2007 French Quarter Festival

Went to the French Quarter Festival on Friday. It was a beautiful day for a festival! Here are views of the first day of the 07 FQ Fest

click on photos for full-size versions





Things were just getting started when we arrived at 11:30. It was breezy but sunny and warm. Perfect festival weather.




The Steamboat Natchez had its calliope playing full throttle.




These two dogs were excited to be part of the fun. But they had to be on leashes



Jackson Square from the Moonwalk.




The Easter Bunny decided to stay over a week longer to see F.Q. Fest



Throughout the square were food and drink vendors.



St. Louis Cathedral's spires are beautifully done



This laid-back baby seemed to be enjoying herself. Must've been people watching.
There sure was a lot to watch.



The stage set up in Jackson Square was playing "Do You Know What It Means..." as we came in through the gates. Gave me goose bumps.



After sampling Shrimp Cakes and Shaved Prime Rib Sandwiches, we tried some of the
fare offered in the Square. The BBQ Shrimp was delish...



The setup of the booths throughout the Festival was well orchestrated. All signs were consistent and easy to read. All of the vendors were very polite and professional.


Mrs. Wheat MeatPie....the BEST!



The blackened Catfish Poboy was a disappointment, IMHO. Too much blackening, which overpowered the flavor of the fish.



Crepes filled with nutella and fresh sliced strawberries. Very tasty!



Nuns on the run....to the fest, I assume.



Huge blue cat sign on Royal Street.



I like the lines in this picture. New Orleans is extremely photogenic



Ah, so HERE is where their studios are!



Rodrigue's Gallery on Royal.



Coco Robichaux on stage.



While we were watching Coco Robichaux, several jets from Belle Chasse Naval Air Station provided some fun flyovers for the crowd



Roast Beef Debris Poorboy.



Spring Rolls. They were wonderful. The peanut sauce went well with the cilantro.



This cat was walking through the crowd like dog!!! Not afraid of crowds or noise at all.








Whever else you eat, you MUST sample the desserts at the Flour Power booth.

RIP Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut has died at the age of 84. One of my favorite authors, creator
of Kilgore Trout.

Rest in peace.

Outside of NOLA

A little over 50 miles south of New Orleans is Thibodaux, Louisiana. My daughter attends Nicholls State University there. A few weeks ago, as I was driving to pick her up, I spotted this little beauty
click on images for full-sized versions




Thirty miles north of New Orleans is my postage-stamp sized backyard. It hasn't really been lovingly touched since the storm. This year I will resume "playing" in my yard. The first thing to do is to give this little angel his wing back


A mile away from my home is Bayou Liberty. There is a new bridge under construction, to replace the old, hand cranked bridge



Katrina swamped St. Genevieve Church which stood on the banks of the Bayou.


Here is the Church in 2003


Here is where the new Church will be built.



The Church was ruined, but the oaks survived and look beautiful this year.

Twenty miles from here is the tiny fishing community of Irish Bayou. Katrina slammed this area. Although it's coming back, several houses still look like this, 18+ months PostK.

"The drugs got boys dropping like flies."

TP story about the runaway-train crime spree happening in New Orleans
Some quotes from the story:

I'm just praying it's not me next time the bullets fly
I ain't never seen anything like it……….The drugs got boys dropping like flies.
People buy their drugs on this side, run back to their side. But we get all the problems that come with it.

A wooden sign hanging from the service station roofs warns: "No Loitering, No Crack Selling, No Cat Selling," a reference to prostitution, said proprietor Joe Peters

Here's another story in today's paper about the killing of a 14 year old kid who was in the wrong place at the wrong time:

Jazman had to see something he wasn't supposed to see…..That's the only thing that makes sense


What is it going to take to stop this craziness?

From Metroblogging
a resident in the Quarter talks of trying to help a homeless derelict in his neighborhood and how difficult it is to get
any kind of help .

We're living in an asylum.

A message for Mr. Blakely

Once again Ashley oh-so-eloquently-in-his-own-way responds to Ed "czar" Blakely's comments regarding New Orleans.



Thanks, Ashley.

USS Hurricane Camile

Seawitch has a post about the fate of the USS Hurricane Camille, the 72-foot tugboat East Point that was pushed ashore in August 1969 with its bow facing west on property owned by the Moody family. The boat survived two of the worst storms in U.S. history. It survived the casino invasion of the 1990s and it even outlasted some of the largest gambling barges on the Coast; but today its days seem numbered.
The owner of the property is in her 60s and has no plans of reviving the iconic vessel or the gift shopthat used to operate from the boat..

Still Not Okay

19+ months after Katrina, the Gulf Coast is
still
NOT
even close
to being okay

But some folks don't worry about that. They're too busy
driving fast and wanting to get away with it or
trying to do anything to avoid taking the blame for NOLA's slow recovery.

Nope, not okay by a long shot.

Thistles and stuff

Tim, over at the Namelessblog discusses springtime in Post K New Orleans and muses about life here in Hurricane Land...
Hurricanes are part of the natural environment of the Gulf of Mexico. And our insatiable appetite to build and shape the human environment is perfectly natural, too. Heck, even the most ardent environmentalists will draw you a picture of what they want the coast to look like--as if nature needs their help to make her vision a reality!

Sloshing out of the flood

Just found this link
by Jon Donley of NOLA dot com

A 10 minute video with still shots showing the evacuation of the T.P. on August 29th, 2005 and Katrina aftermath photos. Well done.

Note: not for the faint hearted.

Thanks, Jon.

Good News for the 9th Ward

from BP News dot net

Vernon Worley had a simple idea designed to meet a real need in the Upper Ninth Ward of New Orleans. A New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary alumnus and current seminary employee, Worley is designing and installing temporary, cardboard street signs throughout the neighborhood during his free time. Not only do the signs help recovery volunteers find their way, they also are providing hope in the Upper Ninth Ward.

2007 Hurricane Season

Background:
Each year Philip J. Klotzbach and William M. Gray (Professor Emeritus of Atmospheric Science) make their initial predictions in December for the upcoming Hurricane Season. This prediction is updated in April, May, August, September and October of the following year, based on new information. Their predictions include data such as Named Storms, Named Storm Days, Hurricanes, Hurricane Days,
Intense Hurricanes, Intense Hurricane Days and Net Tropical Cyclone Acitivity.
Dr. Gray is taking a step back this year. In his words…
After 22 years (since 1984) of making these forecasts, it is appropriate that I step back and have Phil Klotzbach assume the primary responsibility for our project’s seasonal, monthly and landfall probability forecasts. Phil has been a member of my research project for the last six years and has been second author on these forecasts for the last five years. I have greatly profited and enjoyed our close personal and working relationships.
"
For the predictions released today, here's some background
This early April forecast is based on a newly devised extended range statistical forecast procedure...... We have increased our forecast from our early December prediction (7 hurricanes) due largely to the rapid dissipation of El Niño which has occurred over the past couple of months. Currently, neutral ENSO conditions are observed. We expect either neutral or weak-to-moderate La Niña conditions to be present during the upcoming hurricane season. Tropical and North Atlantic sea surface temperatures remain well above their long-period averages.


Colorado State University's hurricane predictions have a pretty good track record as far as I can see. Take a look at this data, gleaned from their website at
http://typhoon.atmos.colostate.edu/forecasts/

This chart is based on their April predictions of hurricanes

2000 Forecast: 7
2000 Actual: 8

2001 Forecast: 6
2001 Actual: 9

2002 Forecast: 7
2002 Actual: 4

2003 Forecast: 8
2003 Actual: 7

2004 Forecast: 8
2004 Actual: 9

2005 Forecast: 7
2005 Actual: 14

2006 Forecast: 9
2006 Actual: 5

2007 Forecast: 9

Gulf of Mexico Marine Debris Maps

Just released marine maps of the north Gulf of Mexico by NOAA
provides users with maps of debris-laden areas in the waters of Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana.
The maps indicate nautical position and other physical properties of each piece of submerged debris found during the NOAA Office of Coast Survey and Office of Response and Restoration's surveying effort, which began in September.
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita inflicted severe damage on the Gulf Coast.
Even though the surface looks calm, underwater marine debris poses a hazard to vessel traffic and commercial fishing gear. The maps can help fishermen avoid debris and keep them updated on the status of debris removal in fishing grounds.

OTHER RELATED COASTAL RESTORATION WEB SITES:

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers - New Orleans District

USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service - Louisiana

NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service

EPA Region 6

US Fish & Wildlife Service

Louisiana Department of Natural Resources

Louisiana Governor's Office of Coastal Activities

U.S.G.S. National Wetlands Research Center

National Coastal Wetlands Conservation Grant Program

Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program

Louisiana Coastal Area Ecosystem Restoration Study

Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service

Louisiana Seagrant

Coast 2050

America's WETLAND

Minerals Management Service Sand and Gravel Program

Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation

Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana

Pet Food Recall (dry catfood)

Two lots and sizes of Prescription Diet m/d Feline dry cat food
Reason for recall: FDA testing found melamine in wheat gluten used to make the dry cat food
here's the web article


The FDA has a special page with the latest information on what brands of pet food are being recalled here

Crime and Murder Stats

Noladishu has been mapping the NOLA crime since 8/06 here

Dapoblog keeps an update map of NOLA murders here with text and info here .

Three cheers for these NOLA bloggers.

The three stooges (Nagin, Riley & Jordan) need to leave town.

"bitch" is racist????

from Bayou Buzz dot com, all of a sudden the word "bitch" is racist

here's a summary.
Yup. Jesse Jackson's even sticking his "is there enough air play?" nose into this one.

All this over trashcans.

And one wonders why New Orleans is so fucked up.

Google Maps

Google's maps under fire
Cain Burdeau in New Orleans
2-Apr-07

GOOGLE'S replacement of post-Hurricane Katrina satellite imagery on its Google Maps portal with images of the region before the storm does a "great injustice" to the storm's victims, a US congressional subcommittee said.

The House Committee on Science and Technology's subcommittee on investigations and oversight on Friday asked Google chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt to explain why his company is using the outdated imagery.

The subcommittee cited an Associated Press report on the images.

"Google's use of old imagery appears to be doing the victims of Hurricane Katrina a great injustice by airbrushing history," subcommittee chairman Brad Miller, wrote in a letter to Mr Schmidt.

Swapping the post-Katrina images and the ruin they revealed for others showing an idyllic city dumbfounded many locals and even sparked suspicions that the company and civic leaders were conspiring to portray the area's recovery progressing better than it was.

Andrew Kovacs, a Google spokesman, said the company had received the letter but Mr Schmidt had no immediate response.

After Katrina, Google's satellite images were in high demand among exiles and hurricane victims anxious to see whether their homes were damaged.

Now, though, a virtual trip through New Orleans is a surreal experience of scrolling across a landscape of packed parking lots and marinas full of boats.

Reality is very different. Entire neighbourhoods are now slab mosaics where houses once stood and shopping malls, churches and marinas are empty of life, many gone altogether.

John Hanke, Google's director for maps and satellite imagery, said "a combination of factors including imagery date, resolution, and clarity" go into deciding what imagery to provide.

"The latest update from one of our information providers substantially improved the imagery detail of the New Orleans area," Mr Hanke said in a news release about the switch.

Mr Kovacs said efforts were under way to use more current imagery.

It was not clear when the current images replaced views of the city taken after Katrina struck August 29, 2005, flooding an estimated 80 per cent of New Orleans.

Mr Miller asked Google to brief his staff by April 6 on who made the decision to replace the imagery with pre-Katrina images, and to disclose if Google was contacted by the city, the US Federal Emergency Management Agency, the US Geological Survey or any other government entity about changing the imagery.

"To use older, pre-Katrina imagery when more recent images are available without some explanation as to why appears to be fundamentally dishonest," Mr Miller said.

Mark over at Wetbankguide has more

from wired dot com, "Google denies conspiracy" (they didn't think anyone was looking)

Festival Time

This weekend marked the kickoff of festivals in this area.

Here's a complete listing of Louisiana Festivals scheduled from now through December Thanks to the TP for this listing.

On Saturday, hubby and I decided to do the Picayune Street Festival.

A quaint little happening, the Street Fest offered us three hours of people watching, good food and great bargains. Picayune is 15 minutes from Slidell and has become a new home people who lost everything to Katrina. Lacking the "la-dee-dah" factor of some New Orleans festivals, the Picayune Street Festival is worth while. Here are some pictures.
Click on pictures for full-sized versions

The weather was overcast and it DID sprinkle some, but all of the Antique and Gift shops where open (some very nice ones) which allowed us time to browse


This was the largest car show I'd seen. This green beauty was by far my favorite.


Did you know that there is a Biker Church? Cool!
These furniture makers from Lucedale, Mississippi created some huge bedroom suites for your "weekend getaway"

The helicopter rides took place all day

I found this beautiful suncatcher for only $35
I would like to talk to the person who approved the wording of this billboard. It makes no sense.

We spent the afternoon doing chores at home and about 5 pm it started raining. Very little thunder and lightning, but around 5:30 we heard a crash and discovered the baskteball goal had been pushed over by winds

A little later the electricity went out......till 10:30 PM. We thought entergy had taken over our electric company over here, but seems like there were a lot of power outages in this area last night and we were low on the totem pole. Come to find out, a tree that had been killed during Katrina succumbed to the winds and fell. As it did, a piece of it tangled in the electrical wires and took out our power.


Thanks to Cleco for the great work.

New Beer

Strawberry Harvest Lager Hits Shelves SOON

You’ve waited all year and now it’s almost here! Abita Strawberry Harvest Lager is back. Last year when we introduced the new limited edition brew, made with plump, sweet Louisiana strawberries it caused quite a sensation. 6,400 cases of the beer sold out in only six weeks.

Abita Strawberry Harvest Lager is made with ripe, red Louisiana strawberries, harvested at the peak of the season. Strawberry Harvest has the aroma and taste of the berries, with a refreshing and satisfying beer flavor. In response to the incredible demand, a greater quantity of Abita Strawberry Harvest Lager was brewed. However, President of Abita Brewing Company, David Blossman, reminds everyone, “Supplies are still limited and once they are gone…they are gone. We won’t make any more til 2008.”

Don’t miss out, get to the store and grab a six pack to take home. Abita Strawberry Harvest is ripe for the picking.

Watchdog Blogger

Matt McBride from "Fix the pumps blogis featured in the latest issue of Gambit. From Matt's blog, his goal: After Hurricane Katrina, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers agreed to assume full responsibility for repair of New Orleans' drainage pumps. Over a year later, much work remains undone. I am here to push them to do that work.

For all of you people out there who don't understand why 80% of New Orleans flooded post Katrina - read his blog. Read the Gambit article.

Thanks, Matt!

Roller coaster emotions.

A Mississippi blogger comments about the on-again-off-again depression that affects the denizens of the Gulf Coast


I’ve been trying for 19 months and I don’t think I’ve really have been able to get across the chaos, the fears, the hope, and the shock of seeing a world that you’ve looked upon for over 40 years wiped away in an 8 hour period.

But I believe that the citizens along the Mississippi Gulf Coast well meet this new sense of despondency with the same resiliency that they have shown these past 19 months. It is already starting. Yesterday, Smokin the Sound, after a year’s absence, came back. There were thousands watching the magnificent boats race. But even as I drove away after watching for a couple of hours, I noticed the hundreds more that were playing at the beach and in our parks.

It might seem strange to welcome heavy traffic once again. But I welcome it along Highway 90. For it means that people are coming back to the Mississippi Gulf Coast and are coming back to the beaches..... ..... The Mississippi Gulf Coast is still tattered but little by little those ragged edges are being replaced.

There are so many things that can bring on that sense of depression. I got it as I read comments to a post about New Orleans in Harry Shearer's blog ..... many of us regard N.O. more as a tourist attraction and novelty site than an actual functioning city. That and the fact that Louisiana is a southern state, a red state, a poor, uneducated state, a state with a history of unsophisticated political corruption, yet a state too stupid to vote Democrat even after a Republican administration subjected it to criminal negligence and public humiliation.

Do I know what I'm talking about? Absolutely not. I've never been to Utah, but I regard it as a [messed] up theocracy; and I've never visited Florida, but I have a low opinion of it because of the disproportionate influence its population of anti-Fidelistas has on the rest of the country, its number of executions, and because of Jeb Bush.

Dumb reasons, right? Well, in truth, my reasons for "hostility" toward N.O. are no less reasonable than people's reasons for not liking France (which I've visited) or Mexico (where I once lived), or not liking modern art (which I own).

EJ has found similar feelings here where he links to a blog that thinks like this:

While I can't imagine the personal devastation caused by Katrina, I wonder why other great cities have risen to the challenge of past natural disasters and New Orleans is still paralyzed?

What a fucktard.....not EJ, but this moron who calls itself Machiavelli (it wishes).





Just seeing Ray Nagin in the news brings me down.

Driving home from work brings me down some days.


But this little guy seems happy...even though he has to eat out of this nasty ditch every day on Hwy 90.

But spring is here, life is renewed and we forge forward. Looking forward but not ever forgetting what's behind us. What has happened has made us wiser, stronger, sometimes sadder, sometimes angry. But we survived.

small victories

Katrina devastated soo much. But Mother Nature prevails. Take that, biatch Katrina!

Talking to C Ray

Once again, Mark over at the Wetbankguide Blogspot nails it in his post to/about C Ray Nagin:
What's happening here is not happening to you in particular, or to the people you believe you represent. Listen, man: you're not Moses, the annointed leader of the Children of Isreal. The entire aftermath of the Federal Flood was not Pharoah out to get you and your people, and acting like that's the story line isn't going to bring about biblical miracles to restore the city to what it was. That's the PTSD and whatever else you have going on talking. Somebody who cares about you needs to take you aside and talk to you 'cause your messed up, and every time you open your mouth you mess us all up.....It's not about you. It's about all of us, the 200,000. Its about everyone who's picked themselves up by their bootstraps and made their way home, all or at least mostly at their own expense because they love this city. I don't have a demographer on retainer so I can't tell you what the current population is. I can only tell you what it looks like, and with every passing day I travel the streets it looks more like New Orleans, the New Orleans you and I both remember. The vast conspiracy hasn't blocked the people I see.


Thanks, Mark

Sleezy Scuzzbuckets

From Saturday's TP
In a macabre identity theft scam, a Slidell hospital employee sent her son cell-phone text messages with the personal information of dying patients so he could submit fraudulent credit card applications in their names as soon as they died, authorities said.


The mother-son team is accused of stealing the identities of more than 100 dead people and obtaining at least 17 fraudulent credit cards, which they used to buy thousands of dollars worth of merchandise, sheriff's deputies said.

He said Ezell used the information to submit credit card applications in the names of the deceased, using addresses of unoccupied homes that had been damaged by Hurricane Katrina near his house at 2218 Bluebird St. in the Ozone Woods subdivision, authorities said.

"He would check the mailboxes regularly to see if any credit cards had arrived," Strain said.



These people are lower than low. Hope they throw away the keys on these bastards.

New Blogger

Here's a blog about New Orleans penned by a writer for the New Yorker.


Dan Baum arrived in New Orleans two days after Hurricane Katrina and has reported on the disaster and its aftermath ever since. He is back in New Orleans until June, working on a book to be published in 2009.

Status of Wetlands Projects

Click here to view the
Louisiana Department of Natural Resources' list of wetland enhancement projects.
The Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act (CWPPRA) was
passed by congress in 1990. It funds wetland enhancement projects nationwide, designating approximately $60 million annually for work in Louisiana.

This report gives an overview and status of coastal efforts to protect, conserve, restore, and improve the state's coastal wetlands. The Barrier Island Status Report is included in the report as mandated by the
2006 Regular Legislative Session. The report is subdivided into four primary sections by region and also includes information on project location, features, acreage, costs, and funding sources.

Project List
The CWPPRA Task Force annually develops a list of high-priority projects to be constructed. To date, sixteen such priority lists have been formulated. The projects funded by CWPPRA all focus on marsh creation, restoration, protection or enhancement

Lemonade from lemons in Biloxi

Four live oak trees  in the median of U.S. Highway 90 Biloxi that died as a result of hurricane Katrina received new life at the hands of a skilled chain saw artist.
click on each picture for a full-sized version

Ray's recurring theme

a recurring theme……
INDIANAPOLIS Aug 18, 2006 (AP)— New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin on Friday blamed racism and government bureaucracy for hamstringing his city's ability to weather Hurricane Katrina and recover from the disaster that struck the Gulf Coast nearly a year ago.

In remarks to the annual meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists, Nagin said the hurricane "exposed the soft underbelly of America as it relates to dealing with race and class."

"And I, to this day, believe that if that would have happened in Orange County, California, if that would have happened in South Beach, Miami, it would have been a different response," Nagin said.

March 18, 2007............. (seven months later)
from today's Times Pic:

The slow pace of New Orleans' post-Katrina recovery is part of a plan to change the city's racial makeup, Mayor Ray Nagin told a national newspaper publishers' group last week.


Ya know, Ray, you ought to see a psychiatrist about your paranoia. You also need to look deep inside your little heart and
see the fool you are making of yourself.

Here's what people
around the area are saying.

Instead of traipsing around the country complaining about the "plot against the blacks", get your ass back to New Orleans
and start being the leader you were ELECTED to be.

Local reaction to this idiot.....

Thanks, Ray. New Orleans has enough problems without your big mouth. Time dot com has an article on you now, dog.

From the 3/22/07 T.P., here's the transcript of what he said

TRANSCRIPT OF MAYOR NAGIN’S SPEECH
Ladies and gentleman, that was quite
an introduction. I’ve been called a lot
of things but I don’t ever remember
anyone calling me the greatest
mayor that ever lived. But thank you
Harry, that was awesome.
Good evening ladies and gentleman. It
is indeed an honor for me to be here
tonight. We flew in today from the
wonderful city of New Orleans. On
behalf of all the citizens of our great
city we want to thank each and every
one of you for everything you have
done to keep the light shinning on the
city of New Orleans and its citizens.
We also want to thank you for taking
our citizens in. In the many cities
across America you’ve been treating
us with such respect and taking
care of our people.
I want to thank the NNPA Foundation
for this tremendous award. I never
thought I would see any press organization
honor me as a newsmaker.
So this is extra special, extra special.
And to the honorees, congratulations
to you. You are also very deserving
of this award.
And you know they always give you
a script, but I never follow it. So I am
going to try to do a little bit of this
script and I promise I won’t take any
more than 10 to 15 minutes of your
time to talk to you a little bit about
my favorite city. But, I just want to
spend just a moment to thank particularly
the African-American newspapers
in New Orleans. We have
three great publications in our city.
You honored one in Data News; We
have the New Orleans Tribune, and
of course we have the Louisiana
Weekly which you are also honoring
one of its founders, C.C. Dejoie, for
82 years in the business.
We have a steep history, a deep history
in African-American publications
and also in African American history
that is unique to many places. You
know I get in trouble a lot for some of
the things I say. I like the Clintons. I
like George Clinton. It wasn’t until I
described my city, y’all know the
story, until everybody in America
started to wake up and say way wait
a minute, what is he doing? What is
he saying? Maybe we should try and
do something different to make sure
that this man does not go any further.
Because they realized that I
wasn’t a person to be controlled. I
was going to speak my mind especially
when I saw our people suffer.
I look in this room and I see the
wonderful Congresswoman Maxine
Waters, and I see all the great work
she has done around the country.
This lady, when we were in the
midst of the election cycle, when
they put the golden boy up, and all
the prognosticators were saying
there’s no way you are going to win
because see they had dispersed all
our people across 44 different
states with one-way tickets out.
They thought they were talking
about a different kind of New Orleans.
They didn’t realize that folk were
awake and they were paying attention
and they weren’t going to let a
plan unfold that changed all the history
of what we have fought for
over many, many years. And Maxine
started to talk around the country.
I remember when we went to
Memphis. She talked to black folks
around the country and tried to
wake them up and say look at
what’s happening. Because ladies
and gentlemen what happened in
New Orleans could happen anywhere.
They are studying this
model, this model of a natural disaster
dispersing a community and
changing the electoral process in
that community.
We need to really understand
what’s going on. When I stood up
and spoke out and they started to
vilify, I knew there was going to be a
reaction. It’s a law of physics. For
every action there’s a reaction. I
knew it was going to happen, but I
didn’t realize how strong it was going
to happen. My Google hits probably
went up a million that week.
And it’s been a heck of a ride ladies
and gentlemen. But, you know,
what? It’s people like you who give
me strength and give the people of
New Orleans strength, and we will
prevail. I believe Almighty God has a
special plan for this moment. It’s
not by accident that Democrats are
controlling Congress right now.
That’s not an accident. One of the
things that propelled us into power
was the Katrina fallout. Republicans
are now sitting back and saying wait
a minute, maybe we should have
done better, but it’s too late. Maxine
and them are in large and in
control. They got them scrambling
on Capitol Hill. And they’re talking
about what they should have done;
and what they’re going to do.
Let me close by saying to you the
tragedy is still not over. Katrina was
one thing. 1,700 people lost their
lives but now in the city of New Orleans
because of the stress in the
wake of broken promises people
are dying every day. The number of
deaths in the city of New Orleans
are up 45 percent compared to
pre-Katrina. People who should
have gotten grants to rebuild their
lives and their homes particularly
senior citizens are still waiting on
their checks. 112,000 people are eligible
and 3,000 have gotten checks.
There’s a health care crisis in city of
New Orleans because they closed
down the Charity Hospital so poor
people and black people can’t go
get health care where they need to.
Our public education system was
taken over by the state and earlier
this year they had children on waiting
lists trying to get into public education.
They have over a billion dollars
worth of obligations that they owe
the city of New Orleans to rebuild
our water system, our sewer system.
The fight is not over.
So as I close I have one wish of
you, I want to ask of you, keep the
message going, tell the story of
about what’s really happening. Relate
it back to what’s going on in
your community. Let’s collectively
come together and build a national
agenda on what we need to do for
our urban cities. We have the
power ladies and gentlemen, the
timing is perfect. We have a black
man running for president. It don’t
get much better than that.
So I’m not going stand up here and
moan and groan about our struggles
in New Orleans. I’m telling you,
New Orleans is coming back. Y’all
come visit us during Essence Fest.
You’re going to have a good time,
and we are going to have some entrepreneurs
in New Orleans that will
be making big bucks because, guess
what, they can’t hold this money
back much longer because its starting
to hurt other folks, and ya’ll
know what I’m talking about, so they
got to let it loose. And in New Orleans
and the Gulf Coast they estimate
they will spend within 60 and
100 billion over the next five to
seven years. If you don’t hear nothing
else I say tonight, buy some dirt
in New Orleans, buy some dirt in
New Orleans. Real estate values
are going to go out the roof and you
need to be a part of that. We have
programs where you can buy adjudicated
and blighted properties for
half their appraised value and you
hire your own appraiser.
I’ve asked the city attorney if I can
participate in this program and
she’s keeps saying no Mr. Mayor.
But let me get out of here. I thank
you and I’m honored, and I accept
this award on behalf of all the citizens
of New Orleans, the ones who
are here with us and the ones who
have passed away. This is our moment
ladies and gentlemen, to take
a tragedy and turn it something
special where we have growth and
opportunity not only along the Gulf
Coast but throughout America. This
is our time and let’s seize the day
and make it happen. God bless you.


Here's a link to the video of the speech.

what makes NOLA special

Click here to see pictures of the beautiful New Orleans Mardi Gras Indians in full regalia this past Sunday

Thanks to Ashley Morris.