July 31, 2006 – My pictures of Sunday’s UNOP rodeo are up in this gallery. The ever-growing line to get in, pictures of each district’s booth, gratuitous still-life shots – they’re all in there.
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Monthly Archives: July 2006
July 31, 2006 – Kuwait Gives $694 To Each Citizen to help them with “life’s expenses.” To quote D, “Ahhahahahaha! Yeah, living expenses!” As of this writing, 1 Kuwaiti dinar is roughly $3.5, i.e. $694 is equal to 200 dinars (damn, the dollar has slid since I was a kid living in Arabia). The average Kuwaiti goes through 200 dinars in under five minutes or less. Also note that only citizens, not all of the people living (and doing the bulk of the labor) in Kuwait get this money. On the bright side, at least the wealth is shared inside the country as opposed to poured into large international boondoggles.
Day 337: Dads Rule
New Orleans will take as much as you can give. So, when you read this post, don’t think there’s nothing going on. There is SO much going on (and I am still reeling from yesterday’s 4.5-hour Unifed New Orleans Plan meeting) that I need to take a mental break and smell the roses. My dad is such a rose.
If every daughter were to have a father like mine, the world would be a much mellower place. Retirement and his kids’ busy lives haven’t been easy on Dad who loves projects and lots of time with his family – he’s had his ups and downs. For the most part, though, he is the epitome of “live and let live.”
Conversation with my father this past Saturday night:
Dad: “Hiiiiii, area code 504, tell me, what are you doing?”
Me: “On my way to dinner with some friends. What’s up?”
Dad: “When mom and I talked with you earlier today, you didn’t bring up the recent shootings. It’s all over CNN.”
Me: “Sadly, I’m used to them. The crime is simply moving from Central City to the relatively unpatrolled parts.”
Dad: “Where do you live relative to these shootings?”
Me: “Nowhere close. Why?”
Dad: “I know you go to the French Quarter a lot, and the shootings happened by there, so I just want you to be careful when you go out at night.”
Me: “The shootings happened in a neighborhood called Treme on the other side of the Quarter and Marigny – an area where I don’t normally hang out, dad. But, I will be careful.”
Dad: “We drove through there once when touring New Orleans, didn’t we?”
Me: “Yes, in fact, we did.”
Dad: “Ok, have a nice time … Love you.”
Me: (smiling) “Love you, too, dad.”
How simple was that? My mom would have heard the words shootings, New Orleans and French Quarter and immediately launched into a fit of perma-worry, never mind the scientist that she is. Dad’s … just dad. He knows I will continue going out with my friends at night, and that I probably have the common sense to watch myself. I do.
However, I do believe in the wrong place at the wrong time and that anything can happen anywhere in this city, or even in Ohio for that matter. For that reason, it’s nice to have a quiet guardian angel who lets you go about your business while caring for you from afar. It might just save me and probably has so far.
Day 335: Of Cops And Robbers
Capt. Harry Mendoza axed from NOPD
Police Chief Warren Riley on Friday fired Capt. Harry Mendoza, the department’s high-profile traffic commander, ruling that the 30-year veteran regularly spent large chunks of his workday on the tennis court, in the gym and, at times, just relaxing at home.
[Mendoza's attorney Eric] Hessler suggested that politics played a significant role in the case, starting with the Police Department’s decision to investigate Mendoza. Mendoza is a longtime friend of Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu and openly supported Landrieu during his bid to unseat New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin … When it appeared that Landrieu had a good chance against Nagin in the mayoral runoff, speculation within the department had Mendoza in line for a major promotion under a Landrieu regime. Landrieu made it clear during the campaign that, if elected, he would conduct a national search for a new police chief.
Recently having read Dambala’s exposé on the Meffert-Kurt-Nagin Tech Triangle, I’m not surprised at either outcome of Hessler’s appeal to the Civil Service Commission: that Mendoza’s pink slip was power play or Harry was indeed stringing up his racket on city time.
VatulBlog Bottom Line: While systemic corruption in city government is an impediment to our progress, this is yet another useless witchhunt to distract the city from its real problems. Firing one or two cops here and there isn’t going to help things, especially when NOPD morale suffers and internal schisms are the last thing we need. The summer heat plays great tricks on our list of priorities.
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Speaking of thieves … *cough* … I mean, attorneys, Amanda wrote the last of her Louisiana Bar Exam yesterday after which we celebrated with sushi and champagne. Her grandfather quips that there isn’t a bar Amanda can’t pass (up), but I hope to attend my special blondette’s swearing-in ceremony soon. Here’s to you, sweetcakes!
Day 333: Wet
Due to this afternoon’s storms, there are numerous reports of stopped traffic, signals out, wires down and live wires on vehicles. Additionally, a semi-truck lost a load of corn, closing the Beltline between Fish Hatchery Road and Park Street.
Cars are reported covered in water up to their windshields in the Randall-Monroe street area.
Yikes, no place is safe from the vagaries of Weather. D writes from the University of Wisconsin Division of Information Technology, “Our platform is flooding and we have to shutdown our servers, this is bad, I will most likely be offline in a little bit. I’ll call you tonight and give you the details.”
All I can think of is Ashley’s reaction to this, “They should have known better than to live there.” I’m sorry you’re getting rained on so badly. However, “when I tell people in the US that I live in New Orleans, that’s the kind of thing they tell me.”
The UW is probably smart enough to have backup data in another geographic location and the backbone will be up and running in no time. Once every last drop of water has been sucked out of the platform location. Hope you have a lot of blow dryers, wet-vacs and generators handy.
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Speaking of wet neighborhoods, I am miffed that almost no one knows about the New Orleans Community Support Foundation’s meeting and its vital importance to neighborhood associations who need LRA and Rockefeller money to plan community revitalization. I’ve written about it at NO Metroblogs in the hope that it will get more advertising:
The upshot of this post is that if you don’t make it to the New Orleans Community Support Foundation meeting this Sunday, your neighborhood will have a planner picked for you. The abject lack of advertising for this very crucial meeting doesn’t sit well with me. You may ask, “So what if a planner is picked for my neighborhood?” Your input was not actively solicited, it’s supposedly a city-wide meeting and where’s the democracy in the process if it isn’t advertised far and wide.
… This is something that should be blared from the TP, nola.com, TV and radio stations and flyers all over the city and evacuation centers. As a friend remarked today, “So much for democracy.”
If the NOCSF truly supports communities and acts on their behalf, the least they can do is better advertising. City-wide means exactly that and not “some people.” I hope a lot of individuals show up as well as nascent and well-established neighborhood associations. Sunday – July 30th – 12-4pm – Pavilion of Two Sisters in City Park – drop whatever it is you have planned and assist in your neighborhood’s planning and recovery process.
Also see:
- Unified Planning Process at ThinkNOLA Wiki
- Bayou Buzz: New Orleans Citizens, Planners Question Neighborhood Rebuild Process
- New Orleans Rebuilding Plan Essay Contest
- Becky Houtman’s Post On The UNOP Meetings
- Mark Folse’s Flowchart Of The Plan
And now, ladies and gentlemen, it’s going to rain in New Orleans. Again.
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The southern Wisconsin – southern Louisiana connection grows: 2 Millionth has a degree from UW-Madison! Also, don’t forget that City Councilman Arnie Fielkow hails from Appleton, WI and has a JD from the fabulous UW as well. (His wife, Susan, is a sweetheart and very generous hostess.) We’re everywhere!
Day 331: Are You Ready For Some Football?
I thought of posting this to New Orleans Metroblogs but scratched that idea out of respect for Saints fans and the fear of a beating from the same.
Tagliabue impressed by Superdome repairs
Before he left, Tagliabue asked Tom Keller, the project manager for Brazos Urethane, Inc. who oversaw the recently completed $32 million roof replacement, for his yellow hard hat, featuring Saints and Green Bay Packers logos. Tagliabue said he plans to include it in an exhibit at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio commemorating the stadium renovation.
Go PACKERS! (No one would get my hard hat with Packer logo, though. Never!)
Whose mug advertises the Pro Football Hall of Fame in the Akron Canton Regional Airport? Why, that of my boy, of course!
NFL talk makes any rainy, malfunctioning-software-filled day better. Forget basketball and golf, I can’t wait for football season.
Day 331: City Rebuilding Essay Contest
- Greater New Orleans Foundation
- Bring New Orleans Back
- City Planning Commission
- New Orleans Community Support Foundation
- Unified New Orleans Plan
- City Works
- Concordia Architecture & Planning
- New Orleans ACORN
- Neighborhoods Planning Network
- Various neighborhood associations and their recovery plans
If you leave me a medium-length and to-the-point essay expositing how all of these organizations are related to one another in the New Orleans rebuilding process, along with their relative importance in the overall scheme of things and deadlines, I will bake you a delicious batch of brownies.
Feel free to add any players I may have left out, but are not to leave out any listed above. Flowcharts earn extra chocolate chips and other surprise goodies. (We live in New Orleans where good food goes far.)
New Orleans and the rest of the confused nation thank you in advance.
“My thoughts are, we’re going to get somebody who knows what they’re talking about when it comes to rebuilding cities.” — George w. Bush in Biloxi, MS . 09/02/2005, on how the rebuilding of New Orleans might commence.
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Update: Markus made me a flowchart and it is the most head-shakingly appropriate and funny thing I’ve seen in a while. Please check it out. For this, he doesn’t get brownies but kheer/paayasam. The brownies are still available for the one with the essay.
Day 330: How “The City” Plans To Commemorate Katrina
Just because someone is in power doesn’t mean he/she represents all of us, or even most of us for that matter.
Jack and dangerblond (via email) talk about the city’s upcoming Katrina Anniversary and how tasteless it all looks. Between scattered church services and laying wreaths at the various levee breeches, there are plans for charity silent auctions, a cooking show featuring Emeril and - get this - a jazz funeral from the Convention Center to the Superdome with Lieutenant General Russel L. Honoré as Grand Marshall. The real cherries on top are Comedy Night, the Ambassadors of Swing talent search, a Masquerade Gala for Diamond & Platinum tickets at Harrah’s Casino and fireworks. Yay – let’s remember Katrina – whee! Is this a tourist event?
The poor of New Orleans bore and continue to carry the largest brunt of Katrina and its aftermath. Even the moneyed in this city (from Lakeview, New Orleans East, MidCity and sprinkled all over) have been humbled after almost a year of fighting for insurance money, the right to rebuild, their jobs, and in some cases, their very lives.
Our city is bankrupt, almost rudderless thanks to our invisible mayor and sans Recovery Plan. We don’t even have the neon lights on City Hall fixed. And this group of people has the audacity to spend vital city (recovery) money on a trite set of fêtes amidst timed prayer services, some reserved for only the ones who can afford to attend? As if we haven’t enough rot to deal with.
We had a Jazz Funeral for Katrina and Rita. Leave processions and Grand Marshalls for Mardi Gras and St. Patrick’s Day. And please dispense with terms like gala, diamond and platinum when talking about anything Katrina-related. This is supposed to be the remembrance of a ghastly series of events that killed almost 1200 people, displaced tens of thousands, wiped out 75% of our city and brought us to our collective knees to this day. The national/international media will cover this and it’s embarassing to imagine the image people will take away from it – when you’re happy, sad, angry, confused and you know it, throw a party!
No.
Along with people the nation over, I am going to relive a day of realizing I wasn’t going back to my home for an indefinite while and watching aerial footage of friends’ homes flooding, people walking on Hwy. 90 with nothing but the clothes on their backs and fires consuming familiar city buildings. I will meditate on the love and sick-to-my-stomach concern I felt for friends who didn’t evacuate. I am to remember a day when I was proud of my mayor and equally disgusted with the abject failure of our protection systems on all fronts.
These are the sentiments of an anonymous commenter on New Orleans Metroblogs:
“… imagine on that day EVERYONE in the city is outside, and everyone is wearing the same color – red or purple or something – and everyone is working on fixing some part of the city – picking up trash, fixing your own house, fixing someone else’s house, painting a school (’cause even though school will have started then, i’m sure it will still be needed) … what a statement.”
What a statement, indeed, Anonymous, and I’m right there with you. On August 29th, what if all of us take a day off work and spend it with Katrina Krewe or at a school helping pick up trash, cleaning classrooms, inventorying supplies and doing something, anything productive? That would be a better celebration of the spirit of recovery than consuming petitfours and champagne at some dress-up ball.
Hell, even going to work and contributing to the New Orleans economy would be a better bow to the New Orleans blues that began on August 29th, 2005.
Update: The T-P refers to this absurdity as “solemn events.” Almost lost my hot tea until I remembered: it’s the T-P.
Day 330: Cool For People Who Need To Report From The Road
T minus 35 to the Katrina / Government Bungle One Year Anniversary. It’s silly, but many New Orleanians (me included) wait with bated breath for that day, as if awaiting … something. Meanwhile, Beryl skimmed past North America and I watch radar images from the east-central Atlantic like a hawk.
Of course, we should be prepared for another evacuation. How are those of us with no laptops (or those of us with portable workstations that double for weights) to read and report from the road? Here is an option:
For $429, AlphaSmart presents the 2 lb. Dana Wireless, the “Palm-powered computer companion.”
It’s the affordable one-to-one computing solution— and now available with wireless connectivity. Dana Wireless offers the convenience and affordability of a hand-held device, and includes built-in Wi-Fi (802.11b) capability, providing wireless connectivity for the classroom, campus, office, or home.
The combination of a full-size keyboard, the wide screen and Palm OS provides much of the functionality of a laptop … allows you to check your email or browse the web using a third-party web browser without a modem or cable. Use Dana’s built-in IR (infrared) for beaming data between other Dana and Palm Powered devices.
The $249 internet-connectivity-less version of the Dana is the Neo - also 2 lbs., great for schools with built-in SMART applets. So, what’s the catch? What’s the difference between the Dana and, say, a Dell Inspiron B130 priced at $449 other than the Dell weighs ~7 lbs.
Also, AlphaSmart is located in Wisconsin Rapids. Do you think they’ll give me a WI discount?
Day 329: They Call New Orleans The Rising Tide
To commemorate the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, The Flood and aftermath that continues to plague The Greater New Orleans Area, local citizen journalists will host the first Rising Tide Convention on the weekend of August 25-27, 2006.
Our mission is as follows:
… a gathering for all who wish to learn more and do more to assist New Orleans’ recovery from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (and Rita). We will come together to dispel myths, promote facts, share personal testimonies, highlight progress and regress, discuss recovery ideas, and promote sound policies at all levels. We aim to be a “real life” demonstration of internet activism as the nation prepares to mark the one year anniversary of a massive natural disaster followed by governmental failures on a similar scale.
While momentum gathers and plans are put into action, please visit the Rising Tide wiki to learn more about our issues and to contribute ideas. If you are a New Orleans blogger (you don’t have to live in New Orleans to be one), please add your name, blog URL, location and email address to the existing list.
Note that one does not have to be a blogger to attend the conference or participate in its setup. In fact, we encourage anyone who cares about New Orleans and the surrounding area – media, artists, filmmakers, musicians, teachers, activists, tour guides, community associations, residents, former residents, visitors – to take part in this grassroots effort. If you are such a person, please add your name and contact information to this list.
We are looking for sponsors and advertising outlets – any help of this kind is greatly appreciated.
This is a true community effort, not about one person, group or medium. Already, we’ve managed to pull physical, intellectual and technological resources from seemingly disparate sources because everyone involved has one goal in mind – that which helps advance the cause of New Orleans. Be a part of it!