Onto matters of the city. For the next few days, posts will center on Orleans Parish elections, state leadership, levees and other aspects of our area’s path forward. First, who wants to be a contender or just a bum?

Fasten your seatbelts for this goat rodeo. Katrina postponed our elections for key city spots, but that did not help hasten the process. It’s politics as usual and every Tom, Dick and Kimberly has his name in the hat for the April 22nd primary. It has almost become this ridiculous:

Jokes aside, unlike Jim Fitzmorris, I agree with Louisiana’s primary-followed-by-runoff system in which “everyone runs in the same primary. If anyone gets fifty-one percent first time around, they win. If not, the top two vote getters, regardless of party, make the runoff.” Today’s nola.com rues that “116 candidates [have] signed up for 20 offices, leaving no sitting official without opposition [and] runoff won’t be until May 20.” This is democracy in action, in my opinion, unlike separate party primaries and the first person to the post declared the winner. But …

This process is ideal in a city or state which is not a cauldron of conflicting priorities associated with reconstruction after a major natural disaster. A tremendous opportunity to rebuild southern Lousiana right awaits us, and the buildup to this election reflects its current state: confusion. Many passionate and objective citizen stances on what a rebuild means clamor to be heard by passionate and power-hungry politicians with their own ideas and agendas. Confusion, especially that of the political variety, can be a good thing and has often generated criticial discussion and satisfactory outcomes. Somehow, the Louisianan combination of money, power, political cattiness, and now a piece of the rebuild doesn’t inspire healing at this time. All said, the rodeo … I mean … process must go on.

Here are some thinking points for the confused voter:

• Levees, levees, levees! Attracting business and tourism to this city is a forward-thinking goal, but puts the cart before the horse. This cannot be accomplished without a reliable system of levees, utilities and civic services. I’m not sure large businesses or visitors will give New Orleans a second chance if their operations are interrupted for fiscal quarters at a time once again.
• The issue of “We want everyone back.” In order for people to come back, they need the assurance of a livelihood and a place to live. Currently, the area has many jobs associated with cleaning and building. After that, what? Again, at this difficult time for New Orleans, it requires a citizen-city symbiosis, not a circle back to the ethos of “take” – the government takes, the businesses take, the citizenry takes. Who gives?
• Where will people live? One of my biggest fears is the haphazard reoccupation of badly-flooded neighborhoods. Coastal erosion is a fact; soon, we will be the buffer. Rebuilding is possible with a strong respect for where we live in the scheme of nature. Additionally, our people can use more than those dinky FEMA trailers.
• Demand a better Orleans Parish school system. Young people returning to New Orleans deserve a better education – one that attracts and keeps them in school all day. Who would want to leave schools around the nation to come back to some of the worst in America? Before the storm, the parish had 117 public schools; only 17 are open now. Also, a mere 16 of the former 74 private schools have re-opened.
• May the best candidate win. Look beyond the two-party system. Both of them failed us when the hurricane hit and at all levels of our government. This is not the time to talk about “liberal freaks” and “right-wing nutsos.” Not to mention that there is a little bit of each extreme in all of us.

The bullets above are mere suggestions and starters. As the hurricane affected everyone and every home differently, opinions will differ. However, I strongly believe that the aforementioned problems are parish-wide and need primary attention before each individual little woe. Thoughts?

nola.com New Orleans Election Guide

Some productivity prevailed today. I give you all of my pictures from the past Mardi Gras season [schedule], categorized by parade and/or celebration attended.

Mardi Gras was officially successful.

• All Mardi Gras 2006 pictures
• Krewe du Vieux
• Krewe of Carrollton
• Krewe of King Arthur
• Knights of Chaos
• Krewe of Muses
• Krewe of Hermes
• Le Krewe D’État
• Krewe of Iris
• Krewe of Tucks
• Krewe of Orpheus
• Mardi Gras Day
• Rex

This is my first evening at home in New Orleans in six months when I am not visiting from Houston and/or Mardi Gras is not going on. Stuff is everywhere. For instance, the scanner is on the living-room floor under Dune: The Butlerian Jihad, surrounded by a stack of unread magazines, a bag of clothes and a can of garbanzo beans. Funny that this particular still life almost sums up my material life and interests. Normally compulsive me would shudder at this collection and return said objects to their “proper places” around my domicile, but … eh. I am content just to sit in this recliner, be cooled by the air that frolics through my space, and to know that all of my things and I are now finally home.

Thanks to all for your birthday wishes, especially brimful, who nicely broadcasted that particular vital statistic on her blog the other day. The attention was nice for a change, to tell you the truth. It’s never bad to know that you are loved, but the eHugs and real hugs this year were terribly appropriate – the right sentiments from the right people. The birthday celebration was mostly Lenten for two reasons:

1) it fell on Ash Wednesday this year
2) the evil cold virus (or some mutation thereof), which I have successfully thwarted for almost a year now, touched down and made full contact with my immune system on Lundi Gras day. Yes, ladies and gents, the DayQuil is out from hibernation. Bring on the Sierra Mist Free, a blankie and the remote control! The woman is contagious! And before my mom whips out her #1 diagnosis of this cold, I agree with her. It was because of all this roaming around and nothing else. If three trips between Houston and New Orleans in one month via car and airplane don’t constitute “roaming around,” I don’t know what does.

Feed the cold and feed it well: D and I dined at the exquisite Asian Cajun, where Chef Philip Chan himself wished me a Happy Birthday and his team made us a meal fit for royalty. Chef Chan’s sauces are so delectable that I will eat cardboard that has been smeared with them. As we walked back home, D said, “When you see me eating everything including the garnish, the food is excellent.” If you are in New Orleans, make it a point to stop at this great restaurant at the corner of Decatur & Bienville in the Quarter.

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A mere cold did not stop this intrepid wonder from meeting up with Mark of Wet Bank Guide, Troy of Gulf Sails and a few other New Orleans bloggers last night at Fahy’s. Mark and his wife, Rebecca, are neat people (with ample upper-Midwestern background) and I look forward to getting to know them more in the coming months. As D and other close friends kept stealing my attention (those troublemakers), I didn’t get a chance to talk much with the rest of the bloggers, but I hope to organize another one of these within this month. That will afford the bloggers who missed this meetup an opportunity to catch up. It might become a regular thing – who knows?

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The next few posts will center on stories and pictures from Mardi Gras, the city and the upcoming mayoral election. The good news: the election is on. The bad news: the press refuses to take any candidate seriously who is not Ray Nagin, Mitch Landrieu or Ron Forman. As a constitutional republic and a global champion of democracy, can we at least pretend that we don’t deal in foregone conclusions?

Back At Le Blog After A Trip To New Orleans: Not that there wasn’t excellent wireless signal emanating from my house over the course of the weekend, but who wants to sit at a computer with only 2.5 days back in La Nouvelle Nouvelle Orleans? Now I have nothing to do but (take care of puppies, kitties, puppy-kitty havoc and) sit at my computer to work and blog.

And go through a mountain of mail?! As I suspected, the ever-helpful USPS suspended my mail-forwarding order and all correspondence to me is now sent to my New Orleans address. Good thing C and I share a mailbox. Or I wouldn’t have received items of great import such as my URGENT insurance bill which asks me to pay $NONE at this time and a Christmas card from my company’s CEO, along with a few magazines, trivial notices, and the ever-faithful Door County Advocate. It’s amazing how much of our life’s business is now accomplished online. Except when friends send you packages and they sit somewhere in the bowels of the Loyola Ave. post office for four months.

But, I digress. My weekend in New Orleans was just what I needed. On Friday, I cleaned the Smell Of Dead Gumbo out of my kitchen and have set up the official Stench-Thwarting Station – a tray filled with Asian Spice room spray, Clean Linen scented oil refills, Sandalwood votives, incense, and a can of Lysol. Instructions: When spirit of said dead refrigerator threatens, attack with items from station.

Once Julie showed up on Friday afternoon, we promptly headed to Fahy’s where we ran into everyone in the usual crowd of ne’er-do-wells and met Alan of Blogometer and ThinkNOLA fame (blogger meetup – geeks unite!). The Fahy’s gathering turned out to be the 12th Night / Epiphany / Let’s Get Our Mardi Gras On / Any Excuse To Eat King Cake party and, apparently, Julie, Alan and I were the most underdressed people there, despite that I saw on my calendar that it was indeed an epiphanous night but still forgot to costume.

While K readied her Uptown home (the basement of which fully flooded and has since been redone) for her son’s 10th birthday party, all I seem to remember of Saturday is Breakfast #2 at Surrey’s and driving through Mid-City, the Lower Ninth Ward and St. Bernard Parish with Julie. My next post will elaborate on what I saw there, how I saw it and a comparison with the growth of the relatively-undamaged parts of the city, including mine. A precis for those of you who can’t wait: driving up Magazine St. or St. Charles Ave. and then down Claiborne Ave. into Chalmette and Arabi makes you wonder if you’re living in the same city.

Sunday morning involved a nice episode of Coffee Klatch starring Mac, Julie and me at my dining table. More heartwarming came about at our noon krewe meeting, where everyone was, as usual, terribly happy to see me there and sad to watch me depart back to Houston soon after. K and I had a great drive back, in sharp contrast to the one there that took us 7.5 hours. Lesson learned: hit the road early in the afternoon to avoid traffic pickles in Baton Rouge and Lafayette.

More perspective and fresh pictures in tomorrow’s Return To New Orleans 4 (Kurt Russell sold separately).

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Four Months (And Some) Later: Speaking of my krewe, its oldest member and the music captain of the greater organization, Krewe du Vieux, was featured in a BBC news article on the fate of a handful of Katrina survivors three months after the storm. John Hyman appears in Katrina victims – where are they now?:

[John] is already lining up musicians to parade in February, and says the federal government is likely to come in for some scathing humour because of its response to the disaster.

“I felt from the start that New Orleans would not come back bigger and better, but smaller and better,” he says. “I still think that is likely to be what will happen.”

Just change the word likely to most decidedly in that first line. Take it from me, folks, you do not want to miss the Krewe du Vieux parade this year! [More details forthcoming as they are released to me by our krewe captain.]

BBC coverage of British expats in the Crescent City including John, the only person not to evacuate his block of the French Quarter during and after the storm, is available here.

The historic area where he lives is in the centre of the city, but escaped the worst of the flooding … Mr. Hyman’s telephone still works, the water came back on Thursday morning and he has enough tinned food and water to last for weeks.

Something I liked about the Three Months Later article is the Before & After picture set. In this case, however, they are not pictures of NO before and after the storm, but a comparison of right after the storm (before) with more or less now (after).

Also of great sociological and psychological interest is a Harvard Medical School project that will track the lives of Katrina survivors for two years.

As per the Hurricane Katrina Community Advisory Group website:

Government policy-makers need to know the practical problems these people continue to face as they try to reconstruct their lives. This can best be done by monitoring a group of people who represent those displaced by Katrina over time … Quarterly interviews are being carried out with all the Advisory Group members to monitor the pace of recovery. Reports are being prepared for policy-makers … The Advisory Group consists of a representative sample of over 1000 people who had to leave their homes because of Hurricane Katrina.

Perusing the website shows that it is fairly new; this will be a good study to bookmark and see how much people achieve and how far the project gets over a period of time.

A note before I close: More than anything I did in New Orleans, the simple pleasures of sleeping in my  bed and lounging in my recliner (with my woobie) have yet to be paralleled in life’s best experiences.