we are not ok

August 29th, 2011: Six Years

August 29, 2011

Today’s New Orleans Times Picayune A new Army Corps of Engineers rating system for the nation’s levees is about to deliver a near-failing grade to New Orleans area dikes, despite the internationally acclaimed $10 billion effort to rebuild the system in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, corps officials have confirmed. As Ray drove us through [...]

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New Orleans ca. January 2007

May 23, 2011

I started Back Of Town.  So, I love Treme, but simultaneously harbor a small fear that New Orleans and its post-Katrina history will henceforth be viewed solely through the lens of the show. The story must be told. It’s just a television show. The story is told very well in this tv show for the [...]

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Narratives a.k.a. Of Happy Hive Minds And Prevailing Versions Of History

September 3, 2010

It appears America up and exploded in these past few weeks. Specifically in the last few days. But It’s All Under Control. As you were. On August 22nd, a 400-person riot broke out in the peaceful, hippie-beatnik town of Ft. Collins, Colorado. Irony: It happened right after Earth, Wind & Fire performed at something called [...]

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Five Years

August 23, 2010

Last night, D and I watched CNN’s New Orleans Rising special on rebuilding in the historically-black Pontchartrain Park neighborhood of New Orleans. So many stories. So many lives. Back in the 1950s and 60s, these black families built their lives and educated their children in the shadow of overt segregation. Cut to the 2000s – [...]

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Day 114 Science & Disgust

August 11, 2010

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, an online hub which explains science news and implications to laypeople is in the works. And not a moment too soon. For the schist is up to here, folks (you can thank D for this one). While more of the same continues in Washington, the general public [...]

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Rising Tide Conference 5

August 5, 2010

It has indeed been almost five years since The Storm. The fifth annual Rising Tide conference on the recovery and future of New Orleans will take place on Saturday, August 28th at the Howlin Wolf in New Orleans, Louisiana. Mac McClelland, human rights reporter for Mother Jones and bad smartass or is it smart badass, [...]

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Day 106 The Oil Hasn’t Vanished

August 3, 2010

The oil has not vanished. I repeat: The oil has not vanished. The Gulf of Mexico’s summertime dead zone is twice as big as last year’s. Think about it: How can 206 million gallons of crude vanish in 19 days? 205.8 million gallons of oil flowed into the Gulf of Mexico = 2.37 million gallons [...]

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Groundhog (Choking On Oil) Day

July 29, 2010

Oil-related catastrophes simply refuse to leave me alone. I mean, WHAT. 840,000 gallons of oil from a corroded Enbridge Energy pipeline have leaked into Michigan’s Kalamazoo River near Battle Creek this past week. More specifically, “The oil is moving from Talmadge Creek into the Kalamazoo River, which flows from near the city of Battle Creek into [...]

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Day 101

July 29, 2010

LiveScience | What Will Happen During the Next 100 Days of the Oil Spill? … scientists say it could take decades to comprehend the toll the last 100 days took on wildlife — from sea turtles to bacteria. Currently, oil covers approximately 638 miles (1,026 kilometers) of Gulf shoreline, according to the Deepwater Horizon Incident Joint [...]

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Day 99 Failed Boom & Brown Cloudies

July 27, 2010

* Anatomy of an Oil Spill Part I: The Sea Shepherd‘s Bonny Schumaker recently flew New Orleans blogger Dambala out over the Gulf of Mexico’s shelf. He photodocuments the flight from New Orleans over  Raccoon Island, LA (Louisiana’s most important seabird nesting site west of Breton Sound) to the Deepwater Horizon site and then to Horn Island, [...]

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