First Day Back At Work: How strange it is to see everyone again with whom I worked in New Orleans up until five weeks ago. It’s like reuniting with friends after the winter holidays, except that instead of asking your buddies what they got for Christmas, the questions are minor variations on “Is your family alright?” and “How did your place make out?” All day long, I’ve done nothing but walk from door to door to announce my presence and exchange hugs, smiles and Katrina stories. Tears, there have been those, too. My colleagues’ tears are mine because I feel what they feel. A floor full of the shell-shocked, but hopeful and moderately cheerful, mourning in our own ways, as we fumble through Houston and coming to terms with our temporary, yet new, workplace.

Speaking of the new digs, I no longer have the gorgeous sweeping view of the CBD, French Quarter and the river and am in an inside office. But, fate (my manager, actually) wasn’t unkind and I have been placed in the same office as my sarcastically brilliant Russian friend, AM. I’m squeamish about sharing personal space, but I’ll make an exception when it comes to AM. Jaded – check, funny – check, smart – double check.

The One Shell Square re-entry window still places us back in NO around January 1. Let me tell you how extremely unsettling it is to listen to those who have mentally prepared themselves to stay in Houston until March or May. One co-worker murmured, “It’s so sad to be here when there’s so much work that needs done back home.”

AM’s manager walked into the office to give us a mini-briefing. At its conclusion, he said, “We need more laughter around here, ladies. Our spirits could use some raising.” Does he really want to hear the kookaburra? “Just you wait until I start laughing. Then, you’ll beg me to stop,” said I.

DB, lifelong New Orleanian and mother of our team geologist, CH, stopped by with little baby O, whose blue eyes and smile have grown considerably since I last saw him before the storm. While her parents lost the entire first floor of their Lakeview home to the flood, C’s brand-spankin’-new Mid-City home took on only a couple of feet of water.

—

New Orleans Is Still Metroblogging: Those snarky metrobloggers are still at telling it like it is, all the way from calling out greedy landlords and Michael Brown’s “comparing mangoes and papayas” to heading back in and supporting New Orleans music while an expat!

Outside Looking In was markedly overpowering: “[nola.com] has some tremendous pics of all the folks going back and beginning the cleanup Uptown … We’re jealous and frustrated, at least in some ways, feeling like there’s all this activity we can’t take part in for now.”

If you want to support the NOLA Metrobloggers and their displaced families, you might consider buying one of these lovely t-shirts.

Speaking of purchases and the upcoming season, I urge all of you to purchase gifts for one another that benefit Katrina victims and Gulf Coast rebuilding. As an example, check out the Walter Anderson Museum store. The museum is situated in Ocean Springs, MS which was damaged during Hurricane Katrina. (Thanks for the tip, Claire B.!) Alternatively, consider donating money to the Red Cross or the Humane Society in the names of your relatives and friends. Homeless humans, doggies, kitties and birdies (ok, and ferrets, too) need our love more than ever.

The Home That Is New Orleans: Listening to Douglas Brinkley on NPR’s Fresh Air (September 16, 2005), I found three interrelated points worth mulling over. (BTW, Brinkley is a professor at UNO, not Tulane as the NPR site claims.)

Firstly, Brinkley is “very disappointed in the response of the federal, state and local governments …” This goes without saying, but for a New Orleanian to charge his immediate government with inadequacy (and continually) is surprising and refreshing. It makes me wonder how many wish the city to return to the way it was as opposed to a pragmatic rebuilding, which in effect will engender a “new city.”

Additionally, this is not the time for partisan bickering and placing blame. Is there ever, however, a bad time for accountability, specifically in terms of the failure of the levee system, law and order following the hurricane and the ongoing plight of our city’s poorest? I fear, though, that this exercise in The Acceptance Of Responsibility will delay and not effect the needful changes which are water-tight levees, letting super-low-lying parts of New Orleans back to nature, rehabilitating our businesses and schools, and rebuilding with parity.

On to the next point: Will New Orleans be the same? This is somewhat answered in another of Brinkley’s statements: “Historic New Orleans will be back in business … side neighborhoods by levees are devastated … afraid of prefab townhouses … start looking like suburbia instead of rich, subtropical Afro-Caribbean center which I love so much.”

There is no way to reproduce two or so centuries of cultural development in a few years, but reconstruction of some sort must happen. My hope is that HRI stays involved in putting up new homes with some character. New need not necessarily mean boxy, sterile and devoid of charm. Again, who will live in these places, prefab or not? Who are we rebuilding for? As Harvard University economist Edward Glaeser states, “New Orleans has too many people in relation to the size of its economy. The intent should be to help poor people, not poor places.” The rest of this Businessweek article provides insight into the ramifications of the new New Orleans.

In the end, politics and economics notwithstanding, the beauty of New Orleans is her mysterious allure. Well, it’s not really a mystery: There is no place like this in America. As we age as a nation, it is our responsibility to preserve our roots and keep them intact for American posterity. This is identity and character, and I don’t mean just putting up buildings to resemble what was there previously. What I refer to is preserving a place where the twin goddesses that truly represent the American spirit – rich living and spiritual abandon – can live and thrive. New Orleans makes us passionate and interesting as a people, a race, a civilization.

In the words of Brinkley, a resident of New Orleans since 1992, “What an identity I have to New Orleans. I can go other places, I know people, but I’m haunted, I’m driven back to New Orleans. I realize that’s what home is, it’s a place you love so much, your attachments are so deeply rooted to the landscape. It’s not a simple matter of being pragmatic and going elsewhere.”

—

A Quarter In Houston?: Tomorrow marks my first day as a working girl in Houston for the remainder of the year (and just that, I hope). While my heart remains in that beautiful city 350 miles to the east, my body and mind (and paying job) must go on here. In other words, I’m being pragmatic and going somewhere else temporarily. At least, I have the good luck of having somewhere to go. Am I emotionally prepared for it? A few months is miniscule in the face of an entire human lifetime, a journey of a thousand storms and sunny days. On this conspicuously bumpy ride, I remember these wise words, “There’s no stopping the future.”

I’m over being mad at major-network news. After yesterday’s post on growing up and how it involves dealing with the immutable nature of certain entities, like hurricanes and MSNBCFOXCNNAOLCBSABC, I showcase the positive. Let’s turn up the volume on our great music!

It Don’t Mean A Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing: Peter Scholtes of Minneapolis City Pages posted a wonderul article yesterday that consists mainly of lists on how to keep up with New Orleans, how to help our musicians, how to help in general and links to good writeups on the city.

Peter points us to the New Orleans Jazz neighborhood history map, with key musical areas highlighted. It’s sad to note that quite a few of these areas suffered most from the flooding.

—

Voodoo In Memphis This Year: AntiGravity Magazine mainman and Twiropa DJ, Leo McGovern, informs that the Voodoo Music Experience, held in New Orleans every Halloween, has moved to Memphis this year. Several of us looked forward to the great lineup, but I’m happy that it’s going forth, especially given that “proceeds will benefit the New Orleans Restoration Fund, an arm of the Entertainment Industry Foundation.”

“Since our home-base is New Orleans, it’s been an especially difficult time for us, with staff losing homes and offices, and some of them losing everything,” says Stephen Rehage, founder and independent producer of the Voodoo Music Experience. “Moving a festival of this magnitude has been no easy task and we are grateful to the City of Memphis for extending their hospitality, to Trent Reznor for voicing his advocacy of NORF and Voodoo, to all the artists dedicating their time and energy to support the cause and to our incredible fans for their dedication and support over these last few weeks.”

Foo Fighters and Social Distortion will not perform due to “unforeseen circumstances.” New Orleans artists include The Neville Brothers, Dr. John, Kermit Ruffins, Bonerama (yay!), Ballzack and many others.

Incidentally, “[Trent Reznor’s] performance of ‘Entity’ [and ‘Hurt’] from the MTV Hurricane Benefit Show is available as an audio download for 99c from the Sony Connect website. All proceeds will go to charity.” (Sony Connect works only on Internet Explorer, for you Firefox and Safari users out there.)

Leo lost his home in the flood, but uses the AntiGravity blog to showcase the music and restoration of New Orleans.

Yesterday Les and I went back into Crescent City Comics to grab a few more things and to clean up. We went in the back way, meaning we took Carrollton (which turns into Wisner) towards Filmore, and Filmore up to Elysian Fields. The neighborhoods along Filmore are just demolished, entire blocks still wet and everywhere is muddy. This is a shot from just over the canal … later today we go into Chalmette to view my grandma’s house.

My best wishes to Leo and his family and friends.

New Orleans Is Coming Back And She’s Looking Good! The last two days have me nothing short of physically and emotionally exhausted. Going back to New Orleans yesterday was one of the greatest endeavors I have undertaken yet. Even my camera is out of sorts and needs a full recharge. Before launching into anything else, let me tell you this: One month after the storm, the city of New Orleans is on its way back with a vengeance. The scale of the devastation and quick recovery is evident in the huge piles of debris neatly piled up on every block of the city. Here are a few useful highlights of the trip:

D and I drove back into NOLA yesterday from Houston – we left at 7:30 AM and got back at midnight. I-10 is open all the way through to the Westbank between the hours of 8AM and 6PM. Quite a few of my neighbors in the Garden District have already moved back into their homes and were seen outside cleaning up. Remarkably, our house got power exactly 4 hours and 20 minutes before we walked in. Apparently, our refrigerator is the source of the Toxic Gumbo in New Orleans. Seriously, D had a vat of shrimp, chicken and sausage gumbo in the freezer before we left which we believe is responsible for the current smell of death emanating from the kitchen. Damage to the house includes decay, smell and bugs related to the refrigerator, roof leak in master closet, water stains on master bath curtains, sappy tree that fell over and took out the wall separating our property from the B&B behind the house, grill and all back deck material knocked over, and the trellis surrounding our deck down. Other than that, the whole house is fine! One end of the house smells like a carcass warmed over, noxious fumes and all, while the other smells just like home.

Power trucks and cleanup crews are everywhere between the French Quarter and our neighborhood. A lot of my LGD, Irish Channel, Gentilly and Metairie friends have returned to clean up and start rebuilding – everyone estimates to have their place finished by the end of the year. Not that I saw it, but I know from friends that the Ninth Ward, of course, is a different story – looks like a full loss for most of it.

What I did see: The CBD is so clean, you won’t believe it, as are the Warehouse District and the Lower Garden. In fact, the FQ is really coming back to life with music venues reopening and business owners back in there with a vengeance! With tears in my eyes and a smile in my heart, I want you to know that pride and joy are what I feel for this city and how it has bounced back in such short time!

While I expected Special Operations Combat Navy Seals to rappel down from our roof once we got to the house, not a one stopped us or visited to check our credentials. Cops are everywhere, though, driving past, waving and moving on. Even I felt safe driving around by myself in the Lower Garden District. New Orleans has a small, quarter-year journey to recovery and, at the rate it’s going now, this is a wholly achievable goal.

The emotions soared and plummeted, especially on seeing the inside of my home, but those are words for a post when I have a chance to sit down and write without laughing and crying at once.

—

Be Positive And Report Positive! CNN and the major networks won’t publicize this now (the let’s-prey-on-disaster-alone shysters), but the floodwater is almost gone, except for really bad areas like St. Bernard Parish and small portions of New Orleans East. All naysayers and people who want to abandon New Orleans as a lost cause, when this city needs loving residents the most, are so wrong. If you don’t want to go back, you don’t deserve New Orleans. If you return a year from now, when the city is a shiny new morsel waiting to be consumed, we’ll have you anyway.

—

New Re-Entry Schedule: As long as you adhere to curfew, all residents of the following zip codes are welcome back in New Orleans starting Friday, according to Mayor Ray Nagin.

More ZIP codes will be opened for re-entry for business owners on Thursday, and to residents on Friday … areas of 70112, 70113, 70114, 70115, 70116, 70118, 70130 and 70131. Those areas include Algiers, the Central Business District, the French Quarter and Uptown.

There is a curfew in place from 6PM to 8AM every night that will be strictly enforced until further notice. This means you may not be outside between 6 pm and 8 am, in a vehicle or on foot … Traffic lights are out throughout the City. All intersections are four-way stops and the speed limit is 30 mph, regardless of the posted speed limit.