Tag: Recovery
Confessions of a Bewildered Cynic
I wanted to put down some thoughts on Monday’s Senate field hearing, something beyond the raw notes I posted, but I’m finding no clarity. On the most fundamental level, I’m simply unsure what I witnessed Monday morning. I saw powerful politicians in nice suits. They said a lot of things that sounded very reasonable. But […]
Read More → Confessions of a Bewildered CynicEdited
I write here without editorial filter. Sometimes I wish I had one. So it was a pleasure to write an op-ed piece for the Times-Picayune, which appeared in this morning’s paper. It was nice to have a second set of eyes checking my work. Here’s what I wrote, followed by some notes.
Read More → EditedKalypso’s New Orleans
Kalypso’s new movie is out. Watch it and get a look at New Orleans one year after Katrina through the eyes of an eleven year old girl. Well done, Kalypso. I’m proud to be your friend and neighbor.
Read More → Kalypso’s New Orleans“I’ve lost all sense of what’s normal.”
I’m famous at last, quoted in an article on the Village Voice website by Anya Kamenetz, a former New Orleanian. “I’ve lost all sense of what’s normal,” says New Orleans resident Bart Everson. His house, which took on five feet of water, stands at a crossroads in the city’s recovery — one of the points […]
Read More → “I’ve lost all sense of what’s normal.”Mental Health
I was sad to read the story in today’s paper about a man who apparently snapped because of insurance problems and tried to “commit suicide by cop.” He tried to get the police to kill him by driving recklessly and then resisting arrest. “Just kill me!” They didn’t. The guy in question is John McCusker, […]
Read More → Mental HealthEleven Months Post-Katrina
Eleven Months Post-Katrina on Vimeo Also on YouTube. This video seems a little disjointed to me, but hopefully you can connect the dots: We personally are OK, but as a city we are not OK, and we’re trying to make it better in any little way we can.
Read More → Eleven Months Post-KatrinaOverwhelmed
This past weekend felt like a watershed for my neighborhood, but it also left me feeling overwhelmed. Our Mid-City recovery planning meeting with Clifton James took place Saturday morning, and it was both uplifting and inspiring and surprising. We’d expected Clifton to make some sort of presentation. Instead, he pretty much turned it over to […]
Read More → OverwhelmedIf Missoula Can Do It…
Los Angeles has them. Atlanta has them. Even Missoula, Montana has them. I’m talking about Neighborhood Councils. In Atlanta they call ’em Neighborhood Planning Units. I’m sure in other communities they go by other names, but the basic idea is the same: Neighborhoods need control over the basic decisions that affect our lives. If they […]
Read More → If Missoula Can Do It…Mid-City Needs a Plan
I’m going to try to articulate a few ideas knocking around in my head about the recovery of Mid-City. Remember, the City Council’s planning process is now underway, and the common wisdom seems to be that if we don’t participate, we’ll be flattened. Also, please realize that I don’t consider myself any kind of expert […]
Read More → Mid-City Needs a PlanRebuilding Xavier
Check out this presentation on the rebuilding of Xavier University (PDF, about three and half MB). Astonishing pictures of the flooded campus.
Read More → Rebuilding XavierTrailers
Best news I heard yesterday: People are finally starting to move into the trailer site a block from our house. The trailers have been sitting there empty for three months now. Hopefully we will have a couple hundred neighbors soon. Of course, this could create a whole host of new problems…
Read More → TrailersFattening Frogs for Snakes
So I went to the neighborhood planning meeting for Mid-City and Gert Town Saturday morning, and was deeply disturbed by what I saw there. Something doesn’t smell right. It’s not just the lack of publicity for this particular meeting. The whole process seems suspect. The aim is to come up with a recovery plan for […]
Read More → Fattening Frogs for SnakesCouncil-Sponsored Planning Meeting
The more I think about it, this stinks to high heaven. The location? The timing? The absence of any publicity? It’s as if they’re going out of their way to make sure the community isn’t involved in this “inclusive community-driven effort.”
Read More → Council-Sponsored Planning MeetingAdvice
An architect/planner from Baltimore gave me the following advice at the AIA dinner I attended last nite: “Don’t let a bunch of architects and planners tell you how to rebuild your neighborhood.”
Read More → AdviceKatrina + Six
Six months after the storm. People are taking stock. Me too. I’d describe my mood as one of tightly bridled optimism. I’m not sure if that puts me in the minority or the majority. There’s all kinds of polls flying around, mostly worthless because the Katrina diaspora and the lack of functioning landlines in New […]
Read More → Katrina + SixMy Route
This morning I jogged along my old route, from Jeff Davis around Bayou St. John, up to the art museum and back — about 2.5 miles — for the first time in over half a year. That area is in pretty good shape, or so it would appear. Slightly higher ground. And the museum is […]
Read More → My RouteMarch of Ashes
Wednesday wasn’t enough. I’m declaring an entire month of ashes. We can call it Ash March. Or maybe the March of Ashes. That sounds about right. I guess it’s called Lent if you want to get technical. I’m not drinking until Easter at least. No, I’m not Catholic, but it feels right to give it […]
Read More → March of AshesNo Joke
I thought this was a joke at first, but apparently it’s for real. New Orleans is seeking foreign aid. The mayor says: France can take Treme. The king of Jordan can take the Lower Ninth Ward. Has it really come to this?
Read More → No Joke“Students may be the optimistic people in New Orleans”
The Washington Post published an article titled Amid Katrina’s Ruins, Black Colleges Survive: Xavier University, the nation’s only historically black Catholic university, expected half its 4,100 students would return this semester; instead 3,110 are back on its restored campus, surrounded by uninhabitable houses and boarded-up shopping centers. Until I read this article, I hadn’t thought […]
Read More → “Students may be the optimistic people in New Orleans”Four Months
According to a story in the morning paper, our neighborhood has four months to prove its viability. This is according to the new plan from the mayor’s Bring New Orleans Back commission. (Actually it’s supposed to be unveiled this afternoon. I guess someone leaked it to the paper.) It appears to be a compromise between […]
Read More → Four Months