Still Not Okay Two Years Later

Writes Brian Schwaner (AP Reporter) about his hometown:

From a tinted window 25 stories above the New Orleans business district, I can see the city rotting from the inside out.

Across the street, Dominion Tower, once bustling with office workers and sprinkled with upscale retailers, is abandoned.

The adjacent Hyatt Hotel, where Super Bowl, Sugar Bowl and NCAA Final Four fans relaxed, also is empty.

Rows of camouflaged Humvees wait in a nearby parking lot for the military police who patrol lawless neighborhoods.

Just out of sight are wastelands where people live in cramped trailers or try to rebuild as best they can.

The only attention the city gets these days is as a campaign prop for some of the presidential contenders


One of the main problems New Orleans has had since before Katrina is the lunatic that is running the city.

Ray Nagin becomes a little more mentally unhitched every day. I don't think it's stress, I think he's just plain nuts.

The runaway murder rate in New Orleans is downright scary.
Keeping track of the 2007 Murders, Care Forgot is a project created to humanize the victims of murder in New Orleans.

This project is the brainchild of NOLA bloggers Alan Gutierrez , Ray Shea and da po blog.
My thanks to these folks for their efforts.

I work with a lady who lives in New Orleans East. She has spent the last 20 months gutting and supervising contractors rebuilding her home from the ground up. And now she and all of the other responsible citizens of this area - the WHOLE New Orleans area in fact - must defend their properties to the death. This is wrong in so many ways. First they lost their homes via the Federal Flood and now lazy-lower-than-pond-scum- drug dealing-sons-of-bitches are killing them for money they think these survivors have. It's got to stop.

The people who lost everything to the storm are not okay. They've had to deal with crooked insurance companies,
crooked politicians - from the White House to the assessors office - idiots across the country, such as wacko sportswriters criticizing Katrina victims because of a stupid football game. Or moronic commentators who labeled Katrina survivors who stayed behind as "scumbags". I could go on, but it's not worth getting all worked up. The past is the past and people will show their true colors in times like these.

To all of you out there who think that it's time for Katrina survivors to shut up, I present this message.