Rescued Animals: I’ve argued that the death penalty ought to be reserved for those who physically abuse and/or kill children, the elderly, the handicapped and animals. These beings do not have the ability to take care of themselves as adequately as the rest of us, and for that, they need our help, not our rebuke and abuse. Stories like this upset me so much, and make me wonder what I am not doing in New Orleans to help its voiceless and defenseless creatures.

[An] estimated 477 dogs [rescued from New Orleans by Tammy and William Hanson, who operated the shelter in Every Dog Needs a Home shelter in Gamaliel, Ark.], three goats and two cats were steeping in filth. Many were injured, most were aggressive, and almost all of them were cramped. At least six dogs were dead, some still in transport containers.

“They were standing in their own filth, feces, urine,” said Humane Society of the United States volunteer Desiree Bender in a report published by the society. “Their paws were burning, bleeding. You couldn’t get close to them at first. They were so aggressive. They had not been walked or moved, and they were in such pain.”

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Show Your Support For New Orleans And Help New Orleans’ Displaced Animals (And Humans): Five of these beauties are on their way to me. By purchasing New Orleans: Proud To Swim Home bumper stickers and slapping them on visible surfaces, show your support for the Big Easy and help our animals (and humans) in the process.

From ProudToSwimHome.com:

All profits from the sale of these stickers (and since the printing has been donated for now, it’s ALL profits until we sell out this batch) will go to Habitat for Humanity and the Humane Society of the United States to help with their efforts to get New Orleanians, both human and non-human, back where they belong – NEW ORLEANS!!!

Other NOLA stickers for sale on the internet:

– the very elegant NOLA Oval from the Thomas Mann Gallery
– NOLA New Orleans, Louisiana Oval
– I <3 NOLA rectangle

VatulBlog proudly endorses such products that directly support local causes and businesses.

The drive into New Orleans on Friday was completely uneventful – no blown tires, no untoward traffic jams, and not a single military convoy. There are fewer pictures from this trip as compared to the last time owing to a tight schedule. D and I were able to walk through the city from the Garden District, through downtown, and into the French Quarter (where I hugged and kissed my fellow Krewe de C.R.A.P.pers) without any trouble. As we walked by familiar spots all the way from our neighborhood to the Quarter, I kept joking, “It’s hard to tell the pre-Katrina and post-Katrina messes apart.” Our city is always in a state of Flux-Disrepair-Revitalization-Chaos. Welcome back to New Orleans. (See pictures from this trip here and here-placeholder.)

Leaving town for the airport today, D and I tuned to WWNO, University of New Orleans’ radio station, now broadcasting out of Atlanta. What did we chance upon but a rebroadcast of portions of Prairie Home Companion in New Orleans from 2002 and 2004. Especially poignant as downtown faded into a cutout against the greying sky were Geoff Muldaur and his band performing Please Send Me Someone To Love and, one of my favorites, Walking To New Orleans.

I’ve got my suitcase in my hand
Now ain’t that a shame
I’m leaving here today
Yes, I’m going back home to stay
Yes, I’m walking to New Orleans

Isn’t it ironic that the song was penned by a New Orleanian who was presumed dead in his Lower Ninth Ward home after the storm hit and rescued off his roof three days later and who now lives in a local hotel room waiting to occupy a home? At least, the gold record for this particular song survived and was salvaged, while a lot of his memorabilia were lost.

“I don’t know what to do, move somewhere else or something,” said Fats Domino when interviewed by Reuters for the above article. “But I like it down here.”

That seems to be the main sentiment around town as homes continue to be assessed by insurance adjusters and bulldozing/rebuilding begins in earnest. The home of a couple of our Lakeview friends is being bulldozed while they look for a new home, meanwhile bouncing from one friend’s home to another. Their perspective: Life is hard, but where else would they go? Other lucky ones with contractors and roofers are done resuscitating their properties. The main influx of people into New Orleans seems to center around December and January, as businesses and schools look to reestablish themselves in town by the new year or Carnival season.

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With friends and neighbors coming back or deciding to move away permanently, fewer residents appear shell-shocked and are coming to terms with Reality As We Know It In New Orleans, and life returns somewhat to normal. There are still miles and miles to go in terms of economy and everyday living, though.

While stores reopen and sales increase, business may have to shrink (temporarily or permanently) in order to address the new smaller customer base. Although previous residents and newcomers come in and stay, it is hard to predict the final tally when all is said and done. When will that balance be achieved? When can we start to call life normal again and start to reassign crucial gauges? Living in New Orleans is going to be a whole new ballgame with updated requirements – this frontier is simultaneously scary and exciting. And, in my mind, it is a great time to be an American and one who lives in New Orleans. We’ll give it our best, and see what happens. As neighbor Scott said, “We won’t be bigger, but we are working towards better.” New Orleans will most probably be a smaller town, but hopefully one adorned with fewer problems than it had before and accountability and with transparency as new standards for operation. Then, we won’t end up in post-hurricane situations in which the Corps tells us that the pilings go down 7 feet farther than they really do, and we fall for it.

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Holland and its network of levees is in the local news a lot (part 1 of a nola.com trilogy on this topic). Suddenly, Dutch this and Holland that are popular phrases. Louisiana can stand to take a lesson from this book. 2000 died in a 1953 storm surge that hit the town of Ouwerkerk in the Netherlands – that’s approximately 1000 more than those who met their deaths at the hands of Katrina and its fallout. If the Dutch can retaliate against such a tragedy with a comprehensive surge management method, so can we. This is our Netherlands almost 50 years later; if we cannot provide the cutting edge for our coastland, what good are we? What good is the export of our democracy and freedom without the application of our first-world advancement in our own nation? Are we saying that, in the long run, an investment in Middle Eastern foreign policy and at such high costs is worth the sacrifice of the protection of portions of our own country? What will be left to protect?

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The November 2005 issue of Scientific American reads along the same lines, pointing to past mistakes and urging Louisiana and the federal government to follow the Dutch example. Along with Mark Fischetti’s prescient 2001 article on the same subject (Drowning New Orleans), an interesting find in this month’s paper issue is that Houston is subsiding at a faster rate than NO, due to decreasing sediment pore pressure as a result of increased water and hydrocarbon extraction. Across the nation, San Jose is officially below sea level and at threat are New York and the Florida Everglades.

Long term and then, Long Term. How are we going to address these concerns in the upcoming decades of increased groundwater extraction, decreased pore pressure and consequent compaction, and poorer quality of life with growing costs? What kind of a country are we preparing ourselves for?

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This brings us to the kind of person required for the new New Orleans. A conscientious human, willing to fight for the frontier with strength and an unwavering commitment to rebuilding. This doesn’t mean something sentimental. New New Orleans requires awareness, smartness, logical thinking and, above all, a readiness to help thy neighbor. Only with that sort of community spirit can our city come back. Still, people throw litter on the streets – a man in a ReNew Orleans tshirt threw his still-lit cigarette butt onto Royal St. in the Quarter. Today’s rain created a small river out of our street because homeowners haven’t come out to rake and remove leaves from their driveways and sidewalks. The leaves that go in the drain are a strain on the system and cause it to be less effective.

As a gentleman walked by wearing a Saints hat and a Water Meter t-shirt, my friend, Sandy, remarked, “Look at us. We New Orleanians are so self-involved.” Yes, we pride ourselves on being quirky and festive and Different From The Rest Of The Nation. Even through gutting our homes and cleaning out our stinky refrigerators, we wear our beads, have a daiquiri handy, and dance to zydeco. We hold musical Gut Fests for our neighborhoods. Now is the time to translate that unique personality into being truly selfish and rebuilding our city well. That will be our new identity. We will have weathered the storm.

I’ve got no time for talking
I’ve got to keep on walking
New Orleans is my home
That’s the reason why I’m goin’
Yes, I’m walking to New Orleans

Another Weekend In New Orleans: This is the first post made from my home in New Orleans after the hurricane hit. While the wireless connection was up on my last visit, I was busy doing way too many other things to construct a post. The first thing I did when I walked into my place this time was to attack the footprint of the old refrigerator, a.k.a. El Stinky, with every known Lysol product and chemical simulated by Dow. After dousing with air freshener and a plug-in air purifier attached to the wall at the scene of the slime, it doesn’t smell like a dead body may once have lingered, bloated and collapsed back into its chemical consituents in the sanctuary of my home, my kitchen.

Otherwise, the city continues to look better and better with each visit. Some parts of Metairie, a lot of Lakeview and portions of the Garden District remain untouched. For the most part, however, there is activity everywhere and residents have begun to shed Shock Mode for Rebuilding Mode. The Superdome has a new roof, the lights of downtown twinkle once again for a nice nighttime view from my driveway as well as the back porch. The taco salad at Juan’s Flying Burrito on Magazine St. reminded me why I love food in New Orleans, and why I adore the people here. Someone like me is normal in this town.

I am home, even if it is for a weekend. More, with pictures, in my next post. Tomorrow I get to see a lot of friends at the first Krewe de C.R.A.P.S. meeting after last Mardi Gras!

New Orleans’ Re-Opened Restaurants: The New Orleans Menu Daily presents an exhaustive list of restaurants now open in the New Orleans area. The list isn’t particularly reader-friendly, but is organized by neighborhood starting with the French Quarter, CBD and the Marigny.

Dante’s Kitchen (best restaurant ever), Juan’s Flying Burrito and Singha Thai are open! Mimi’s in the Marigny and Cafe Rani are, sadly, not.

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Twin Span Update: (Thanks, Earl!) For those that have not been back, one side of the I-10 twin span is open to Slidell and it sounds like progress is ahead of schedule for the second span.

A FEMA home inspector informed me that travel on the Causeway is also quite good. The only traffic commuters encounter is in their respective towns and neighborhoods.

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Insurance Gouging:

in·sur·ance n.
a. The state of being insured.
b. Coverage by a contract binding a party to indemnify another against specified loss in return for premiums paid.
c. The sum or rate for which such a contract insures something.
d. The periodic premium paid for this coverage.

Why are we forced to insure anything and everything we hold dear, and with good money, if the service isn’t ultimately rendered? This post over at By The Bayou has got me worried and infuriated for victims of natural disasters the nation over.

Allstate doesn’t want to pay claims to Rita victims for living expenses after the storm unless their homes were made uninhabitable. Unfortunately, it’s quite possible for someone to have a home that wasn’t damaged by the storm, but had no clean water or electricity and was in the middle of an evacuated area to which they couldn’t return. According to Allstate, that’s habitable … The Texas insurance department took them to court, a judge ordered them to pay, but they got a temporary injunction – so nothing for people struggling to recover from the storm.

This was exactly my living situation in New Orleans until the city reopened. Allstate also happens to be the company that will no longer underwrite property in certain parts of Louisiana and the Gulf Coast. Shouldn’t an insurance company be prepared for the worst case scenario and when such a need arises? That is their business and, in my opinion, legally-sanctioned daylight robbery.