BGW
Jan 16, 2006, 09:01 AM
This an email I received from one of my High School buddies. It is dated Jan 1 2006. I thought it worth sharing and gained her approval to do so.
Still, there are 2 supermarkets (one closes at 6pm the other at 8pm) open with some smaller groceries opening along with a host of Walgreens and a few Rite Aides. Mail comes about once every two weeks, or once a week, or twice a week... More and more gas stations are opening, mostly the small independants. People who are actually living here are ticked off that parks/green space is being converted wholesale into trailer lots, while blighted and desserted lots sit empty, sometimes right across the street. One congressman is pushing to get all the subsidized housing people back, while simutaneously, Houston has reported a crime surge, partially attributing the surge to displaced New Orleanians. Houston has more displaced New Orleanians than any other city by far.
Politically, there are a number of things that are difficult:
1. Gaining federal funding to take the levee system to an improvement over what was there before. So far, only funding to resist a cat 3 storm has been approved.
2. There has been a great deal of arguing that the "record for the levee board was 100% before Katrina" resisting the idea that ONE levee board made up of qualified scientists appointed for their experience by their peers. Currently there are something like 13-16 different boards, and the members are appointed by the Parish Presidents (county commissioners). These people have traditionally been appointments made to give bubba (either a buddy or a relative) a job. Engineering or understanding of levees needed. The Governor, considered by many a puppet of "the acadian mafia" has endorsed merely putting a 16-23 member board over the other board. That is the current situation. However, there is a great deal of pressure for the ONE board, even though it was beat in the state legislature. Citizen activism has revived the ONE board idea with a petition that took only a week to gather enough signatures to put the measure on the next ballot.
3. The next ballot was scheduled to be in February. The city coucil and the mayor of New Orleans are all up for re-election. The Gov "postponed the elections indefinitely." This was due to the fact that the state election guy was freaked out that there's few if no polling placed and machines were damaged. Basically, the guy is unprepared. Two lawsuits have been filed to force a date for the elections. It is expected that many officials will be voted out the sooner the ballot is called. Many hope to delay the ballot with hope of more returned citizens. Perhaps this will work, perhaps it will not. In any case. People are very pissed off about this.
4. This is my own beef. The Mayor's Bring Back New Orleans Commission is preparing an ask for Congress to appropriate FEMA a bunch of money to help the city. I participated with the Cultural SubCommittee of this unit. It left me with a great deal of sadness, as it did a number of others in the cultural/arts community. It was coopted by three celebrities and their own personal self interests, supported by a number of other business people who either are ignorant of culture and arts or who stood to gain from the ideas. Irvin Mayfield and Wynton Marsalis promoted the idea of a giant PR campaign. This is basically so they will be hired to star in said campaign. One publication owner on the commission heavily endorsed this idea. Blaine Kern, known for dominating Mardi Gras parade floats and other mardi gras "stuff" and statuary about town, proposed a giant music festival in April, in spite of the fact there are ALREADY two music festivals in April already, and they both are committed to taking place, one of which is the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, which typically attracts over a half a million attendees annually. Kern's interest is to drum up business for himself during his dry spell. He is supported by those who are enthralled by celebrity and the romance of the music business. There's other stuff too that's just flat out stupid. The omissions are what bother me the most, public broadcasting, libraries, archives, visual arts, folklife, theatre and dance and even the larger museums. It's really bad.
5. Lots and lots of spoiled refridgerator humor. James received a small photo book of talking spoiled refridgerators, "take me I'm yours" "free gumbo inside" "save New Orleans" "dick and dubya, inc." "Only a fool would open this refridgerator. I was that fool." "maggot motel, inquire inside" "Come and get it!" "FEMA, the new F word" "Levee Board victim" "Tom Benson is inside" "big nasty" are just a few. My own refridgerator was completely covered in the cooler part. The freezer was.... a maggot motel. Getting it out of the house was not fun.
6. Bureacracy and fees are making it difficult for people to get various things they need to restart whatever it is they need to restart, businesses or homes chiefly. We have friends who have electricity but no heat. Natural gas is a big issue. It's very inconsistent, and there's reasons for this, mostly that the infrastructure is old, and it corroded but functioned fine for however many decades, but storm and sewer water have polluted lines across the city. Sewer and water is an issue for some for the same reasons. It's becoming more and more common to see water churning from a crack in the street. Potholes are becoming large enough to swallow cars. Traffic lights at most major intersections are still not functioning. Getting an inspector to approve your home that you just spent $1000 to $14000 to rewire is taking months in some cases. There are elderly people living without heat and other basic functions, sometimes with a few view of the stars over their beds. "They keep telling me they gonna give me a blue roof (a tarp for temporary protection). I've not seen no blue roof yet. I'm 86 years old. I need a blue roof." is what one woman told the Mayor in the last local Town Hall Meeting.
7. Employment. This storm has been tough on business. Most businesses, including and especially arts organizations have seriously scaled down. Every university in town, it's the same thing. However, there's also a labor demand. Most "family" restaurants and a few nicer restaurants serve people on disposable dinnerware. This could be for several reasons: no refrigerator (limited menus go with this then), limited electricity (a neighborhood bar a few streets away from me is STILL operating with extension cords run from a neighbor's house), no dishwasher (machine -- like the fridge's some of these were corroded and spoiled beyond repair) or no dishwasher (person). Labor at the low wages is a commodity. Pre-K, the employment in New Orleans was fairly high, but wages were notoriusly low. This was true for many "entry-level" positions, not just unskilled labor. The lack of labor has forced wages to increase. Many businesses are balking at this, but there's a great deal who feel, it's about time too.
8. Housing crunch/rising rents. Finding a place to rent is difficult to impossible right now, and there's a big of gouging on rent. However, that's not true across the board, even though there are rent increases. Some of the market should loosen a little as some of the moderately damaged buildings become habitable.
9. Housing -- buy/sell. Conversely, if you want to sell your place, even if your home was never flooded is difficult. The prices are falling fast. Lots of people are relocating. We are friends with a couple, a doctor and a teacher. They both lost their jobs. They have two young children. Keeli, a pediatrician quickly found employment in North Carolina. They decided to offer their home at what they considered far below "market" in order to sell quickly. Their double (a lot like the building I live in) sold for $299,000 after being on the market for a day. The market value was placed at $400,000.
10. Healthcare. There's very little. One private hospital is partially open. Another in Jeff Parish on the border of Orleans parish is rapidly growing. Tulane just about did everything except eliminate their medical school. LSU is considering moving their med school to Baton Rouge. Methodist is planning to reopen in 2006 sometime. Charity is a big unknown. Trying to find a doc in town is not a nice task.
11. Education. It's starting to come back. The public school system was on the brink of disaster from corruption and mismanagement, along with dropping test scores. Most schools are now under the control of the state, and are designated Charters. NOCCA, a fine arts high school, that was one of the most respected in the gulf region is struggling to open their doors, in spite of no flooding and state of the art facilities. They need both children and funding. It's a chicken and egg situation to be sure. The Orleans Parish School Board once had 167 schools under its supervision. It now has 4.
Universities are reporting different kinds of issues. Most students are returning, but admissions are suffering. It's expected that the total enrollment will serious decrease over the next 3 years, and then will start to rebound.
This is my report from New Orleans. I'll send a more personal note later.
I will post her 'more personal note' in my journal
Still, there are 2 supermarkets (one closes at 6pm the other at 8pm) open with some smaller groceries opening along with a host of Walgreens and a few Rite Aides. Mail comes about once every two weeks, or once a week, or twice a week... More and more gas stations are opening, mostly the small independants. People who are actually living here are ticked off that parks/green space is being converted wholesale into trailer lots, while blighted and desserted lots sit empty, sometimes right across the street. One congressman is pushing to get all the subsidized housing people back, while simutaneously, Houston has reported a crime surge, partially attributing the surge to displaced New Orleanians. Houston has more displaced New Orleanians than any other city by far.
Politically, there are a number of things that are difficult:
1. Gaining federal funding to take the levee system to an improvement over what was there before. So far, only funding to resist a cat 3 storm has been approved.
2. There has been a great deal of arguing that the "record for the levee board was 100% before Katrina" resisting the idea that ONE levee board made up of qualified scientists appointed for their experience by their peers. Currently there are something like 13-16 different boards, and the members are appointed by the Parish Presidents (county commissioners). These people have traditionally been appointments made to give bubba (either a buddy or a relative) a job. Engineering or understanding of levees needed. The Governor, considered by many a puppet of "the acadian mafia" has endorsed merely putting a 16-23 member board over the other board. That is the current situation. However, there is a great deal of pressure for the ONE board, even though it was beat in the state legislature. Citizen activism has revived the ONE board idea with a petition that took only a week to gather enough signatures to put the measure on the next ballot.
3. The next ballot was scheduled to be in February. The city coucil and the mayor of New Orleans are all up for re-election. The Gov "postponed the elections indefinitely." This was due to the fact that the state election guy was freaked out that there's few if no polling placed and machines were damaged. Basically, the guy is unprepared. Two lawsuits have been filed to force a date for the elections. It is expected that many officials will be voted out the sooner the ballot is called. Many hope to delay the ballot with hope of more returned citizens. Perhaps this will work, perhaps it will not. In any case. People are very pissed off about this.
4. This is my own beef. The Mayor's Bring Back New Orleans Commission is preparing an ask for Congress to appropriate FEMA a bunch of money to help the city. I participated with the Cultural SubCommittee of this unit. It left me with a great deal of sadness, as it did a number of others in the cultural/arts community. It was coopted by three celebrities and their own personal self interests, supported by a number of other business people who either are ignorant of culture and arts or who stood to gain from the ideas. Irvin Mayfield and Wynton Marsalis promoted the idea of a giant PR campaign. This is basically so they will be hired to star in said campaign. One publication owner on the commission heavily endorsed this idea. Blaine Kern, known for dominating Mardi Gras parade floats and other mardi gras "stuff" and statuary about town, proposed a giant music festival in April, in spite of the fact there are ALREADY two music festivals in April already, and they both are committed to taking place, one of which is the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, which typically attracts over a half a million attendees annually. Kern's interest is to drum up business for himself during his dry spell. He is supported by those who are enthralled by celebrity and the romance of the music business. There's other stuff too that's just flat out stupid. The omissions are what bother me the most, public broadcasting, libraries, archives, visual arts, folklife, theatre and dance and even the larger museums. It's really bad.
5. Lots and lots of spoiled refridgerator humor. James received a small photo book of talking spoiled refridgerators, "take me I'm yours" "free gumbo inside" "save New Orleans" "dick and dubya, inc." "Only a fool would open this refridgerator. I was that fool." "maggot motel, inquire inside" "Come and get it!" "FEMA, the new F word" "Levee Board victim" "Tom Benson is inside" "big nasty" are just a few. My own refridgerator was completely covered in the cooler part. The freezer was.... a maggot motel. Getting it out of the house was not fun.
6. Bureacracy and fees are making it difficult for people to get various things they need to restart whatever it is they need to restart, businesses or homes chiefly. We have friends who have electricity but no heat. Natural gas is a big issue. It's very inconsistent, and there's reasons for this, mostly that the infrastructure is old, and it corroded but functioned fine for however many decades, but storm and sewer water have polluted lines across the city. Sewer and water is an issue for some for the same reasons. It's becoming more and more common to see water churning from a crack in the street. Potholes are becoming large enough to swallow cars. Traffic lights at most major intersections are still not functioning. Getting an inspector to approve your home that you just spent $1000 to $14000 to rewire is taking months in some cases. There are elderly people living without heat and other basic functions, sometimes with a few view of the stars over their beds. "They keep telling me they gonna give me a blue roof (a tarp for temporary protection). I've not seen no blue roof yet. I'm 86 years old. I need a blue roof." is what one woman told the Mayor in the last local Town Hall Meeting.
7. Employment. This storm has been tough on business. Most businesses, including and especially arts organizations have seriously scaled down. Every university in town, it's the same thing. However, there's also a labor demand. Most "family" restaurants and a few nicer restaurants serve people on disposable dinnerware. This could be for several reasons: no refrigerator (limited menus go with this then), limited electricity (a neighborhood bar a few streets away from me is STILL operating with extension cords run from a neighbor's house), no dishwasher (machine -- like the fridge's some of these were corroded and spoiled beyond repair) or no dishwasher (person). Labor at the low wages is a commodity. Pre-K, the employment in New Orleans was fairly high, but wages were notoriusly low. This was true for many "entry-level" positions, not just unskilled labor. The lack of labor has forced wages to increase. Many businesses are balking at this, but there's a great deal who feel, it's about time too.
8. Housing crunch/rising rents. Finding a place to rent is difficult to impossible right now, and there's a big of gouging on rent. However, that's not true across the board, even though there are rent increases. Some of the market should loosen a little as some of the moderately damaged buildings become habitable.
9. Housing -- buy/sell. Conversely, if you want to sell your place, even if your home was never flooded is difficult. The prices are falling fast. Lots of people are relocating. We are friends with a couple, a doctor and a teacher. They both lost their jobs. They have two young children. Keeli, a pediatrician quickly found employment in North Carolina. They decided to offer their home at what they considered far below "market" in order to sell quickly. Their double (a lot like the building I live in) sold for $299,000 after being on the market for a day. The market value was placed at $400,000.
10. Healthcare. There's very little. One private hospital is partially open. Another in Jeff Parish on the border of Orleans parish is rapidly growing. Tulane just about did everything except eliminate their medical school. LSU is considering moving their med school to Baton Rouge. Methodist is planning to reopen in 2006 sometime. Charity is a big unknown. Trying to find a doc in town is not a nice task.
11. Education. It's starting to come back. The public school system was on the brink of disaster from corruption and mismanagement, along with dropping test scores. Most schools are now under the control of the state, and are designated Charters. NOCCA, a fine arts high school, that was one of the most respected in the gulf region is struggling to open their doors, in spite of no flooding and state of the art facilities. They need both children and funding. It's a chicken and egg situation to be sure. The Orleans Parish School Board once had 167 schools under its supervision. It now has 4.
Universities are reporting different kinds of issues. Most students are returning, but admissions are suffering. It's expected that the total enrollment will serious decrease over the next 3 years, and then will start to rebound.
This is my report from New Orleans. I'll send a more personal note later.
I will post her 'more personal note' in my journal