gave national exposure to a segment of the metro area population already locally considered to be unhinged. Video poker gaming, legalized statewide in the 1980s, is outlawed in St. Tammany.
The racial makeup of St. Tammany is 90% white, and that's most likely higher post-storm. Unable to get traction for his message any longer in Metairie, David Duke moved to St. Tammany, which is now his base of operations.
In terms of Congressional races, St. Tammany has always had to take a back seat to East Jefferson, but several candidates from across the lake are considering the race, including former Governor Dave Treen (who now lives in St. Tammany), State Rep. Tim Burns, and Slidell Mayor Ben Morris. The best way for any of these candidates to GOTV will be to attack the Jefferson Parish candidates, such as State Sen. Steve Scalise and Parish Councilman John Young. There's a lot of bad blood between St. Tammany and Jefferson residents, mainly over the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway. A significant portion of St. Tammany residents work on the south shore, particularly in New Orleans. To get there, they have to cross the Causeway, drive down N. Causeway Blvd. to I-10, then take I-10E into town. The drive on the bridge is 30 minutes long, and the run on I-10E into town can be anywhere from 15-30 minutes depending on traffic. It's the in-between part that creates the bad blood, however. N. Causeway Blvd. is a very busy local street, and Jefferson residents regularly oppose any changes to it that would favor the north-south traffic flow at the expense of the neighborhood. In the 1990s, the St. Tammany Parish Council offered to fully fund (in conjunction with state and federal financing) a project to make N. Causeway an elevated, limited-access highway between the bridge and the interstate. The opposition from Jeff parish residents was so fierce that there is still an overall lack of cooperation between the two parishes to this day.
A St. Tammany candidate looking to mobilize his base would do well to capitalize on the anti-Jefferson sentiment among voters. The logical blowback from this tactic will no doubt anger Jefferson voters and make them more inclined to come out for candidates from their side of the lake. If the Republican primary boils down to St. Tammany versus Jefferson, there will be a significant portion of the electorate who will be angry on March 4th, angry enough to stay home on May 8th. The evangelical/wingnut voters may also find some of the sordid details of the private lives of several candidates a turn-off. Unhappy wingnuts have a history of sitting elections out, and this may be one of them.
It's this north-versus-south dynamic that gives Gilda Reed such a great shot at this seat. The Republican primary is going to get ugly and bloody. Hopefully it will get ugly enough to drive would-be Republican voters to the other side.
Jefferson and St. Charles Parishes are the western suburbs of New Orleans. The eastern boundary of Jefferson Parish is the city line, at the now-infamous 17th Street Canal, sprawling west to the Louis Armstrong International Airport. The bulk of St. Charles Parish is clustered along the Mississippi River, as a large portion of the northern section of the parish is the location of the Bonnet Carre' Spillway, a flood-control system designed to keep the river from flooding New Orleans.
Jefferson Parish has been gerrymandered to separate black neighborhoods from white. Shrewsbury and South Kenner on the east bank as well as Waggaman, Avondale, Westwego, Harvey/Marrero on the west bank are part of LA-02. That leaves the the northern portion of Kenner, the city of Harahan, and unincorporated Metairie on the East Bank, and the city of Gretna on the west bank as part of LA-01. Of all these areas, Metairie/Kenner is the key.
If Metairie was an incorporated municipality, it would be the largest city in the state. There was never a move for "home rule," because parish government and the parish sheriff's office run Metairie as if it was a city anyway. Metairie was the main white-flight suburb of the 1960s, for one very simple reason: nobody lived there, so there were no black folks at all. With the exception of two mostly-black neighborhoods (Shrewsbury and Bunch Village, both part of LA-02), this was true right up to the storm. Something's changed since the storm, however--black folks have invaded Metairie. Since so many rental units in the city became unavailable after the storm, many residents of the city came out to Metairie to live.
The older portions of Metairie, "Old Metairie," and "Bucktown" are the two of the staunchest Republican areas in the metro area, for two of the most Republican of reasons. Old Metairie is the old money; the folks who live here are indeed "country club" Republicans, since the neighborhood backs up to two of the city's most exclusive country clubs. Other subdivisions in the neighborhood have been extensively gentrified, to the point where home builders would buy a 1800sqft house on a 50x100 lot, tear it down, and build a 3-story, 3000sqft home in its place. Old Metairie and Bucktown make up the 89th state representative district, which has the dubious distinction of being the district that sent KKK leader David Duke to the state legislature. Where Old Metairie was the money neighborhood, bucktown was a working-class area. Originally a fishing village, the neighborhood grew as middle class white-flighters left the city. By far, these are two of the most racist neighborhoods I've ever encountered in my life.
West of Bucktown and Old Metairie is the bulk of Metairie's population. The parish grew out from Metairie Road (which follows the path of old Bayou Metairie), and expanded north as land near the lake was drained and reclaimed. The areas around Metairie Road and close to the lake contain high-value properties, and the vast middle consists of smaller homes and lots of apartment complexes. Prior to the storm, even most of these apartments had majority-white tenants, since the homeowners in the vicinity were hostile to non-whites. Since the storm, however, that's changed. When businesses closed or left the metro area post-storm, that opened up rental units. When you've got a job and your old place was wiped out, you go where you have to. The amount of construction, rebuilding, and remodeling work available in the area has attracted a large Hispanic population, not all of which consists of undocumented workers. Many latinos coming into the area are Texans looking for new opportunities here.
West of Metairie is the city of Kenner. Kenner was originally a rural community with farms growing local produce for the New Orleans markets. The city hit a huge post-WWII boom, when the airport was expanded. Metairie residents looking to flip first homes and build something bigger, as well as out-of-towners who moved to the city during the oil boom of the 1970s fueled growth in the northern part of Kenner. Kenner also has a large hispanic community as well. The southern part of the city, south of Airline Highway (US61), is mostly-black, and part of LA-02.
The portions of St. Charles Parish that are in LA-01 are the communities of Destrehan and St. Rose. The map is deceptive, because the bulk of the land shown is the spillway. Destrehan and St. Rose are river road communities just west of Kenner. These are more established neighborhoods whose residents work primarily at the many petrochemical plants along the river. They are classic "Regan Democrats," conservative/moderate, blue-collar, pro-union. There has been some expansion from the city and East Jefferson to these communities post-storm as well.
The religious makeup of East Jefferson is primarily Catholic, but there are several large evangelical congregations here as well. There are a few mainstream Protestant congregations (Lutheran and Episcopalian). Evangelical congregations here have capitalized with dissatisfaction some have with the Catholic Church. There are also a couple of big Jewish in Metairie near the lake, Congregation Shir Chadash (Orthodox/Conservative) and Congregation Gates of Prayer (Reform).
Most of Catholic parishes in East Jefferson operate elementary schools. In spite of this, the public school system in the area is nowhere near as dysfunctional as in the city. Public schools are experiencing serious growth issues in the post-storm era, given the huge population surge. There are a number of private schools in East Jefferson as well., but the huge racial rift that existed in the city's schools doesn't exist here (since there were so few blacks in the area in the first place).
In terms of voter registration, East Jefferson is one of the most Republican areas of the state. The GOP always had a strong presence in the country-club subdivisions. The party pressed their advantage in the early 1980s by encouraging many local pols to switch. For many, the combination of a Republican president and the statewide change to open primaries enabled many to come out of the closet, as it were. It's now at the point where there are very few Democrats left holding office in the area.
The official Democratic party structure in the parish has been a disaster for the last twenty years. Purity trolls on the parish executive committee would regularly attack Democrats who tried to work with Republicans or endorsed Republican candidates, driving even more office-seekers to the GOP. What's left of a party infrastructure is no longer in a position to help a Dem candidate who's running parishwide, much less for Congress.
Still, it's unclear just how strong support for the GOP is in East Jefferson, mainly because there are no alternatives to Republicans. In the recent gubernatorial election, the area overwhelmingly went Republican, because two of the candidates in the open primary were local boys. The negativity of that campaign makes it clear that these Republicans don't respect the "11th Commandment" of St. Ronald of California. If that trend continues, their candidates won't hesitate to take the gloves off early. Some skeletons are likely to start jumping out of closets as well, which will also fuel voter dissatisfaction with these guys. It's quite possible that the combination of Bush/war fatigue, FEMA anger, and the uglieness of a closed Republican primary will disgust a sufficient number of people that a Democratic alternative such as Gilda Reed will be attractive.
This is why We Need Reed, and it's why you need to show her some financial love. The DCCC isn't going to notice her until she can prove she's got a chance, and she needs money to increase visibility. When people get to know Gilda, they like her. They see she's an alternative to upwardly-mobile professional politicians who use their constituents to feather their own nests. They see someone who will vote to end the war and help rebuild New Orleans. They see a candidate committed to their future.
Tomorrow: The North Shore.
With today's inauguration of Piyush "Bobby" Jindal as Governor of Louisiana, LA-01 no longer has a Congresscritter. A progressive Democrat, Gilda Reed, is running for in a special election (closed primary, 8-Mar, general election, 3-May). This is the first of a three-part series offering some background on the district. Today's installment focuses on the Orleans parish segment of the district, tomorrow we'll look at the "Suburban South Shore," and on Thursday we'll review the portion of the district that is north of Lake Pontchartrain.
Go here for a map of the district.
LA-01 was, for the longest time, the "New Orleans" congressional district. LA-02 covered suburban New Orleans, and LA-03 the bayou country south of the city. LA-01 and LA-02 essentially switched dynamics because of racial gerrymandering. The Democratic-controlled state legislature re-tooled both districts to give one of them a black-majority. Since LA-02 was safely in the hands of a popular Democratic incumbent (Lindy Boggs, wife of the late T. Hale Boggs, who held the seat from 1947 to 1972), the lines were drawn so that LA-02 covers most of Orleans Parish. The strong-majority-white sections of Orleans Parish were joined to the white areas of Jefferson Parish, along with St. Charles, St. Tammany, and Washington Parishes to make LA-01. LA-01 switched party control to Republican in 1977, when disgraced almost-speaker Bob Livingston won a special election to replace Chalmatian Rick Tonry, who resigned the seat after being indicted. Livingston's sexual hypocrisy proved to be his downfall as he resigned the seat in the midst of the Clinton impeachment drama. It turned out that Livingston was an even bigger freak than the Big Dog, and that didn't quite fit with the program. Livingston was replaced by David Vitter, who won a special election in 1999. Vitter did not seek re-election, choosing instead to run for US Senate in 2004, an election he won. Fresh off a loss to now-former Governor Catherine Babineaux Blanco in 2003, Bobby Jindal changed his residency from Baton Rouge to Kenner to run for Vitter's seat.
In terms of Congressional district construction, LA-01 is the "white" district and LA-02 is the area's "black" district. Many local politicians switched parties in the early 80s, jumping on the Reagan bandwagon, giving the party a strong presence in Jefferson Parish as well as the more white-bread portions of Orleans. The segment of Orleans Parish that is part of LA-01 is roughly analogous to City Council District "A." The city council's districts were also drawn along racial lines. District "A" consists of the neighborhoods of Carrollton, the University District, and Lakeview. All of Lakeview and selected Uptown precincts cross over into LA-01.
I'm currently sitting in a coffee shop in Lakeview to write this. Across the street is an empty strip mall that used to house a supermarket. Down the street is a 6-acre lot that used to be the location of Edward Hynes Elementary School, the neighborhood's public school, and one of the few bright stars in the fiasco that was public education in the city. Lakeview got hit by the storm as hard as the Ninth Ward. This is the neighborhood of the 17th Street Canal and expensive homes which were drowned in 11' of water. Unlike other neighborhoods, the people of Lakeview are more well-off, so the area is coming back faster.
Prior to the storm, this was a Republican comfort zone. The combination of older "Reagan Democrats" with upwardly mobile, younger Republicans helped propel white, Republican, candidates into city, state, and federal offices. The storm changed that dramatically, however. While the older, wealthy, residents of Lakeshore (the subdivision right along Lake Pontchartrain) received minimal storm damage, the upwardly-mobile residents of Lakeview south of Robert E. Lee Blvd. got hit hard. That's changed the perspective of many here. Flood insurance is either underwritten directly by FEMA, or guaranteed by them when written/administered by private companies. Like many homeowners in New Orleans, many Lakeview residents purchased their homes long before the flood insurance program existed, so they were not required by their lenders to carry it. Flood insurance only covers the first $250K of damage to a home. Since everyone here believed the lies of the Army Corps of Engineers, that level of coverage was acceptable to a lender of even homes ranging from $750K-$1million. Nobody ever thought a flood would force these residents to demolish their houses. Even the staunchest Republicans are unhappy with a government that's left them holding the bag for mortgages they simply cannot repay.
It's an understatement to say that these folks are angry. Initially their anger had a partisan face, as they blamed Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin for their problems. As they began the rebuilding process, many realized that ineptitude crosses party lines. They threw out District A Councilman Jay Batt (R), in favor of a Democrat, Shelly Midura. Still, in last fall's legislative elections, Lakeview passed over progressive Democrat Deborah Langhoff to put two Republicans in a runoff for State Representative (District 94). I
n terms of religion (and religion is always a huge factor in New Orleans), Lakeview is heavily Catholic. St. Dominic Parish and St. Paul's Episcopal (across the street from St. Dominic) define the neighborhood. There's a large Jewish community here as well, even though Congregation Beth Israel's synagogue on Canal Blvd. was heavily damaged and they've been forced out to Metairie to worship. This isn't fundigelical wingnut country; the Catholics and Episcopalians are anti-abortion, but they're also skeptical of Christian Dominionists. David Vitter's whoremongering is an embarassment to these folks, as was Livingston's before him. A candidate who can tap that sentiment can succeed here.
Lakeview is very white, but not exclusively so. A number of middle-class black who grew up in Gentilly moved into the neighborhood as they grew up and moved out of their homes on the other side of City Park. Still, the black population here is not significant in terms of identifying a "black vote." Lakeview is up for grabs in the special election. The post-storm residents of the neighborhood are willing to elect Democrats, so Gilda should pull votes here a Democrat would not have dreamt of getting prior to the storm.
Tomorrow: Jefferson and St. Charles Parishes.
We've had a lot of football fans down here lately. Last week, it was the folks from University of Georgia and University of Hawaii, whose teams played in the Sugar Bowl. It's New Orleans' turn for the BCS Championship this year, so this weekend, visitors who support Ohio State have been overwhelmed by locals and visitors alike who support the hometown heroes, the Tigers of Louisiana State University. For the visitors staying in downtown or French Quarter hotels, there's not much evidence that anything as cataclysmic as the storm happened here. Those who walk up Canal St. to Claiborne Ave. will see the old green Texaco building, with all its blown-out windows, or maybe they'll look back a block and see the empty housing project that's slated for demolition. For most of the folks cruising the Quarter, the only Hurricane they'll encounter is in a big green cup from Pat O'Brien's.
And we wouldn't want it any other way. New Orleanians are good hosts. As much as many of us are very, very angry about the way we've been treated by the federal government, both in terms of the lies told us that caused the Federal Flood, and BushCo's handling of the entire Gulf Coast region post-storm, we don't want to spoil the party. Those people knocking back "big ass beers" and various rum drinks are important to the city, for the money they leave behind and the good will they carry forward when they return home.
Turn the Janus statue around, however, and there's a totally different face we show. This is the one we put forward to politicians, activists, and folks we know care about the city's survival. We talk about the mess that is still Lakeview, Gentilly, and the Ninth Ward. We're very vocal about anything from the increased crime rate to the "Road Home" program to the demolition of hospitals. We appreciate it when we get attention from national political figures and the MSM, lest "Katrina fatigue" set in and diminish the severity of the problems here.
It's a fine line we walk and talk, in this Janus that is our city. We're happy when Fox News does a positive report on one of our special events, but get angry when we realize that they're doing it because it gives the rest of the country the impression that we're OK. We're OK, but we're not.
New Orleans for TouristsWhen your plane touches down at Louis Armstrong International Airport and you take a taxi or shuttle into the city, you pass through Kenner and Metairie, our western suburbs that are 90%+ rebuilt post-storm. By the time you arrive at your downtown hotel, you're ready to party. And there's no better city to show you a good time. Whether you're just down for a personal vacation, or for a big event, the food's hot and spicy, the beer's cold and wet, and the music plays all night. There's the debauchery that is Carnival, or the music of JazzFest. We've got serious sporting events this year, from the Sugar Bowl last week to the NBA All-Star Game just after Mardi Gras.
If you're a cardiologist, gynecologist, chemist, or engineer, you might be coming down for a convention. We still love the librarians for being so supportive by having their ALA convention here in 2006. We don't want you to forget the horrors that you saw on CNN of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in the days right after the storm, but we still want you to come see the facility now and how far we've come in fixing things.
Let's not talk too much about crime in the city. The neighborhood associations in Mid City, Broadmoor, Bywater, and Faubourg St. John all stay on top of NOPD to get action and protection, there's not much a visitor can do about that. The "tourist" areas of the city are well defended. If you're not venturing out to score dope, and you exercise basic Urban Common Sense, you should be fine.
This is our public face. We know that tourism is our number-one industry, and we very much need y'all to come and spend money.
One other thought on the positive side of our Janus--this positive face we put forward to the rest of the world is not just a white one. The Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club has not missed a Mardi Gras. The Essence Festival and the Bayou Classic (Grambling State vs. Southern University) football game both returned home in 2007. There are a lot of black folks who haven't been able to come home yet for one reason or another, but that doesn't stop us from inviting black visitors to town and showing them a good time.
Post-Storm New Orleans
Turn the Janus around, however, and things aren't so pretty. Last month's public housing debate/protest put a very public face on one of many serious issues with which we're still wrestling. The tales of homeowners who are trying to save their houses from unnecessary demolition by the city are incredible. Health care for those who have insurance and/or money has improved and returned, but the working poor still have little to no options.
Our public schools are in the midst of an experiment on a grand scale, charter schools. The only thing that can be said about the current state of public education in Orleans is that it can't be any worse than it was before the storm.
Crime is out of control. NOPD has focused on making sure that tourists don't get involved in or get near violent crimes, but that leaves precious little resources for the rest of the city. Lakeview and Gentilly are still being patrolled in large part by Military Police units of the LA National Guard because there aren't enough NOPD officers to put on those streets. It's like the diaspora didn't have a significant impact on our criminal element. These guys found out it was tough to make a dishonest living on Planet Hooston, so now they've returned, and are killing each other and creating way too much collateral damage.
Let's not forget our "colorful" politics in Louisiana. From Huey Pierce Long to Edwin Edwards to Marc Morial, we've had our share of scoundrels that have large numbers of admirers. A disgraced city councilman reported to federal prison last week after having been convicted of bribery. Federal prosecutors are still cleaning up the mess that was Marc Morial's tenure as mayor, much less dealing with anything that's come up post-storm. Every time a local politician gets caught up in scandal, it gives those brilliant minds at Fox News a chance to deride the city. The cesspool that is the comments section of the Da Paper's blog regularly likes to ignore the whoremongering of our Junior Senator in favor of every miscreant black pol we've had in the city in the last twenty years.
We managed to get through a second post-storm hurricane season safely, no thanks to the Army Corps of Engineers. For a component of the armed forces of this country to generate as many half-truths, distortions, and outright lies as the ACOE has over the last forty years is just incredible. To think that men and women in uniform have forsaken the honor of their oaths to this country and the Constitution in the interests of covering their asses is, well, it's something we'd rather not think about. We don't have any choice than to expose the dishonor that is the Army Corps of Engineers, in the hopes that will they fix what they've lied about here in New Orleans. We also hope that perhaps we can shame these people into coming clean about other projects in other parts of the country that may not be what they've claimed all these years.
We need you to always remember that what happened to New Orleans was not a "natural disaster," but a man-made one.
We want you to think about all these things. We want you to be as angry with the Army and the disrespectful piece of crap who lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue as we are. We want you to keep on your respective Congresscritters to make sure our situation is not ignored. We want you to help us get our people home.
We also want you to come here for vacation. We want you to come support your football team when they play Tulane, or if they make it to the Sugar Bowl. We want you to take that Caribbean cruise you've been thinking about on a boat whose home port is New Orleans. We want you to eat and drink with us, Cajun dance with us at the Fais Do Do stage at JazzFest and yell "Throw me something, Mister!" at Carnival parades.
This is our Janus, our two faces. Look at the positive one and enjoy it when you come here, but be sure to look closely at the other face when you're heading back to the airport on the way home. Keep those fond memories in your head and heart, but bring the motivation to work for social justice back with you.
