Progress and Stagnation

On the Friday after turkey day, hubby & I travelled AWAY from the malls and took a drive down Hwy. 11 towards New Orleans to check out any progress that had taken place since our last trip in September. It was a picture perfect day and the traffic was light which made it an excellent time to "go lookin" around.

click on pictures to view full-size versions

We took a slow ride down Rats Nest Road, along Lake Pontchartrain.
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Almost completely obliterated by the storm, this area is finally showing signs of progress,


but what really hits you is the shoreline


It contains the remains of what once were miles of docks jutting out into the lake.

From here you can see the progress on the new twinspans


From there we drove out to far eastern Slidell, towards one of my favorite places to drive, Lake Catherine . I always loved this ride because it is so beautifully serene out there, moreso since the storm because they too were completely razed by Katrina.

This area is seeing a long awaited building boom, but there is still debris pickup going on, as evidenced by these two pictures






This home has been in progress for about a year now and it looks almost complete. Quite a difference from the old, thrown together camps that used to be along Hwy. 90.



This place went up quite quickly.

I'm sure all of the raised houses are being constructed intelligently, as this one is being built



Sites like this burned out camp are becoming more and more rare in the Lake Catherine area.

As we passed Fort Pike we noticed to chartered busses from Germantown, Maryland full of what appeared to be students. They were cleaning up the Fort and cutting grass. Many thanks to them. I'm looking forward to the Fort's reopening.

As another sign of progress, we noticed that the work on the new Rigolets bridge is progressing.


It's heartening to see more progress than stagnation, but the area has a long way to go to get back to normal, whatever that is.

I DO know that it'll be a very long time before we don't see all of the dead trees along Hwy 90 in the East (look BEHIND the beautiful oak tree)

Need a laugh?

Get yourself over to The New Orleans Levee

an excerpt:

Instead of buying new bulletproof vests for police, New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin is ordering that officers must instead wear the scandal-plagued “bombproof” city trash cans the administration quietly had been planning to throw away.

“This is leadership, man,” Nagin said during a news conference to announce his “gift” of what he dubbed “vest-cans” to the city’s police. “This is called wastin’ two birds with one idea. Now all the cops are safe, everybody can leave me alone, and we’re gonna save $450,000. C’mon, man. Am I good, or am I good? C’mon.”

Scuzzbucket of the week

Former New Orleans Councilman Oliver Thomas

For renegging on his plea agreement, choosing not to be a "rat". Mr. Thomas, you are lower than a rat.

I'm not a citizen of NOLA, but I was hurt when I learned last August that Oliver was a part of a network of corruption occurring well before Katrina. New Orleans needs positive, honest leadership and learning that Oliver was a crook was a slap in the face. Kids don't need to see a "leader" refusing to "snitch". And now that he's backing out of his agreement, I'm just pissed off.

I'm hearing that judge Vance sentenced him to 37 months in federal prison. Not sure that this is enough.

More from NOLA bloggers' reactions:

Ashley Morris

Celcus

Varg

Degenerate Matter

Schroeder

Good Eats

For my birthday this year, I asked my husband to take me out to eat at La Provence Restaurant in Lacombe, Louisiana


Purchased by Slidell area native John Besh after the death of his mentor chef Chris Kerageorgiou, La Provence provided us with one of the most delicious meals of our lives.

The kitchen is run by Master French Chef Rene Bajeux.
From the above link,
Bajeux’s culinary philosophy of terroir cooking is classically French. Meaning “of the earth,” it describes dishes that reflect the area in which their ingredients are produced. Bajeux believes strongly that a chef should be connected to the foods he serves by using strictly local ingredients – very local, if not actually raised by the chef himself... In this, he is a kindred spirit of Chef John Besh, a longtime friend and colleague who shares a fierce devotion to the terroir approach.


That devotion is apparent in the new "farm" created in the back of the restaurant. Check out this spot at Youtube, where Besh explains how this biodynamic farm is run.



Our salads were served after we experienced the absolutely delicious pate with crusty bread. My daughter's salad was beets and greens with a hazelnut vinaigrette. My husband and I opted for the heirloom tomato salad with fresh Pontchartrain crabmeat. Next all three of us enjoyed the ricotta gnocchi in a crab sauce. Our main courses consisted of bouillabaisse for hubby, speckled trout with crabmeat for me (can you tell I love crab?> and a leg of lamb for my daughter. I have never tasted lamb so tender and lacking in that "wild" flavor.

I recommend this restaurant if you are looking for comfort food served meticulously in a very warm atmosphere. The waitstaff is friendly and extremely attentive, though not to the point of being annoying (like at Emerils).

The history of La Provence 2007 was written up in the epicurious blog of Bon Apetit magazine last spring

Post K Houses

For the past year or so we've seen a rebirth in the Bayou Liberty area and Northshore sections of Slidell. It's interesting to see the different structures growing out of land that was covered by downed pine trees and muck from the bottom of the lake and points beyond. Here are a few examples (click picture for full sized versions)


Bayou Liberty Road



Bayou Liberty Road


Bayou Liberty Road


A Round House on Lakeview (Rat's Nest) Road


Another Round House next to the first one!


Highway 11 (Northshore), Slidell


Highway 11 (Northshore), Slidell


Carr Drive, Slidell


Amid the new buildings stand gutted homes, seemingly begging for residents. Kinda sad

New Orleans Nightscapes

I love photography. So much so that I usually always have my digital camera with me, hoping for a shot. That's how I came across this one:


So last week, hubby & I were at the Covington Three Rivers Arts Festival (a glorified street fair) and we spotted a photographer who takes pictures of
New Orleans houses at night using the floodlight structures used in filming
movies. His pictures are incredible!!! He's been doing in since 2004 and has
pictures from after the storm that are beautifully tragic. He is an artist.

His gallery is here
If I could afford his work, I'd have it in a minute.

So if you are interested in New Orleans architecture, visit his website.

Levees.org video

The perpetually resourceful Greg Peters has taken the Levees dot org
video and saved it down to flash player. It may not be available in
Youtube anymore due to the COE's threat of a lawsuit, but it's still alive.

Thanks, Greg!

Mark Folse
oh-so-eloquently details the background story better than I ever could

Scuzzbucket of the Week

A Redneck from Lincoln Parish was cited on Oct. 28 for several deer hunting violations on Owens Road in Ouachita Parish.
Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Division agents cited Jason E. Flowers, 33, of Ruston, after they observed him allegedly stop his vehicle at approximately 6:20 p.m. and shoot from the roadway at deer that were standing on a pipeline.As agents approached, they noticed what appeared to be a rifle barrel sticking out of the driver's side window. Flowers admitted to shooting from the roadway at one of the deer. Agents looked for the deer but determined the two shots missed.

Flowers was cited for hunting deer from a public road, hunting deer from a moving vehicle and discharging a firearm from a public road.
The penalty for hunting deer from a public road is a fine between $100 and $350 or jail for 60 days or both, plus court costs. Hunting from a moving vehicle carries a fine between $250 and $500 or jail for 90 days or both, plus court costs. Discharging a firearm from a public road is punishable by a fine of $50 or jail for 30 days or both, plus court costs.

VoTech Recovery

Slidell VoTech has been dormant since Katrina hit over two years ago.
(click on pictures for full-sized version)


Heck, the sign hasn't been changed since before the storm.
Curious as to what will happen with the building, I did some googling and found a few things.

From
New Orleans City Business dot com Louisiana Technical College Provost Kim Rugon said job training facilities were the hardest to replace since expensive equipment is needed to teach welding and machine shop skills.

“You go to rebuild your house and you have to wait eight months for an electrician and why is that? Because we can’t train them because we don’t have the facilities,” Rugon said.

If the $11 million in bonds to rebuild LTC campuses in the Ninth Ward and Slidell doesn’t arrive soon, Rugon said the future looks as dark.

“It is going to be like Katrina hit again,” she said.•

Then I ran across this at the St. Tammany Parish School Board website .....plans are to build a consolidated college and high school campus on 25 acres near Lacombe. The space allocated to each institution has not yet been finalized.
...The learning park, referred to as “University Square,” would include facilities for Southeastern Louisiana University, the University of New Orleans, and Delgado Community College and would be the first complex in the state where colleges share the same site. The high school would teach advanced courses in science, technology, and the arts..... Officials hope to make vocational-technical training also a part of the concept, since the Slidell Technical College was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina two years ago and has not been rebuilt. Vo-tech students from St. Tammany have had to travel to out-of-parish campuses in Bogalusa and Hammond to complete their programs. Parish President Davis said the Parish would not wait for the vo-tech school in Slidell to be rebuilt by the state. “We want to move on this,” he stated.


View Larger Map

The site lies east of Louisiana 434 and north of Interstate 12. Weyerhaeuser Real Estate Development Co., part of one of the largest timber producing companies in the nation, donated the land, which is part of 885 acres set aside for a town center development surrounded by 1,400 homes.

The high school component would accommodate about 300 students. Students from all public high schools would have the opportunity to take advanced studies in science, technology, and the arts in a university-like setting. St. Tammany Parish Public School System Superintendent Gayle Sloan said that the students would still be based at their home high schools and attend the basic academic classes and extracurricular activities there, then travel to the centrally-located high school for special studies. Students would be expected to be self-motivated, focused in their studies, and well-disciplined.

“This is going to be a fantastic opportunity for us,” Mrs. Sloan stated. 'We see this learning park having tremendous potential for all of our students. The park is intended to meet the diverse needs of our entire Parish community.”

Farewell

Published in April of 2007 , the initial 2007 Hurricane Season predictions looked ominous

Now that the season is just about over, let's see how well they've done:
From the weather geek at Pajamas media dot com:
Thus far, 2007 has seen 14 named storms, five hurricanes and two major hurricanes — one of which, Hurricane Dean, was the third-most intense major hurricane ever recorded at landfall in the Atlantic basin. This season also set several records for rapid intensification, and was just the fourth season ever to witness two Category Five hurricanes (Dean and Felix), as well as the first ever in which two hurricanes made landfall while at Cat. 5 status.


Ryan N. Maue Meteorology PhD Candidate at FSU
The Center for Atmospheric Prediction Studies (COAPS) looks at the 2007 Hurricane Season in the Northern Hemisphere:

During past 30 years, only 1977 has had less activity to date Jan 1-Nov 7. For the period of June 1 - Oct 31, only 1977 has experienced LESS tropical cyclone activity than 2007.

So this weekend I'll unpack my "evacuation boxes" of food and assorted things one would need when leaving home because of an approaching maelstrom in the Gulf.

Farewell 2007 Hurricane Season. For six months we don't have to worry about checking in at the Weather Channel or Weather Underground's tropical webpage on a daily basis.

Native Son Returns

New Orleans will soon be welcoming home a New Orleans native and his wife.

Jeff St. Romain is leaving his post as president of Volunteers of America in Salt Lake City to return to his native New Orleans.
From A Utah news article
St. Romain said he and his wife, Kathy, have felt called to return to their hometown since Hurricane Katrina, which displaced thousands of people, including dozens of their relatives.
"Ever since Katrina hit, both my wife and I have really been pulled by what our family has gone through . . . and what the community went through," he said. "We had feeling we wanted to do something."
St. Romain will become vice president of administration and planning at the VOA office covering greater New Orleans.
Kathy St. Romain, now an operating room nurse at University Hospital, plans to seek a similar position amidst what St. Romain describes as a "desperate" need for nurses in New Orleans.

Good news for New Orleans!