Ninth Ward's Slow Recovery

Slow repopulation strands 9th Ward businesses
From New Orleans City Business dot com:


Three years after the storm, the Lower 9th Ward remains a shell of its former self. Basic services such as grocery stores or easily accessible health care are virtually nonexistent.
So Sankofa Marketplace organizers decided to bring these services into the community, even if it’s only once every 30 days. In addition to spotlighting local businesses, it offers fresh fruit, vegetables and seafood, free health screenings, arts and crafts, and live music.


The Sankofa Marketplace is held on the second Saturday of the month with the second scheduled for Saturday. Its scope goes beyond assisting local businesses.
The goal is to not only provide vital services lacking in the storm-damaged neighborhood but also to spur economic development by highlighting the growing demand for such services.



The concept of SANKOFA is derived from King Adinkera of the Akan people of West Afrika. SANKOFA is expressed in the Akan language as "se wo were fi na wosan kofa a yenki."
Literally translated it means "it is not taboo to go back and fetch what you forgot".
"Sankofa" teaches us that we must go back to our roots in order to move forward. That is, we should reach back and gather the best of what our past has to teach us, so that we can achieve our full potential as we move forward. Whatever we have lost, forgotten, forgone or been stripped of, can be reclaimed, revived, preserved and perpetuated.
Visually and symbolically "Sankofa" is expressed as a mythic bird that flies forward while looking backward with an egg (symbolizing the future) in its mouth.


City Councilwoman Cynthia Willard-Lewis said the Lower 9th Ward has been neglected in a recovery process bogged down by too much planning and not enough action. And private investors won’t come until the city begins to inject recovery dollars into the area and revitalize its two main corridors — Claiborne and St. Claude avenues.
But there is hope.
“We finally have the recovery dollars in the city budget, so things are going to start happening,” Willard-Lewis said. “I’m so disappointed that the process has taken this long but the commitment has been made and now it’s about execution.”
Until that happens, Ferdinand and the other Sankofa Marketplace organizers know it will be left to community members to bring their struggling neighborhood back from the brink. She just hopes that by the time the city jumps on board it won’t be too late.
“It’s been three years we’ve been waiting for something to happen and I can see three years becoming four years, becoming five years. If it’s not time to start now when is it? The Lower 9th Ward became this symbol of disaster, but it hasn’t come to represent a symbol of recovery as well.”•

Voice of the Wetlands Festival 2008

From the VOW website on the recent storms affects in Southeast Louisiana:

We are currently recovering from hurricanes Gustav and Ike.
Houma took a direct hit from Gustav, and although Ike hit over 300 miles west of here, our parish suffered significant damages. The winds from Gustav damaged structures, and the winds from Ike flooded an enormous number of homes in Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes. The water in our parishes came only from wind... no rain. We need better levees and more buffers such as an increased amount of wetlands to better protect our homes from this kind of disaster.

The flooding that occured recently from Hurricane Ike was almost an exact repeat of Hurricane Rita. This very well could have been prevented, had our coastal restoration projects that are so badly needed been actually implemented. We are weary of the politics and the red tape, and we need action.

Tire Safety

Check your tires.


Here's a report about tires sold as new that could be as old as 12 years old when you buy them.

Very dangerous.

Old Man or "That One"?

For those of you who didn't watch the debate, here's the story

Postivity from NYTimes

From the NY Times, a positive story for New Orleans

So what if Tulane was clobbered, 44-13, by Army at the homecoming game on Saturday? In a city where Louisiana State flags flutter outside many bars and homes, nearly 24,000 Tulane fans showed up to listen to live music, drink beer, paint their faces blue and green, and — yes — watch some football.

Kudo's, NOLA voters

NOLA City Business dot com recognizes one of the positive outcomes of last Saturday's election


The city with a reputation for political corruption now has a permanent watchdog.
Voters last weekend overwhelmingly approved changing the City Charter to require New Orleans to have an inspector general, who is tasked with weeding out fraud, waste and mismanagement within city government and recommending ways to make government more efficient. The office also will have a dedicated portion of the city's budget each year and an independent police monitor.



Robert Cerasoli, a Massachusetts native like myself, has been
putting up with Ray "the snake" Nagin and company's run around tactics for over a year now.

He waited nearly 7 months for an office

Cersoli's apparent red tape issues began almost immediately. When trying to advertise for his staff positions in major publications nationwide, he needed city officials to fill out credit information and in some cases tax identification, which took a while, Cerasoli said.
City officials also did not put Cerasoli's funding into the agency's bank accounts and didn't teach him or his first assistant, Marvin Doyal, how to access the accounts until recently.
"No one is coming in and taking us by the hand and leading us through this -- trust me," Cerasoli said.


From New Orleans City Business dot com, November 2007:

Despite failing to fund the inspector general, Mayor Nagin added millions to the city payroll to hire 40 more lawyers to review City Hall contracts, which is supposed to be Cerasoli’s job.
“That’s my job but he’s not giving it to me,” Cerasoli said. “I’m sure he doesn’t trust me to look at the contracts because I’m not going to give them the answers they want.”

The parasites infesting City Hall and sucking up taxpayer dollars could be eradicated by a good stiff application of justice but that’s not going to happen with Mayor Nagin and the City Council giving Cerasoli lip service so far. The Cerasoli stonewall by the mayor and City Council has been painfully obvious.

Cerasoli still has no staff. No office. No budget. City Council members keep saying they are going to fund the IG position but the words ring hollow when the new budget has zero dollars dedicated to the IG.




Someday, this and all of your other insane actions WILL come back and haunt you, Ray Ray.

Scuzzbucket the week ( a few weeks late)

When I saw this quote, I vurpped.

"This is our Katrina" was written by a Mr. Ned Lamont, rich bastard living in Greenwich, Connecticut, referring to the meltdown of Wall Street a few weeks ago:


........in one fell swoop compared Greenwich's money woes to the Japan malaise, Asian tsunami and the New Orleans flood.

"It really is a financial tsunami, and it could go either way," said the multimillionaire telecommunications mogul who ran for the U.S. Senate in 2006. "It took Japan 20 years to recover from their buying binge. How long does it take us to work through excessive leverage? That could take years not months. This is our Katrina."



Oh yeah, Ned? Did you lose any of the nice, cushy things that your silver spoon life has presented to you?

I bet you didn't!!!

It's people like you who make me so angry and at the same time helpless to fix what you and your rich cronies have done to common, every day Americans. You bastards have sucked out any equity we've built up in our homes, you've taken thousands from our future retirement incomes, you've STOLEN from current retirees and what kind of "Katrina Punishment" do you receive? Probably nothing, Ned.


does even one of your homes look like this, Ned?


how 'bout you yachts, Ned, ever have one beat to boards like this?


did any of your "domestic help" ever have to clean your house out like this, Ned?


I know people in your level of society never hear or have to deal with the garbage man, but did you EVER see trash piles this high, Ned?


If THIS was YOUR Katrina, Ned, your neighborhood would look like THIS, bastard


If THIS was YOUR Katrina, Ned, your church would look like THIS


iF this were YOUR Katrina, Ned, your fridge would be putrid by now


If THIS were YOUR Katrina, Ned, you'd be STILL waiting on FEMA


If THIS were YOUR Katrina, Ned, you'd be enjoying these MRE's.


Imagine yourself in their shoes, Ned.


You know, Ned,


I'll bet you and your "pretty", priviledged little family would not even have lasted two days in post Katrina Gulf Coast. You could not even imagine what it was like to have no ice; to stand in line at Home Depot for four hours in 95+ degree heat for a generator that might not be available when your turn came; to have TEN MINTUES to shop at WalMart for things you might need to survive without electricity (clothes lines, bread, peanutbutter). Would you and your family ever think of making sandwiches for people who were less lucky than you? Nah, Ned, I think not.


I don't think the Lamont family could handle the stress that comes with living in an area that went thru a tremendous natural disastrophe. Y'all just wouldn't have the mental strength to get thru this long term recovery. Nope, judging by your shallow statement above, you lack any kind of moral strength, IMHO.


Mr. Lamont, I hope you never have to go thru a Katrina. Because I think you would be one of the idiots that would be wailing about how "unfair" life is.

Loser.

Hat Tip to Ray. Thank for reminding me of this fuckmook.

Scuzzbucket of the Week

Seventh grade teacher in Marianna Florida Greg Howard

From the the jcfloridian dot com

According to parents and students in Greg Howard’s seventh-grade social studies class, Howard on Friday, Sept. 26 asked the class a question regarding Obama’s call for change, and proceeded to write out what the letters C-H-A-N-G-E stood for.

“She told me that he wrote on the board ‘Can You Help A (expletive) Get Elected, and then laughed about it,” said Shelia Christian, a mother of one of Howard’s students.

Jackson County Superintendent Danny Sims said that description of this incident was “pretty accurate.”

Sims said Howard apparently repeated the action in more than one class, having made the comment in “a couple of periods.”

According to a news release from the school board, Howard was suspended with pay on Monday, Sept. 29.

On Wednesday Howard was given a written reprimand regarding his actions, and those actions will be reported to the Florida Department of Education Office of Professional Practices, according to the school board.

As of Thursday, he was suspended without pay for 10 days, was relieved of his football coaching duties, and will be transferred to the Jackson County Adult Education program, according to JCSB.

Howard is also required to submit a letter of apology to the students involved, and is required to attend diversity and sensitivity training, the school board reported.

Sims said Howard’s racial commentary was not directed at any students, but were directed at a political party.

“We’ve handled this swiftly and we’ve handled it with a concern that we’re not going to tolerate it and this is a pretty stiff (action). The situation is behind us and we’re ready to move forward,” said Sims.

“My daughter came home very upset after that happened. When you’re in school teaching our kids, you’re supposed to be teaching them what’s right by the law, not what’s right in your opinion. This is not the stone ages. We don’t come through the back door anymore. I raise my kids to be respectful and they should be led by example,” said Christian.



thanks to animamundi for this heads up.

What a sick redneck.

Dummy of the Day

I'm not the brightest bulb in the box, but this Palin person is embarassingly DUMB.



From the 2millionth weblog,
reference to something this Palin person said IN PUBLIC, as told by
thinkprogress dot org


Speaking at a San Francisco fundraiser on Sunday, Gov. Sarah Palin “fumbled” while praising U.S. soldiers in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, referring to Afghanistan as a “neighboring country”:

“They are also building schools for the Afghan children so that there is hope and opportunity in our neighboring country of Afghanistan,” she told several hundred supporters at a fundraising event in San Francisco.



It scares me that - God forbid - she could be one heartbeat away from running this country. A female George Bush. Shudder.

Farewell

all photos from time.com



Hoping to say farewell to the 2008 Hurricane season real soon. It was ugly.

Due to our cool weather lately, it looks as if there is a small chance that the weather in the Gulf might turn into anything too destructive. Here's T.D. 13 down in the Bay of Campeche




Gustav was ugly, but Ike was worse for Texas






The above picture from Texas looks a lot like this one below of Gulfport after Katrina



Time has an article recalling Ike's wrath here

I don't get it

What kind of people would vote for a crook over and over again?
I don't get it.

Neither does Cliff


It’s just a foolish idea to send him back to Congress. There is no excuse for voting for him and he was selfish to even run again. Even the most pro black/anti whitey black people who vote strictly for a candidate because of his color have no excuse for this. There were five other brothers running! You could have still voted black five different ways and not voted for Bill! You have to know where you live, what you need and vote according to who has the best chance of delivering that. Maybe Congressman Jefferson had a moment of bad judgment and is really a good man. That’s fine but you don’t have to put him back in office to validate your forgiveness. He can be a good guy and rebuild his name from his house while a new, less scandalous person works in Washington.