Some NO Water Safe To Drink: nola.com says that tap water in New Orleans west of the Industrial Canal has been declared potable. “The Department of Health and Hospitals, the official regulatory agency for the State of Louisiana, certified the water quality, the mayor’s office said.”

This means all water in a small sliver of eastern Orleans Parish remains undrinkable. As for me, I’ll stick with the bottled water during return trips and then purchase a new filter when I go back. Anyone living on the Mississippi between Baton Rouge and the Gulf of Mexico should be drinking filtered tap water anyway. Chemical plants and refineries, anyone?

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Nagin’s Economic Townhall: Around 1500 business representatives attended a meeting convened by New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin on the economic future of the city. Nagin blasted business predators whom he likened to looters (call them “carpetbaggers,” Ray, it’s more cathartic) and suggested a reduction in no-bid contracts.

Nagin called for full public disclosure of all recovery spending, holding no-bid contracts to a minimum, hiring Louisiana residents instead of importing “Mexican workers” and an end to minority set-aside contracts, which have long been a source of abuse in the city.

Also, Nagin called for fair worker wages: “If you’re hiring people below the 8 to 10-dollar range, you’re not going to be playing the game for long.”

Let’s see. Our president temporarily suspended the minimum wage in storm-ravaged areas after Katrina. This will only aid in the hiring of super-low-income workers into the no-bid contract system, usually not New Orleans residents but these “Mexican workers” Nagin refers to. So, which contractor/employer is going to pay more than $8-10 when they are not expected to by the law? Can someone help me out here?

FEMA To Hurricane Victims: “Go Home!”: FEMA acting chief, R. David Paulison, recently suggested to a Senate panel that the victims of Hurricane Katrina must be urged to return home. The main reason appears to be that many remain in shelters despite housing availability (temporary or permanent) back home.

… hundreds of thousands of hurricane victims remain in hotel rooms and emergency shelters ” despite more than $2 billion already spent by FEMA for 120,000 temporary trailers and mobile homes. Only 109 Louisiana families have been put in those homes, while tens of thousands of state residents remain in shelters …

… victims still in shelters face an Oct. 15 deadline, set by President Bush, to find more stable housing ” including apartments, trailers and in some cases, hotels. Meanwhile, FEMA is weighing whether to extend a program that reimburses the American Red Cross for the cost of hotel rooms for victims. That program is set to expire Oct. 24.

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Charity & University Hospitals Condemned: Hurricane Katrina has left these two medical centers “dangerous, dangerous places.” Charity, opened in 1939, needed a major overhaul even before the hurricane, and this is an opportunity to build anew and up to code. Residents of New Orleans fear the resulting job losses. When the new hospitals are built, the jobs will be back, too. This isn’t as dire as the layoffs at City Hall.

The two hospitals treated more than 500,000 patients a year … “We are going to build newer, more modern facilities that will withstand the test of time. They will withstand the next storm, and the one after that,” said [Donald Smithburg, chief executive officer of the Louisiana State University Health Care Services Division.] “Charity and University have anchored the health care system of southern Louisiana for over one-hundred years. We believe they should be replaced quickly to ensure they provide health care for the next one-hundred years and beyond.”

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Nagin Announces Individual And Business Tax Relief Proposal: Along with requests for improved travel and hurricane-protection infrastructure measures, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has handed the federal government a proposal for “a package of tax incentives designed to fuel the repopulation of a city.” Remember: it’s only a proposal.

… anyone who lives and works in New Orleans would be eligible for a 50 percent federal tax credit on total taxable wages [with] a cap of $50,000 for individuals and $100,000 for couples who file joint income tax returns.

The program, which Nagin has dubbed the Katrina Tax and Jobs Incentive Zone, also would offer a break for companies that operate in the city now or decide to locate in New Orleans in the future [with a] 50 percent federal income tax credit on their total payroll for employees who live and work in the city. That credit would be capped annually at their total tax liability, which means a business would not be able to save more than it owes in taxes … the tax credit could not be transferred to a third party or credited to a prior or future year.

This proposal is similar to the one offered up earlier this week by Governor Kathleen Blanco. New Orleans residents wonder what will happen with state taxes.

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FoodFoodFood: New Orleans restaurants are coming back sooner than you can say “Wanna muffaletta?” Already, 80 Orleans Parish restaurants have been certified by state health inspectors. The big challenge to restaurant owners now is finding employees.

Burger King seems to understand that New Orleans is still fertile consumer ground, with higher wages and end-of-month bonuses to attract workers back. If BK wants to stay in New Orleans, I don’t understand what any other company’s problem is.

Undrinkable water or not, muck or not, people want to eat!

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The Politics Of Failure: Elsewhere in the nation, the CIA will not hold accountable those federal agencies responsible for the security failures leading up to 9/11. To an American citizen and a resident of New Orleans, this news does not bode well for the inquiry that is almost certainly needed in the wake of Katrina. As long as elected officials and their appointees are not held answerable for their decisions, such oversights will continue to occur across this nation and in areas we occupy. America will only suffer again and again by not learning from previous lessons in (mis)communication and lack of cooperation across federal (and state and local) agencies.

Studying To Be A Doctor In Exile: The same week some of us begin to work in Houston, Tulane Medical School students start the first day of classes at Baylor College of Medicine.

The fear was that [the hurricane] could even cause the school’s extinction, so uncertain was Tulane’s future in the days after Katrina flooded New Orleans. There was no telling what would have happened if its students were dispersed to other medical colleges around the nation, which was the only other option until Houston agreed to take in the school the first week of September.

It’s all a daunting task. Texas campuses absorbed more than 5,000 college students displaced by Katrina, but those were relatively simple adjustments since the students just learned alongside students already enrolled. Medical students need more ” cadavers for anatomy class, clinics and hospitals for rotations, the sense of belonging to a group that comes with staying with classmates and retaining professors.

“It’s sometimes difficult to come to grips with the gravity of this situation, but it’s at least taught us that nothing is permanent,” said Justin Lafreniere, a third-year Tulane student. “If nothing else, we’ve learned to roll with the punches.”

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New Orleans Movers & Shakers: Introducing a new service that helps Tulane students, just like the ones mentioned, take care of their homes and property back in New Orleans. The brainchild of a few Tulane law students, New Orleans Movers & Shakers is a new service to help Tulane students clean their apartments, retrieve their personal items, and find a subletter.

We are Tulane Law Students, and are happy to help you find subletters, clean your home, clean/remove refrigerators, and ship your personal belongings to you.

Rates:

– $20 per person per hour (for unemployed Tulane Law students; higher rates for people with money and insurance) to clean, pack and ship belongings.
– $50 for refrigerator cleaning and/or removal, + $10 for each flight of stairs for refrigerator removal. Whether the fridge will have to be cleaned vs. removed will depend on the fridge’s condition.

There are many people without homes who need a few months to clean or locate a new home. We can find reliable subletters in need.

A website and more formal contact information is in the setup process. If you know or are a Tulane student who needs this service immediately, please email me.

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.

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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.