Fun in the Sun

This past Friday hubby and I left the house with cameras in hand, off to discover changes that have taken place since our last trek through the outer reaches of New Orleans East.

One of the stops we made was the Bayou Sauvage Ridge Trail on Highway 90 (Chef Menteur Highway). This nature trail reopened last August after being completely flattened by Katrina.

click on pictures for a larger size





The ridge trail boasts bathroom facilities as well as a covered picnic area.




The boardwalk runs about a mile through what used to be lush swamp growth. Currently the land surrounding the boardwalk is in rebirth stage which is pretty lush for its size.







Along the boardwalk there are benches to allow the visitor to relax and contemplate the peaceful surroundings. I wouldn't recommend contemplating too long in the summertime.



The boardwalk comes to an overlook section that illustrates just how much damage the inundation of salt water from Katrina caused. This was once an area covered with native cypress trees.



But the people at the Wildlife and Fisheries have replanted hundreds of new cypress trees in this area. Everywhere you see a blue tube, you're looking at a baby cypress tree.







Leaving the overlook, we head back to the boardwalk. Taking the right at the fork, we are now passing through an area with different types of flora.



These trumpet flowers grow on vines on the trees. This beautiful flower attracts butterflies as well as hummingbirds. We noticed a few butterflies during our trek thru the ridge trail. But what we noticed was the number of grasshoppers during our visit there. All along the boardwalk we could see and hear the grasshoppers flying around. Hubby got a great shot of one of the grasshoppers resting here.



While looking at the ground on either side of the boardwalk, my husband spied what appeared to be some sort of vine growing freely in this area.



Some of the vine had this flower attached to it, while other had fruit



Upon closer inspection, the fruit appears to be watermelon!



The swamp melon is growing for a good 1/2 mile along the boardwalk. The fruit is small, probably due to the lack of rain and the heat, but it's growing nonetheless.

While looking at this, I was reminded of the phenomenon of the watermelon growth after the storm.

Watermelon growth was spontaneous after Katrina hit this area four years ago. I'm thinking that the watermelons in the Bayou Sauvage Ridge Trail is related to the other watermelon surge after Katrina.



The Ridge Trail is a great way to spend an hour or so if you're looking to be a tourist in your own backyard. And it's free. Can't get any better than that. We plan to revisit this area after summer's over to gauge the rebirth of this precious resource.

It's a great spot for birding as well. Here's a link to what birds can be seen, as well as directions to the Ridge Trail. Enjoy!

Trouble the Water

Coming on DVD on August 25th is the film "Trouble the Water". Nominated for and Academy Award for best documentary, the movie is described as follows:

With a $20 video camera that she bought off the street, Kim Roberts, a 24-year-old resident of New Orleans’ lower 9th Ward, shot agonizing and intimate footage as Katrina‘s floods forced her family and friends into their attic and then to a dramatic escape that not all survived.

Click below for more

Global Wildlife visit

This weekend, hubby and I took the drive to Folsom to visit the Global Wildlife Center. I hadn't been there in close to ten years and it was a joy to return.
Home to over 4,000 exotic, endangered, and threatened animals from all over the world, it is is a non-commercial,non-profit organization, established to help preserve and protect endangered species, and to help educate the public.

If you have kids you really should visit. All the kids on our tour loved the interaction with the animals. Here are some pictures of some of the things we saw.
click on pictures for larger versions


This plaque is by the fish pond. I love its message. Speaking of the pond, it is full of the biggest koi fish I have ever seen! And there's a huge catfish that comes out to feed every once in a while. I could've just stayed by the pond all afternoon and watched them feed.



There's a collection of kangaroos there now, new from my last visit. They have to stay fenced off from the other animals due to their dietary restrictions.

A few months ago, the people at Global found an abandoned baby Kangaroo. They took him in and named him Skippy. Here's a video of him learning how to hop





Before our tour started, we watched this family of giraffes following another tour ($35/head). Apparently the giraffes got enough to eat from this car because when our tour started they ignored us!



Here they are chasing the car after it took off. It was great to watch them run, especially the baby.



Before the tour train takes off, the driver honks the horn three times. First, to let the riders know it's time to sit down and second to alert the animals. Once we started moving, at least 100 emu's, both grown up and babies started running toward our train.



I have never seen so many tame deer in my life!



Next stop was the camels and they stink. Ugh. There were two types of camels, a dromedary and a bactrian. Once that big head came toward my side of the train, I was up and on the other side.



This bird was hanging around the camels. I can't remember its name, but I do remember the tourguide telling us that this type of bird mates for life and he lost his mate. They tried to introduce him to another bird but he ignored it.



That's not a buffalo, it's a bison. Our guide was sure that we all understood this.



On one of the stops I looked toward the back of the train and was amazed at the number of animals feeding. With 6 tours a day, these animals are well fed.



It's out of the way, but I suggest everyone take a trip to Global Wildlife. You'll definitely leave with a smile.

I don't get it

Preliminary autopsy results on the death of three month old Natalie Hill indicate
that she bled to death as a result of rat bites last week.

I am wondering if the authorities have taken blood samples from the parents. I don't want to pass judgement until all the facts are in. This is too tragic.

And it's not only in Louisiana:


In Ohio, three people have been accused of letting rats bite a 6-week-old girl and chew off her toes at their cluttered home.

Welcome, Lutherans!

The city of New Orleans is about to host 37,000 Lutherans. Thank you all for coming and for your volunteer efforts. You have no idea how much this means to the people of New Orleans.

Top 10 Apollo Hoax Theories Debunked

In the early days of the Cold War, three men claim they were chosen by a powerful new government agency to undertake a historically perilous journey. They claim this well-funded operation was staffed with the best scientists and engineers using technology pioneered by the Nazis, and they created the most powerful machine ever built.

In July of 1969, they claim, they climbed aboard an enormous rocket assembled in a Florida swamp, and were sent hurtling at incredible speeds into the sky … all the way to the Moon! Two of them even claim they landed on the Moon, got out, and walked around!

And what prize did they bring back from this momentous journey? Well … they have a bunch of black and white photos of unidentifiable persons in bulky white spacemen costumes in a field of gravel (but curiously without any stars in the black sky) -- and several bags of gray, dusty rocks.

Put that way, the story of the Apollo program can sound pretty far-fetched.

But why should we believe the stories? What evidence is there, really, that the Apollo program landed men on the Moon and brought them back?

Phil Plait, an astronomer at Sonoma University in California, and the Web master of BadAstronomy.com, has his reasons.

If I were trying to fake this, I would put stars in the image," he said referring to the complaint made by hoax proponents that the Apollo photos lack stars. If this had been an oversight, he said, it's an amazingly stupid thing to have forgotten, considering the scope of the "hoax."

Not to mention that with the way cameras work, photographing stars under those conditions would have been nearly impossible.

"If you do know about physics and photographs, you can see these arguments are all ridiculous," Plait said.



Here's a link that puts to rest these hoaxes

Here's a link to an article about a "famous" hoax believer.

Criminals is stupid

ST. BERNARD - At 11a.m. 4 hispanic males robbed Gold Star Restaurant in the 1100 block of Bayou Road in Eastern St. Bernard in the Poydras area.

At least 2 of the suspect had guns. They forced employees to open the safe. They then tied up a couple of employees and customers. Nobody was injured.

In their hurry to get away they forgot the bag of money.

The suspects fled the scene in a 2006 white Dodge Durango with a Texas license plate reading TFR014 its registered to a Fernando Lopez. Officers believe the vehicle is still in the area.

If you have any information on this incident please call the St. Bernard Sheriff's Office at 504-278-7630.

RIP Walter Cronkite

Walter Cronkite passed away at 92 today.



America's "grandfather of news" has passed. His voice was what a newscaster's voice should be.

RIP, old friend.

At Long Last

Liftoff of STS127 from KSC was successful this evening. After six attempts, Endeavour is headed for the Space Station to deliver the Japanese Kibo module which will give the Station additional space for conducting science experiments.

I realize there are a lot of nay-sayers out there regarding space travel, including the people who think the moonlanding 40 years ago was false. I'm not one of them. Space travel excites me, not just due to the fact that I work at a spaceship factory, but the benefits that we've reaped in the 50 plus years of Space travel are too many to mention here. That and it's an awesome sight to watch a launch, either live or on TV.

From a website called The Space Place dot com, where there is a complete list of spinoffs from space travel:

Some of the most frequently asked questions about the U.S. space program are "Why go into space when we have so many problems here on Earth?" and "What does the space program do for me?" These are legitimate questions and unfortunately not enough people have been made aware of the vast benefits the space program provides that increase the quality of our daily lives. Applications on Earth of technology needed for space flight have produced thousands of "spinoffs" that contribute to improving national security, the economy, productivity and lifestyle. It is almost impossible to find an area of everyday life that has not been improved by these spinoffs. Collectively, these secondary applications represent a substantial return on the national investment in aerospace research.

New Twin Spans

The new I10 Twin Spans, which connect the northshore with the southshore, partially reopened on July 9th.

Beginning on Thursday, cars traveling east will get on the new eastbound span entrance ramp on the south shore. From there, they will be directed to cross over to the new westbound span, cross the lake and then cross over again to a second new eastbound ramp on the Northshore and then back onto I-10 east. In a week, after traffic signs and ramps have been re-configured, Slidell-to-New Orleans traffic will use the old eastbound span until the new Twin Span is totally finished.

As soon as the old eastbound span has changed to westbound, crews will begin to dismantle the old westbound span permanently. The old eastbound lane will also be dismantled after the new Twin Span is completed in 2011. St. Tammany Parish has already signed agreements to use part of the old eastbound span as a fishing pier.



Taking down the old westbound span will be a relief to motorists. Parts of it have been cobbled together for the past four years with special sections that tend to shake and move.

To those who use the bridges every day, this milestone has been a long time coming.

VIDEO: New I-10 bridge over Lake Pontchatrain opens to eastbound traffic

I hope I don't grow up to be like this old lady

She beat a fawn to death with a shovel.

Saturday Scene

Taken from the top of the East bound Twin Span

Kudos to Karen Gadbois

New Orleans blogger Karen Gadbois has been selected as one of the "Top Ten Female Achievers" by New Orleans magazine.

Congratulations to Karen for this well deserved honor!

Our Esteemed Legislature

This is probably the stupidest thing to be allowed during a Legislative session.
The State wanted to honor 'Hurricane Chris' for all of his recent success by giving him the floor of the state House of Representatives for a few minutes. Hurricane Chris is the godson of Shreveport Representative Barbara Norton.

Representative Austin Badon said when Chris Dooley, Jr., known by the stage name "Hurricane Chris," performed his song "Halle Berry (She's Fine)" Wednesday, he really couldn't understand what he was singing. But when Badon came across the song while scanning the radio dial later that day, what he heard made him angry.

"The words they were using in the song were just extremely derogatory, they were foul," Badon told WWL First News. "They were curse words, using the 'N' word. It was just a derogatory song."

The lyrics can be found at this site.

Here is the video, entitled "loony looziana legislature reaches a new low". I find it embarassing. Don't know who allowed this, but they should be shot.

Here's a link to an editorial citing Representative Norton's ignorant decision to allow this.

Yelling Pitchman Dead

Tampa police say Billy Mays, the television pitchman known for his boisterous hawking of products such as Orange Glo and OxiClean, has died. He was 50.



The New York Times has more here

Screwing the Victims

Good Ole Boy Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour is misusing Katrina Recovery funds meant for housing to rebuild the port of Gulfport. Or, as he puts it, he's "redirecting" the funds meant to provide permanent housing for those who lost their homes to the storm .




Mississippi civil rights and housing groups sued the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development yesterday to stop the distribution of nearly $600 million in Hurricane Katrina relief aid to expand the Port of Gulfport, as sought by Gov. Haley Barbour (R).

Filed in federal court in the District, the lawsuit alleges that the money is part of $5.5 billion approved by Congress for Mississippi after the August 2005 storm — emergency relief that was supposed to pay largely for affordable housing. But HUD granted waivers allowing the state to use 21 percent of the money for low-income housing, instead of 50 percent as required for Katrina aid channeled through the Community Development Block Grant program, plaintiffs charged.

In a January letter to Barbour, then-HUD Secretary Alphonso R. Jackson wrote that he shared concerns that the port expansion “does indeed divert emergency federal funding from other more pressing recovery needs, most notably affordable housing.”

Congress, however, “allows me little discretion,” Jackson wrote. He approved the funding shift before resigning in April.

Barbour’s office released a statement saying the port project is part of the state’s recovery program that was vetted by Congress. “It’s always been in the plan,” Barbour said. “Restoration of the Port of Gulfport is critical to recovery of the Gulf Coast from the worst natural disaster in American history.”

Found at New Orleans News Ladder.

RIP Michael Jackson

They're dropping like flies



I admired Jackson's music before he got weird. May he rest in peace.

RIP Farrah Fawcett

Farrah Fawcett succumbs to cancer at 62.

Scuzzbucket of the week

This week's scuzzbucket is nominated on two charges: perversion and spamming.




A Slidell man known as one of the most prolific spammers in the country is accused of raping one teenage girl and handcuffing and molesting another, authorities said Wednesday.

Police arrested Ronald Scelson, 36, after seizing computers, servers, marijuana and drug paraphernalia during a raid on his home and office Tuesday afternoon, Slidell Police spokesman Capt. Kevin Foltz said.

In May, the mother of a 14-year-old girl told Slidell Police that Scelson, who was considered a friend of the family, had molested her daughter during Mardi Gras week, Foltz said.

The teenager told authorities she was at Scelson's business address, at 1831 Third St., when she saw sexually explicit material and open chat rooms on several monitors, Foltz said. Scelson started "playing around" with her, eventually handcuffing and fondling her, he said.

A 2003 Times-Picayune profile on Scelson said he was once one of the 10 most prolific spammers in North America or Europe and quoted him bragging about sending out hundreds of millions of e-mails a day. At the time, Scelson claimed he distinguished himself from other spammers because he did not hide the identity of his company and did not market pornographic sites or "get rich quick schemes."


ewwwww

The Heat

It's not even noon and it's 96 degrees outside. This is the second straight week that the heat has been incredibly unbearable. I feel sorry for anyone who has to work out in this stuff. Here are a few links that describe this heat

Spoke the Cat

Mark Folse describes his lunchtime walk from his job to the riverfront

Aaron, over at Iced Coffee and a Bagel

Roads are buckling all over

RIP Ed McMahon

Former Johnny Carson sidekick Ed McMahon has died at the age of 86.



The man had a wonderful laugh and seemed to have lived a good life until recently.
RIP, Ed.

Back home in Lake Catherine

A recent article in the Times Pic tells the story of a family who've rebuilt in Lake Catherine.

Excerpts

Although plenty of folks might scratch their heads about the decision to rebuild on the waterfront, it wasn't a hard one for Bourg, a born and bred local who attended Jesuit High School. After buying a camp on Lake Catherine in 2002, he became enchanted with the area and became an ardent convert to fishing.

"When my parents bought the camp," said Becky Bourg, the couple's grown daughter, "at first it was meant for weekends and getaways. It wasn't their primary residence at first; that was in Mid-City. But by the time the storm came, they were spending almost all their time out here. It had become their permanent home."

The Bourgs' camp was one of about 500 that lined the shores in the Lake Catherine community before Hurricane Katrina.

"After the storm, when I could get back in to check it out, there were no more than 20 buildings still standing, and only 16 or so of those were sound," Bob Bourg said. "Our house was gone. All that was left was the foundation."


The Bourg's house is the one on the right

The house is manufactured Deltec, an Asheville, N.C., business,which designs hurricane-resistant circular (technically, polygonal) homes and produces kits for assembly. The company trains contractors in various locales to ensure that kits are assembled according to company standards. Locals who follow "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" were introduced to the company when Ty Pennington and crew landed in town last spring and replaced the storm- and tornado-damaged home of a Westwego first responder and his extended family using a Deltec product.

Still Not Okay

BBC journalist James Coomarasamy interviews two Katrina survivors four years after the storm.

found at Voices of New Orleans website.

Time Wasters

At a time when there are so many important things to take care of in this state, with precious little time left in the session, I cannot believe the Louisiana Legislature wasted so much time for
this bill. House Bill 44 bans gunfire at parades and jazz funerals.

I thought this was already against the law!

Dan Baum

Writer Dan Baum, who fell in love with New Orleans Post Katrina when he was sent to cover the aftermath in 2007, has penned an editorial in the NYT about the city's laizzez faire lifestyle. Excerpts:

While the rest of us Americans scurry about with a Blackberry in one hand and a to-go cup of coffee in the other in a feverish attempt to pack more achievement into every minute, it’s the New Orleans way to build one’s days around friends, family, music, cooking, processions, and art. For more than two centuries New Orleanians have been guardians of tradition and masters of living in the moment — a lost art. Their preference for having more time than money was at the heart of what made that city so much fun to visit and so hard to leave.


Americans will probably continue to use economists’ numbers to measure recovery from the current recession. But as we debate what to do for the millions of homeowners who are “under water” — owing more on their homes than the homes are worth — we could learn from a city that knows a thing or two about being under water. New Orleans can teach us that the life we build with our neighbors deserves at least as much attention as our endless thrust towards newer and bigger.

Here's a link to the blog Dan kept while he was down here.

To those who look down your noses at message of the article, which does contain some untrue facts (such as the 9th Ward being reconstructed), here is an explanation from Mr. Baum
I have this disagreement with friends who live in New Orleans all the time. I come in for a weeklong visit, and all I see is the progress. I see places that I thought were dead, dead, dead forever — like big swaths of the Lower Ninth Ward — and I see a place that is, as I put it, “a lot more live than dead.” Perfect? Of course not? But Jesus wept, give yourselves some credit. What you’ve done in New Orleans in four years — with minimal help from the government or the insurance companies — is amazing. Compare it to the seventeen square blocks, in the middle of the richest city in the world, annihilated on 9/11, four years earlier than your entire city was flooded. Again, I don’t live there. I’m not putting up with the challenges on a daily basis. I’m not feeling the losses you’re all feeling. But my perspective is no less skewed than yours. You’re right and I’m right.
As for the cliches, they’re only cliches to you because you’re used to New Orleans. Spend some time out here, where nobody makes eye contact, where everybody’s on to the next thing at every second, where the dollar and the clock rule every goddamn minute of waking life, and be reminded of what a weird and wonderful place you inhabit. I was writing for the New York Times — for an audience outside of New Orleans — trying to explain, in a thousand words or less, what your city has to teach the rest of us. You don’t like what I wrote? That’s fine. But I’m really (really) tired of having my intentions, my character, my credentials as a New Orleans-lover questioned by everybody who thinks I wear a silly hat. I’m just some guy who came to town for a while and wrote a book; I’m not claiming to be anything else. As for my ill-considered comment many, many moons ago on Marketplace, for which I’ve amply apologized: How nice it must be for y’all never to have misspoken.

Teeming with Scuzzbuckets

I think the heat is bringing out the sickos this week.



There's a crack ho who brought her child along while she went on a crack binge and apparently the three year old ingested some crack.

In Lafayette, the "father of the year" was arrested after he allegedly forced his child to eat a whole crawfish, including its shell.

Brandon Javon Arceneaux began to slap the child Sunday night when the child could not swallow the crawfish. Cpl. Randal Leger would not release the age of the child or more information about the incident because the victim is a juvenile.

Arceneaux was booked with cruelty to juveniles. Arceneaux was released from jail on a $2,500 bond.

Thanks, Ann you scuzzbucket

A bill that would have put the brakes on the state acquiring land for the proposed new public hospital in New Orleans has been jettisoned by the Senate Education Committee.

After sailing through the House earlier this session, the proposal by Rep. Rick Nowlin of Natchitoches, failed to get passage in the Senate committee. Senators voted 7-1 against it Thursday, led by opposition from New Orleans Senator Ann Duplessis.



Ann Duplessis is a Scuzzbucket Extrodinaire. She authored a bill that passed last year, giving the leges a $34K raise. And now we learn that she is instrumental in the failure for HB 780 to get passage in the Senate Committee.


After sailing through the House earlier this session, House Bill 780 by Rep. Rick Nowlin, R-Natchitoches, ran into a 7-1 buzzsaw, led by Senator Ann Duplessis, D-New Orleans, who disputed the notion that the bill was designed to protect private property rights.

This bill is more about the new hospital being focused at Charity Hospital," she said, referring to some of the bill's backers who oppose the lower Mid-City site and want the state to gut Charity and rebuild within its shell.

Duplessis also pointedly asked Nowlin, "Are you from New Orleans?"

Nowlin said private property rights, the importance of medical education across Louisiana and the hospital's advertised $1.2 billion price tag -- with $300 million in state money already committed -- made it acceptable for a northern Louisiana lawmaker to weigh in.

State Treasurer John Kennedy, a critic of the hospital planning, said, "I don't see this as a New Orleans bill or a health care bill. This is an expropriation bill. . . . We shouldn't take land until we know we can build a hospital."

Wondering if Annie is in the pocket of previous scuzzbucket LSU president John Lombardi ? Wouldn't surprise me. You'd think that someone who represents New Orleans East, an area completely devastated by Katrina wouldn't be so blatantly greedy.

State Sen. Ann Duplessis said the legislative pay raise issue was skewed by those who do not believe elected officials are credible.

As an example, she pointed to the photo of her Mercedes that popped up on the Internet before the governor vetoed the pay raise.

Duplessis, D-New Orleans, said the car is part of her compensation package as a banker.

“It’s a 10-year-old, broken down vehicle,” she said.




Hell, she couldn't work to open a hospital in her own district. One opened recently that was bankrolled by a private citizen.

What a bee atch

The French Market VIEUX TO DO

Occurring this weekend in the French Market and adjoining venues is the Vieux To Do, another wonderful free festival in New Orleans.

A trifecta of free festivals celebrating Louisiana culture: The French Market's Creole Tomato Festival; the Louisiana Cajun Zydeco Festival, sponsored by the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and Foundation; and the Louisiana Seafood Festival, sponsored by the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board. All held along the French Market, the festivals will feature two stages of Cajun-zydeco music, cooking demonstrations of Creole tomato dishes, 11 seafood vendors, costumed characters and more.

• When: Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

• Where: The French Market, on North Peters Street from St. Peter Street to Esplanade Avenue.



We attended last year as well as in 2007 and it was a blast both times, despite the heat.

There are plenty of places to cool down, such as watching chef demonstrations

click here for a full lineup of events. Some of the chefs demonstrating on Saturday are from Dickie Brennan's, Andrea's, Bacco and Cafe Degas. The above link also has a line up of some good Zydeco musicians as well.

Fort Pike Reopens....Again

After nearly being closed due to damage sustained from Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, Fort Pike reopened today.

The Fort reopened 2 1/2 years after Katrina but was completely closed after the two 2008 storms battered the 182 year old Fort.

From the article in the TP:
The historic site which sits on New Orleans' eastern shore near the Rigolets had been closed for more than two years after storm surge from Hurricane Katrina submerged the 14-foot-high structure and left significant structural damage to the site, which has already fallen into disrepair due to decades of neglect.



Marsh grass and other debris that inundated the area after Gustav reached more than five feet high inside the fort's gun emplacements, said Joseph Yarbrough, president of the Fort Pike Foundation.

"It kind of devastated us a little bit to have a setback like that," Yarbrough said Friday.

It was the most recent of several hits, which resulted in Fort Pike being listed in 2007 as among the 10 most endangered battlefields in the United States. The list was compiled by the Civil War Preservation Trust, a nonprofit group in Washington, DC.


Looking forward to visiting the old Fort again. It's a great piece of history.

Summertime is here

The cool fronts are over, the heat is on. The temperatures hardly dip below 80 during the night. Summertime has arrived.

Here are a few pix taken about a month ago when we took a day trip to Gulport for a little "beach" time.

click on pictures for larger versions


We used the parking lot connected with the Ken Combs pier. As you can see, there's still a lot of Post K construction going on.


The pier's located at Highway 90 and Courthouse Road in Gulfport. This beachfront property used to be full of hotels, stores and restaurants.


We were the only ones on the beach that morning. It was great!


Well, we did share the beach with the birds. But they were quiet.


Taken in Bay St. Louis, these flowers signify the feeling of summer to me.

Scuzzbucket of the Week

HT to Swampwoman for the heads up on an article written by James Gill in the TP this week regarding Mr. John Lombardi, president of Louisiana State University.




.....The sparkling intellects of LSU offer New Orleans a lifeline, but the populace is too stupid and backward to be roused from its torpor. Time is running out to get the rabble in line. So says LSU President John Lombardi, who nevertheless remains determined to save New Orleans from itself.

Lombardi is just the man for the job, being, as he is fond of pointing out, from the efficient north. Lombardi got on his hind legs in New Orleans last week to rally the LSU troops in support of the “major academic medical center” proposed for a vast tract in Mid-City. Lombardi’s plans to win over the doubters evidently do not include a charm offensive. He has “never met a place like this, ” where people speak in a “code” he neither understands nor wishes to understand. He doesn’t know from “krewe.” The city does not contain “as many sensible people” as he had hoped — sensible people, of course, being those who agree with him. New Orleans is “on the edge” and Lombardi is offering it one “last opportunity to be a competitive, high-powered American city.” But he is up against idiots who want to “preserve old New Orleans in amber, ” and force LSU to revamp and reopen the old Charity Hospital. It is imperative that the issue be “settled this year, ” and the “Legislature needs to get out of our way.”

What a pompous old fool.

Hurricane Season 2009

The 2009 Hurricane Season began on June 1st. We've got a good 6 - 8 weeks to go before we enter the heart of the season, probably more than that.

Here's a look around the NOLA blogosphere, recognizing the start of another season

Celcus provides a tongue in cheek look at the opening .

Cliff discusses his idea of hurricane preparedness , which I find amusing.

Varg presents a list of storm tracking websites at the Chicory.

The New Orleans News Ladder offers links to several June 1st activities regarding wetlands and coastal erosion.

Nolacleophatra discusses her preparations and recalls her evacuation during Gustav last year.

Louis Maistros wrote an oped about being prepared but not panicking.

More as they become available.

Four years later still not okay

I know the rest of the country's been suffering "Katrina Fatigue" for some time now: tired of hearing about how things are difficult down here, tired of hearing about people who want handouts, blah blah blah.

NPR has run a story about REAL Katrina Fatigue in its piece covering Gulf Coast Mayors.




Moss Point, Mississippi Mayor Xavier Bishop works from a white trailer next to the damaged City Hall, which will soon be torn down. But his office is surprisingly barren. There are none of the customary photos of the mayor posing with the local Little League team or accepting an award from the Rotary Club, just piles of paperwork and empty display cases.

Bishop says it took two years and navigating a litany of red tape to get federal and state funds to help the city regroup. And citizens have grown frustrated with the slow progress. It's come with a price for Bishop.

"Fatigue. I am worn out. I'm battle worn, I'm battle scarred," he says.

Bishop is one of five Mississippi Gulf Coast mayors who are not seeking re-election. One of them is embroiled in a Katrina fraud scandal, but the rest say they can't muster another four years of dealing with the storm's aftermath. That means a new crop of leaders will have to come up to speed fast.

Of those calling it quits, perhaps the biggest surprise came in Bay St. Louis where Mayor Edward Favre is retiring after 20 years.



"It was a tough decision but I thought about it and thought about and I just couldn't find the spark," he says. "I've always said if I didn't have all to give, I didn't belong. And this last four years has just really taken its toll."

Favre, 55, was raised in this bayside town of 8,000 near the Louisiana border. He's a soft-spoken, animated character with a stout build and a quick laugh.

"It's still home and it always will be," he says. "When we get far enough away where we can't smell the salt air and hear the mullet jumping, it's too far from home. Too far from home."

The mayor is driving along the once washed-out beach road, where workers are trying to rebuild the city's infrastructure.

"This is the area completely replacing all the utility lines, also including the new sidewalks and roadwork," he explains. "Hopefully putting everything back the way it was pre-Katrina."

Favre admits the city wasn't prepared for the devastation that Hurricane Katrina brought. It had not set up shelters and didn't think many parts of town were threatened because they had survived the deadly Hurricane Camille in 1969. They were wrong. Katrina's 30-foot storm surge practically wiped the town out. And for Favre, there was a personal toll as well.

"I came out of it with a pair of shorts, flip-flops and a T-shirt. That's all I had left to my name," he says.

Those shorts have come to have some significance here.

"Shortly after the storm we had a meeting and the president came down, so I go to it in flip-flops, shorts and T-shirt. And everybody said, 'What are you doing?" Well guys, no offense, that's all I have. I don't own a pair of long pants, this is it period. And so it came to signify that until the city was put back together, until it was made whole again that I'd wear the shorts. When you start dressing up it kind of signifies that everything is OK, and everything's not OK."

The next mayor of Bay St. Louis will have some short pants to fill.

One step forward

House Bill 780 was passed by the committee yesterday.


This is one small step forward for those who want to preserve Charity Hospital and save Lower Mid City from being decimated to make way for an unnecessary hospital complex desired LSU and requires them to to show that they could finance the construction of the new hospital complex before seizing land from residents and business owners of Lower Mid-City.

The bill will now pass out of the committee to be debated before the entire House of Representatives.

Thanks to those who emailed, called or faxed their reps. Be ready to do it again.