New Orleans is not okay.

Hundreds of thousands of its people remain displaced, their homes uninhabitable; vast swaths of the city remain empty and lifeless, with no utilities or public services; businesses remain shuttered, their owners unsure when customers will return.

The city has put on a brave front, preparing for Mardi Gras and conventions to jump-start its tourism-driven economy. But when will its people come home?
Since Katrina hit on August 29, 2005, the city has struggled for answers about how to restore, rebuild and repopulate its devastated residential neighborhoods and commercial zones. The reality is that New Orleans residents will not truly begin the long recovery process until they feel adequately protected from the next deadly hurricane.


One Voice for New Orleans is a grassroots campaign to educate Americans and rally them around legislative efforts to protect and restore New Orleans.

New Orleans is one of the most historic, vibrant and culturally rich cities in America, but today the city needs your help to thrive once again.

If you care about the city or its residents, tell congress that you want to protect the city from future storms.

It is time for Washington to address the deadliest civil engineering failure in this country's history-one that has cost more than 1,000 lives, has destroyed 250,000 homes and has fractured thousands of families now spread across 48 states.

The levee breaches that allowed Katrina to wash over New Orleans were caused by an act of negligence - not an act of nature - the failure to properly construct and maintain the region's flood protection system.

Right now the federal government is considering funding for a fortified levee system built to withstand strong storms and protect the city from future flooding.

Without your help, New Orleans may die. We need your help NOW.

* Forward this email to your colleagues, friends and family - especially those outside of Louisiana so that they can learn about the plight of New Orleans.
* Email your state's Congressional leaders to tell them that New Orleans matters to you.

We aren't looking for handouts, just a helping hand. Together we can save a great American city.

Thank you,
One Voice for New Orleans
OVNO.org
If your are unable to click on the links in this message, please go to OVNO.org and click on the "Take Action" link to automatically email your reprsentative.

the streetcar doesn't stop here anymore

 

rescue recover rebuild

 
for now, a teaser.

what's open?

 
I took pictures of my first 24 hours in NOLA today, a beautiful crisp fall day spent retracing my steps to the places I visited when I was here in June. Called "The Only Tourist in Town", I was treated as royalty by everyone I met, the large proportion of whom had lost their homes. Only the woman at Hove said she came through relatively unscathed, but they're all here, and they're all slowly opening up, and some are slowly closing down.

As soon as I can figure out how, I will upload the 122 picture day to flickr. Until then, here's a photo pile with the end of a lovely day on top.

i am arrived

 
  it is 40-odd degrees in New Orleans (with WWOZ on the actual radio instead of streaming, albeit from Baton Rouge) the quarter is deserted, i need to go find food, i got wireless in the room for a mere $5 extra and i will go out and scuff around now after i drink this cuppa coffee.

a man on the airport shuttle is a tattoo artist who has worked in NOLA off and on and he tells us his ex-boss called him up, flew him down and bought him a place to stay in the quarter for a week, so many are the FEMAs who want tattoos on their nights off. bourbon street should be interesting, just half a block away.

no, i really can't do it, this is hotel coffee, i gotta go out and get some real stuff.

a note from Dennis

"We really appreciate your considering coming down to help out the city--This city is going to need all the help it can get.

I should be back by the `15th and we should have a room for you without any trouble.

I want you to plan on coming ---and when I get back to New Orleans give me a call so I can put something aside for you---we have some repairs to do and not all the rooms are up and running as they should ---so work with me and we will see what we can do-

We of course always take care of our friends."

so that's next month. this month it's a hotel in the quarter, probably the only time in my life, I fly down on Frday it turns out. So I'll be there to walk around all day saturday and sunday, ellis marsallis is at snug harbor friday night and now I can go after all. Topsy Chapman is there on saturday night, or will i find something else? I really don't know what I'll find, but I think I still have to pack my own towels.

A P.S. (from Dennis): "If you don't mind stop by and talk with John Marshall of Mr. Paul and tell them hello--Let them know that you will be coming back in the middle of December."

I surely will.

redux

the Degas House, featured in posts a few months ago, is listed as closed due to hurricane damage. it's a couple of miles up Esplanade from the quarter, I will see if I can't walk up there on Sunday to see what's become of it. I wasn't particuarly taken with it as opposed to somewhere else, but it would work as a good landmark. I remember the Frenchwoman, Betty, with whom I saw the place, was on her way to Indonesia, I belive it was, to take up a teaching job there. We had lunch afterwards at Cafe Degas (no relation) and we also went to Preservation Hall on Saturday evening, I wonder if Preservation Hall is open, can it be? no, of course not, closed indefinitely, no musicians, they're touring europe--the radio this morning mentioned that NOLA musicians are getting more work than they've ever had in their lives before. well, good on that. and i will see what's left.

this has all happened before. I watched the old Armstrong/Holiday movie New Orleans a month or so ago and there's a particularly moving shot of storyville being closed down, from whence the music goes out into the rest of the world and everybody thrives in Chicago. it's all happened before.

i'm goin' home

i simply cannot stand it, not one minute more, i'm going back to new orleans. Saturday, flying in for two days only this time, found a package, cannot wait for St. Charles to open in a month i'll drive back then, but for now i cannot wait. This weekend I am going home!!

on my way

bright at the top of the stairs


On my way out today. Dennis tells me I should come back in August, there'll be some sort of writer's retreat maybe I can help with. I'm there. I will be there.

doreen

The relics of St. Tootie are a rainforest of multicolored beads, sequins and feathers

Degas House

bed in the box room

the narrow hallway

Impression, breakfast

she was under the staircase

little dancer age 14

l'apotheosis du tootie

Trinity

.

.

.

.

.

madness

Goodby Chief Tootie Montana : NOLA Indymedia: "The destruciton of Iberville would not only be the destruction of desperately needed and disappearing affordable, inner city housing, but the destruction of a neighborhood as well. Originally constructed during the New Deal era, the thick, red-brick buildings represent one of the last, possibly in the nation, downtown African- American neighborhoods that is so close to the vibrant, central economic hum of an American city, This is where the jobs are, not in New Orleans east, no matter how much money is poured there into sagging cinemas that have little chance of recovery"

the one that got away

footish

Faubourg Marigny

exit 34A

"You know, New Orleans is slightly below sea level and maybe that's why the clouds and sky seem so close."

the drive in

watch in the window

Okay

I finally fell asleep after 1 and slept until nearly 4, so I thought I was starting the drive out late already, until I remembered the time change. If I leave at 4:30, nine hours puts me at 1:30 but the time change takes it back to 12:30 so I'm still there early. Of course, I may hit rush hour around Tally now, but hell, I'll just pull off for breakfast; my three shredded wheat biscuits and cup of milk I'm so carefully consuming right now may well have worn thin by then. Onward!

just when I should be sleeping

here I am, four hours or so from drive time and I'm awake. I started getting things ready at 6pm, but here I am. Audible is still downloading the last James Lee Burke installment and it will take an hour, for some reason. But I'm packed, such as it is, and I just yawned, so maybe I'll get s few hours after all. Laundry whirling around in the dryer, oh there's another yawn. only a few hours now and I'll be outta here...

When the paramedics arrived, many Mardi Gras Indians in the room rose their voices in a slow and steady rendition of Indian Red.

The next slated speaker was Chief Pepe-tan, who called for all the Mardi Gras Indian Chiefs to rise. They stood in the crowd and then made their way forward to surround the podium. They asked for the “Godfather of the Chiefs,” the Chief of Chiefs, Chief Allison ‘Tootie’ Montana was called forth to speak. With 83 years under his belt, this man came to the podium and reviewed interactions with the police over the past 52 years he’s been involved. Tootie astutely blew holes in all of Mayor Nagin’s exhortations by describing the police violence he has seen and experienced over his many years as Chief of the Yellow Pocahontas Tribe. He spoke about police tightening their billy-club straps as the Indians approached and his tribe’s strategy of simply walking through lines of police attempting to block their path. He spoke about a cop repeatedly trying to swing a club at his 10 year-old relative’s head and the young boy just barely missing a brutal skull injury. His last words were “This has got to stop,” and he turned from the podium, slumping towards the floor.

A 'other life

Okay, I've given in, given up, given over. I'm driving to New Orleans on Tuesday morning, be there by noon. I will recreate myself again, rise from old ashes, bask and braise in the fires once more. I'm open to it all; bring it on.