He gets it....

Dan Baum has been blogging from New Orleans for the New Yorker since August 30, 2005 and has just left the city. In his final journal post, he yearns for the city....

“Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans?” an old song asks; another reminds us, “You don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone.” Since Katrina, I’ve often been asked (though never by someone in New Orleans) why the country should bother rebuilding it. Is it really worth the billions it would take to protect this small, poor, economically inessential city, which is sinking into the delta muck as global warming raises the sea around it? But the question of “whether” has been settled—New Orleans is rebuilding itself, albeit slowly, fitfully, and imperfectly. Now it’s only a matter of how and how long. That is better news than perhaps the rest of America fully understands.


It’s the American way to focus on the future—we are dreamers and schemers, always chasing the horizon. Looking forward has made us great, but it comes at a price. .... New Orleanians, on the other hand, are excellent at the lost art of living in the moment. Étienne stopped at our house one afternoon to drop off some papers he wanted me to see. No, he said, he couldn’t stay; someone was waiting for him downtown. But we got to talking, and gradually moved to the chairs on the porch. We had a beer. The shadows lengthened as the day cooled, the jasmine across the street smelled sweet, and a few houses away someone was practicing the saxophone. Margaret brought out a dish of almonds. We all had another beer. It was dark by the time Étienne left. And here’s the true miracle of New Orleans: the person waiting for him downtown no doubt had an equally pleasant couple of hours, and Étienne surely paid no social penalty for being late.
.....
Right before Katrina, a Gallup poll found more than half of New Orleanians “extremely satisfied” with their lives, despite the city’s wretched state, a higher percentage than in any other city surveyed. New Orleanians have more time than money, and they like it that way...... I can tell you that, wherever we live, I’m comforted knowing that New Orleans is there. It’s no exaggeration to say that, without New Orleans, the United States would be lost.

Thanks, Dan. Godspeed.

Weekend Plans

This weekend (June 8-10) offers a few interesting options

WEEKEND PLANS

There's the Creole Tomato Fest as well as

New Orleans first annual Seafood Festival located at the old US Mint
During the New Orleans Seafood Festival, locals and tourists will be able to view live “Chefs' Secrets” cooking demonstrations from some of the best chefs in the country and purchase mouth-watering dishes from local restaurants serving up their seafood specialty at the special food and beverage booths. The sound of musical beats and French Quarter mayhem are definitely on the menu of events at this French Quarter fun-loving “Foodie” festival with live music on Saturday and Sunday, beginning noon at the historic U.S. Mint, 400 Esplanade Avenue. Some scheduled events include a cookbook autograph session and Behind-the Scenes Kitchen Tours with private cooking demonstrations.

People Powered Rebirth

New Orleans' people- powered rebirth
an article by Jonathan Capehart

…….People are now trying to say, 'Been through the stages. How do I move forward? What can I do?' "….
What they are doing is driving the recovery. "Recovery is being done by the people, not by government,"

Honoring Gate

A stretch of U.S. 11 from the southern boundary of Slidell to Lake Pontchartrain will be designated the Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown Memorial Highway if state Rep. A.G. Crowe, R-Slidell, gets his way.

Gate lived on this stretch of road that includes camps and apartment buildings, all of them just about flattened in Katrina's wake.
He was evacuated August 28, 2005 to Orange Texas where he died from emphysema, lung cancer and heart disease two weeks later.

I had the opportunity to see Gatemouth Brown up close and personal several times in Slidell. He would show up at Palmetto's in Slidell and
play a few sets. His guitar playing was excellent despite all his health problems. He loved his music and enjoyed entertaining.
He played the 2005 Jazz Fest despite the need to carry around oxygen wherever he went.
At this website is a shot of him at the end of his last Jazz Fest set.

Miscellanea

Three websites to check out:


The Psychogeographic Guide to the City of New Orleans
The photographs posted to this site were taken during the winter of 2006, roughly from early December through Mardi Gras (late February). At the beginning of that time, homes in flooded areas were mostly not reoccupied. The city streets had been cleared of debris, but flooded cars were everywhere, and by the side of the street, houses were littered with broken branches, overturned cars, swamp grass, and stranded boats.



Recent aerial photographs of Louisiana's wetlands are evidence of the damage done by oil and gas companies throughout the decades.
taken by Clay over at noladishu


Clancy DuBos talks about the New Orleans Culture front in the May 29th Gambit.

Hurricane Season

June first ...... the calendar moved from May to June. In Pre-K times, the change in months only signaled the beginning of the long, lazy days of summer. Katrina changed that. I avoided a majority of the madness about the beginning of the hurricane season
There's just no reason for this feeding frenzy by the news and weather people.

I stand by my post of last year
as far as the local meteorologists are concerned.

Our evacuation plans are gelling. We have MRE's left over from Katrina, the box with all of the important papers in it is
ready to go at anytime; there's a big old box in the attic filled with the necessities for leaving home for some time as well as
five carriers: one for each of our cats.
I've also checked out Pets Welcome dot com , a website devoted to finding pet friendly establishments.
The boards to cover up the windows are in the shed. (Note to self: buy AA batteries!).
We were handed our contraflow map, as
well as hurricane "tips" as we entered Wally World over the weekend. Where we go depends upon the track of the offending
storm, but it will be somewhere in the middle of the state.
So, we're ready, but not doing the "hurricane boogie", like all of those crazy news folks!!
Here are some good links to make sure you're ready:

Hurricane Evacuation Tips
some more from Gambit Weekly

Got a complaint?

before you complain…..even about the state of New Orleans........
think of what the soldiers fighting the wars have to put up with.

Grenouille des Bois

click on pictures to view full size
The creation of Slidell's newest piece of public art started about three years ago when Slidell artist and master carver Phil Galatas went for a stroll on the north side of Heritage Park in Slidell and noticed a huge stump. As soon as he he saw the stump, he started thinking of a frog and imagining using his artistic skills -- and his chainsaw -- to carve a huge frog that looked like it was ready to jump right across the sidewalk and into the canal.


In carving what Galatas calls "one hard piece of live oak wood" he has dedicated some 40-plus hours working on the amphibian, which requires several more hours of work before being completed. The stump frog has a rotten spot in its head which he hopes to salvage by mixing cement colored to match the wood and then oiling the piece down to keep moisture in and water off the wood.

Heritage Park's newest resident, "Grenouille des Bois (Wood Frog)," is Galatas' gift to the city. He hopes it will bring joy and a friendly greeting to passers-by who enter the park, he said.


Thanks, Phil!

The Katrina Index

Published monthly by the Greater New Orleans Data Center , this report is a wealth of information regarding repopulation of New Orleans, home sales in surrounding parishes, the Road Home Program, the status of public schools and medical facility openings to name a few. This site also contains
Reference Maps of New Orleans:
Planning districts
Neighborhood boundaries
Zip codes
Extent of Katrina flooding
Elevation by neighborhood

Here's a summary of the May 2007 "Katrina Index"

Months Since Katrina Made Landfall: 20
This month’s Jazz Fest was a welcome reminder of what New Orleanians love about their home city. And with estimated attendance hitting its highest mark since 2003, the reason for optimism shared by residents and visitors is clear.
Similar positive strides can be seen in the recovery of New Orleans and her larger metro area.
First, the state recently hired Paul Vallas, a nationally-recognized public school-turnaround chief, to run the Recovery School District starting in July. Like with city recovery chief Ed Blakely, Vallas will bring quality experience and leadership to a central component of the recovery effort. Second, the pace of application closings for the Road Home program is finally picking up speed, with over 8,000 new closings this month. But the future of the Road Home remains tenuous. At its current rate, another year will elapse before ICF has processed all of the Road Home applications. Further, state officials announced that the $7.5 billion program will likely face a shortfall of up to $4 billion due to higher-than-anticipated applicants, skyrocketing construction costs, and less insurance than assumed.

And finally, as this month’s index points out, new U.S. postal delivery data suggest the continued gradual repopulation of the city and region.
Overall, this month’s index shows improvement in the economic recovery of the New Orleans area. While many of the city’s basic services and infrastructure remain unchanged, the housing market is stronger, with increased home sales and home
values, housing rehab activity and demolitions have accelerated, and jobs are still being added to the region.
Housing
.. The average sales price for single family homes in the New Orleans region continues to climb above pre-Katrina values in the outer parishes while generally remaining stable in the core. Specifically, home values in Jefferson Parish,
Plaquemines Parish, and St. Tammany Parish are now at or above the values in August 2005. The exceptions are on the east bank of New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish where average home values remain lower than those prior to Katrina.
.. The total number of single family homes sold in the metro area has climbed steadily since last December 2006 reaching 941. This growth reflects the resurgence of the spring and summer homebuying season and signals continued
consumer confidence in the New Orleans area.
.. Demolitions increased this month to 285, a big jump from 150 demolitions per month for the last two months. This may indicate that property owners are taking advantage of free demolitions before FEMA’s August 2007 deadline.
.. Residential building permits issued by the City of New Orleans increased by 1,426 this month, the highest one-month volume since last October 2006.
.. Fully 8,286 Road Home applications were closed in the last four weeks indicating that ICF International has almost reached its targeted goal of closing 500 applications per day. But given rising numbers of applications, these closings
represent only 11.4 percent of the demand.

Updated monthly at www.gnocdc.org The KATRINA INDEX



Thanks to Harry Shearer for the link

Plaquemine Parish Coastal Restoration Wins Award

click on pictures for larger size

The American Shore and Beach Preservation Association (ASBPA) has named the Chaland Headland coastal restoration project as one of America's Top Restored Beaches.
The Louisiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) -- with NOAA's Fisheries Service as the federal sponsor performed the restoration work with funds from the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act.

The Chaland project was completed this year and is located some eight miles from where Hurricane Katrina made landfall in 2005.

Three other similar restoration projects -- Pelican Island, East Grand Terre and Chaland Pass to Grand Bayou Pass -- will create beaches and marshes that will help protect Plaquemines, Orleans, and Jefferson parishes.
The project involved pumping 1.79 million cubic yards of sand and 950,000 cubic yards of marsh fill to create a three-mile-long beach -- and backing marsh --- designed to protect wetlands against storms and storm surge. The project has restored over 400 acres of habitat but a second phase of the work is expected to benefit another 400 acres. The second phase of the project will go out for construction award later this year.

2007 Hurricane Prediction

Varg over at the chicory offers his opininon on the latest hurricane predictions .

Here's my take based on the first predictions a month ago