Owner: New Orleans Bulletin URL:nobulletin.blogspot.com Join Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2006 13:43:16 -0500 Rating:1 Site Description: Your source for lively discussion about the current governmental and political scene in Louisiana with a focus on the New Orleans area and post-Katrina recovery. Site statistics:Click here
Half Its Former Size? 1970-01-01 00:59:59 By Adam Nossiter for the New York Times:
The empty streets, deserted avenues and abandoned houses prompt a gnawing question: Is this what New Orleans has come to — a city half its old size?
Over and over, the city's leaders reassure citizens that better days and, above all, more people are in the future. Their destiny will not merely be to reside in a smaller city with a few good restaurants Read more:Former
Diaspora as Blessing? 1970-01-01 00:59:59 More from the New York Times:
Large-scale concentrations of deep poverty — as was the case in New Orleans before the storm — are inherently harmful to cities. The smaller New Orleans is almost certain to wind up with a far higher percentage of its population working than before Hurricane Katrina.
"Where there are high concentrations of poverty, people can't see a way out," said William Oakland Read more:Diaspora
EXTRA: How about Cambridge? 1970-01-01 00:59:59 From a couple of dear friends:
Dear Susan and John,
I read the depressing article in the NYT in which Susan is quoted:
"In Setback for New Orleans, Fed-Up Residents Give Up"
Very sad.
I recall back in June 2006 that John wrote: "Still, it is not about how many hurricanes hit, or how many times we have to evacuate. It is just waiting until about September 30, then measuring a collective Read more:Cambridge
Hanging Around, Going Nowhere ... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 More from the New York Times:
With no real place for the poorest of the evacuees in the economy before the storm, New Orleans may have permanently lost that part of its population. Supporting that notion is an unpublished analysis by William Oakland, former Tulane economist, which shows unusually low rates of participation in the labor force before Hurricane Katrina.
Thus, a frequent Read more:Hanging
, Going
, Nowhere
, Hanging Around
EXTRA: Boasso's Hat in the Ring ... 2007-03-01 16:58:00 Press release from Boasso's camp:
MARCH 1, 2007
BOASSO SENDS LETTER TO LEADERS
State Senator and candidate for governor Walter Boasso today sent a letter to 10,000 officials and community leaders throughout Louisiana announcing his intention to run for governor and seeking support.
Calling on current and former elected officials, Boasso asked for help in reforming state government through the
Mardi Gras as a Business ... 2007-03-04 13:45:00 From AP:
The economic impact of the 2007 Carnival season was strong, if not quite up to the levels it reached before Hurricane Katrina, according to city officials.
The real financial effects of the two-week party that ended last week on Mardi
Gras won't be known until sales tax figures are compiled in mid-March.
However, an enthusiastic Mayor Ray Nagin said he thinks the 2007 bash brought in Read more:Business
, Mardi Gras
New Orleans newspaper lampoons pols ... 2007-03-11 14:07:00 From Cain Burdeau, Associated Press:
Mayor Ray Nagin announces a plan to rebuild the city with Legos. And the Army Corps of Engineers is thinking of a new slogan: "YOU try building things with government screwdrivers."
Those are some of the parody news stories in the New Orleans
Levee, a wickedly satirical newspaper about this suffering city.
The free monthly makes fun of the slow pace of Read more:New Orleans
Another Corruption Story ... 2007-03-18 12:11:00 From AP, by way of the New York Times: The former clerk of the criminal court in New Orleans improperly handled more than $364,000 in evidence-room money, failed to document her office’s credit card spending and used public money on her own nonprofit group, a possible violation of the Louisiana Constitution, according to a recently released auditor’s report.The report, from the Office of the Legislative Auditor, included some of the same accusations against the former clerk, Kimberly Williamson Butler, as those cited earlier by the New Orleans district attorney, including that she misused public money and signed an $8 million contract for cleanup work after Hurricane Katrina that was never done.These were among the accusations in the auditor’s report: ¶Ms. Butler signed the $8 million contract with BioDefense America, a little-known Florida company, for cleanup of flood damage, but no evidence exists that work was performed. The contract provided for an initial payment to BioDef Read more:Corruption
EXTRA: Differing Views on Houston and Katrina ... 2007-03-20 12:26:00 Clinton praises Houston
for Katrina
aid By Rasha Madkour for the Associated Press, via Yahoo! News. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton praised residents of Houston for their help in responding to Hurricane Katrina and said that if elected she would lead a more competent government than the Bush administration."We have to have leadership again that asks us to step up and show the world who Americans are and what we can do," Clinton said during her first visit to Texas since announcing her candidacy. She met with supporters at a breakfast before speaking at the Wesley African Methodist Episcopal Church.Criticizing the Bush administration on a range of issues, the New York senator said she would create a universal pre-kindergarten program, provide health care for all Americans and generate jobs."During the 1990s, we lifted more people out of poverty than any time in American history and now they've fallen back in," she told church congregants. "We had more bankruptcies las
Obstacles to Recovery ... 2007-03-25 13:30:00 By Russ Britt, MarketWatch: Red tape, insurance, builder shortage pose roadblocks to road homeNew Orleans' residents and businesses remain anxious to get back on their feet, but roadblocks remain in the Big Easy's path to recovery 18 months after Hurricane Katrina poked holes in the city's levee system and flooded three-fourths of it.Any one of several challenges could derail attempts by the city, as well as areas around Louisiana afflicted by Katrina and Hurricane Rita, which hit the region a few weeks later. They range from bureaucratic snafus over aid programs and skyrocketing insurance rates, to builder shortages and a perceived snubbing from federal officials toward the area. At the very least, these issues are slowing the recovery. "We're making a little progress every day, taking a step forward. That about all we can hope for," said U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La. The most pressing issue is Road Home, a program designed to provide up to $150,000 in grants to those living in t Read more:Recovery
EXTRA: Surge in homeless hits New Orleans ... 2007-03-28 15:32:00 By Bill Sasser, Christian Science Monitor:The city has double the homeless
it had before hurricane Katrina – but far fewer emergency shelters. Up to 40 people were believed to be living in the Economy Motor Lodge on Tulane Avenue when a fire struck the long-abandoned property on the night of March 7. Located six blocks from the mayor's office and just down the street from the Superdome, the fire was the fourth at the boarded-up motel since hurricane Katrina.Rescue workers spent the next day searching the ashes for possible victims. None were found, though one man who had apparently slept though the blaze emerged from the building the next morning. The city has since ordered the property torn down. Behind that four-alarm fire lies a disturbing trend: Hurricane-ravaged New Orleans
faces a major crisis with homelessness. Already taxed to the breaking point on many fronts, the city has a homeless population that is now approximately double what existed before the storm – in a city hal Read more:Surge
, New Orleans
Obstacles - ICF ... 2007-04-01 13:38:00 More from MarketWatch:Walter Leger is a local attorney and board member of the Louisiana Recovery Authority. Each Wednesday, Leger appears on a weekly radio show hosted by local broadcast personality Garland Robinette where he fields questions and plays an ersatz Robin Hood for property owners frustrated by the Road Home process. Leger offers to confront ICF for a caller who says he told the company more than the $82,000 should be awarded to him. When he said he planned to appeal their decision, he promptly was told his award would be reduced to zero. (ICF officials insist homeowners are allowed to appeal.) Then Leger hears from a caller who laments his parents were given an award letter from ICF three months before a check actually showed up in their hands. "We all realize that it's slower than we hoped for," Leger says as he tries to console the caller. Leger says that ICF, which just now is beginning to hand out checks to homeowners, appears to be making progress. But he'll believ
Obstacles - Building Capacity and Insurance ... 2007-04-08 13:45:00 More from Marketwatch:Governor Kathleen Blanco says that once homeowners receive their Road Home money, the troubles won't end there. A shortage of capable -- and scrupulous -- contractors will stall the rebuilding process. The state is trying to address that by trying to lure potential contractors to beefed-up programs at technical and community colleges. But getting New Orleans building capacity up to speed at a pace where the city could be reconstructed in a few years will require a monumental effort, said Andrew Kopplin, executive director of Louisiana Recovery Authority. Atlanta's homebuilding industry is one of the prolific in the nation, able to build 30,000 to 40,000 units year, but New Orleans stands at about 6,000 to 7,000 a year. More critical, however, are skyrocketing insurance rates, Blanco says. Homeowners report their insurance premiums are growing geometrically -- up to five times what they were before the storm in some cases. "That would be the second disaster. It c Read more:Building
, Capacity
Obstacles - Levees and Floodgates ... 2007-04-15 15:12:00 From MarketWatch:Critical to easing concerns among insurers -- not to mention all returning New Orleanians -- is levee construction. The Army Corps of Engineers has become a villain of sorts to many residents, with signs dotting the New Orleans landscape that say "Blame the Corps." One T-shirt exhorts engineers to "Make Levees, Not War." To beat a statute of limitations issue over Katrina litigation, the city recently filed a $77 billion claim against the Corps alleging faulty levee construction. Whether that will evolve into a full-fledged lawsuit remains to be seen. Meanwhile, the Corps is working to beef up the 350 miles of levees that surround New Orleans and adjacent parishes. Since the Corps plugged holes where levee walls toppled and flooded the city, it has been raising levee heights at various points throughout the city either via earthen dams or concrete barriers. Roughly 220 miles of levees have gotten Corps attention. Floodgates have been installed at the mouths of two of t
Obstacles - Demographics ... 2007-04-22 15:16:00 From MarketWatch:Another nagging concern prominent in the minds of public officials these days is the federal government's failure thus far to waive a 10% match from the state for Katrina recovery efforts, which would save Louisiana roughly $1 billion. To those such as Sen. Landrieu, it's another example of the federal government's slighting of Louisiana since the storm. It follows such incidents as the Federal Emergency Management Agency's slow-footed response to the initial crisis, as well as proportionately larger sums of federal aid that made it to states like Mississippi, considered friendlier to the Bush Administration. Landrieu points out the same 10% match was waived after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York, after Hurricane Andrew in Florida, and a slew of other disaster. The per-capita cost to state residents of those disasters totaled several hundred dollars, while Katrina and Rita amounted to $6,700. The normal threshold for waiving the fee is $100, she sa
New Orleans residents arming themselves ... 2007-04-29 15:40:00 By Mary Foster, for Associated Press: Sixty-four-year-old Vivian Westerman rode out Hurricane Katrina in her 19th-century house. So terrible was the experience that she wanted two things before the 2006 season arrived: a backup power source and a gun. "I got a 6,000-watt generator and the cutest little Smith & Wesson, snub-nose .38 you ever saw," she boasted. "I've never been more confident." People across New Orleans
are arming themselves
— not only against the possibility of another storm bringing anarchy, but against the violence that has engulfed the metropolitan area in the 19 months since Katrina, making New Orleans
the nation's murder capital.The number of permits issued to carry concealed weapons is running twice as high as it was before Katrina — this, in a city with only about half its pre-storm population of around 450,000. Attendance at firearms classes and hours logged at shooting ranges also are up, according to the gun industry.Gun dealers who saw sales shoot up du Read more:residents
Per Capita Income Jumps in 2006 ... 2007-05-06 12:51:00 From AP via China Post:Louisiana recorded the largest growth in per capita income (PCI) in the U.S. in 2006, a gain coming from wage increases following hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the loss of 200,000 residents, many from lower-income ranges, the U.S. Commerce Department reported Tuesday. The 25.5 percent increase last year follows a 9 percent drop in 2005, a year in which there was massive unemployment following the two storms, according to preliminary figures. Louisiana State University economist Loren Scott said the figures provide evidence that the displaced population was predominantly low-income. The report did not quantify how much of the gain could be attributed to poor residents leaving the state. "The wide swing in its growth rate reflects the consequences of the property lost in the hurricanes and the state's subsequent recovery," the report said. Factors that could keep wages up, Scott said, include the Army Corps of Engineers' plans to spend US$1 billion (euro750 mil Read more:Income
EXTRA: Dissatisfaction with government ... 2007-05-10 12:51:00 From AP by way of KATC3:Dissatisfaction with government rivals crime as the biggest concern of people in New Orleans more than 20 months after Hurricane Katrina, a poll released Wednesday shows. Mayor Ray Nagin's approval rating declined, and the percentage of residents who say they might leave in the next two years is essentially unchanged from last fall, the poll by the University of New Orleans shows. UNO political scientist Susan Howell said this was the first time in her 20 years of conducting quality of life surveys that any other issue rivaled crime as the biggest problem facing New Orleans. Thirty four percent of respondents said dissatisfaction with government was the biggest problem facing the city, up from 18 percent in October 2006, the last time the poll was conducted. Meanwhile, 29 percent cited crime or not feeling safe, down slightly. "People need to achieve a greater level of comfort here for the recovery to move forward," Howell said. Howell characterized attitudes a
Judge Orders Releases ... 2007-05-13 16:22:00 From Paul Murphy, ABC26 News:A New Orleans judge says the Louisiana Legislature is playing "Russian Roulette" with the rights of defendants who can't afford an attorney.Judge
Arthur Hunter ordered the release of dozens of criminal suspects while scolding lawmakers for not giving the public defenders office the money it needs.Judge Hunter suspended the prosecution of 98 defendants and ordered 20, still held in jail, released.The judge says some of them have been waiting for a public defender for up to 22-months.The action comes on the heels of Hunter's order last month, freeing dozens of other poor defendants."That's wrong and we will appeal that," said Orleans District Attorney Eddie Jordan.The releases are on hold while the DA takes his objection to the state's Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal."We don't think that the answer to the problem of no representation is to release people on the street," Jordan said. "They still have no representation at the end of the day."Judge Hunter sa
Ohio! Why? 2007-05-20 14:57:00 Yes, we are moving to Ohio
, Cincinnati to be precise. The hardcore, live in N.O. till they die, people have a hard time understanding why and sometimes that makes us re-evaluate. But the decision was not a hasty one and our comfort with it increases every day.We lost just about all our material goods in Katrina, but were well-insured. This liquidation of our real estate portfolio made the move possible. Susan just retired from UNO so we are as portable as we will ever be. But won't we miss New Orleans? Sure, but we have the freedom to visit as often as we like and to act like tourists when we do. The hardest part is the separation from some wonderful friends we made over the years. We will do our best to keep these friendships alive from a distance. We have a most comfortable guest room in Cincinnati.Then why move? Susan is unnerved by hurricanes, and that began before Katrina. We considered living uptown and building a "safe house" in Folsom, but never really warmed up to that arrang
Cincinnati has its advantages … 2007-05-27 06:54:00 Don’t just take our word for it:In a list compiled by Bert Sperling, creator of Money magazine’s annual “Best Places to Live” placed Cincinnati
among the top 20 fun cities in the United States.New Orleans has its own share of superlatives, of course, but Cincinnati is not a hardship assignment. USA TODAY listed Oktoberfest-Zinzinnati as one of as one of the nation's “10 great beer festivals.” When it comes to festivals we feel certain that N.O. would hold its own against Cinci.Greater Cincinnati is ranked in the top ten by Fortune magazine as a great place to live and work.Livability is an important factor at our advanced ages (60-ish, let us say). We are surprised, as we tell our N.O. friends and acquaintances of our move, how many people are talking about where they are planning to move. But there are also those who rank such relocations as acts of disloyalty. Well, think of us as helping N.O. by decreasing the number of people clamoring for already strained services. A
In Transit … 2007-06-03 07:30:00 We are mostly packed and leave New Orleans on Tuesday for Cincinnati. We will take three or so days to drive there, our furniture will take a few more days than that, and the car we are transporting a few days more. Moving is harder than I remembered. For having been being wiped out by Katrina, we sure have a lot of stuff to move. For the last week or so we have had an intense "farewell tour," from Susan's retirement party to my family gathering. In between we have dined with different friends at Galatoire's and Commander's, Liuzza's and Brocato's among other places. It was nice of Mayor Nagin to report the state of the city just before our leaving. He did not have anything to say that would cause us to re-think the move. Does this make us part of the "brain drain?" Once we get settled at the other end, perhaps an "arrival tour" would be in order. We will need to find a guide to the finer restaurants in Cincinnati; we have already booked a few cultural attraction Read more:Transit
On the road again … 2007-06-09 07:56:00 Driving from N.O. to Cincy was rather uneventful. We got a late start on Tuesday because the movers were loading up until about 2:30 p.m. Still we got as far as Meridian, MS. On the second day we reached Nashville just as some Country Music Association event had filled up the local lodging capacity. All we could find was a smoking room in a Comfort Inn. As we entered the room there was a faint smell of smoke, but we quickly adapted. We reached our objective on Thursday, Susan’s brother’s place in Dillsboro, IN. We are staying here, forty miles from Cincinnati, until our furniture arrives. It is on Wilderness Lane, a private road to a beautiful spread that includes a private lake (pond?). Harley’s wife Jascia, is on a hammock at the pond, watching son Benjamin swim in the pond as we arrive. Friday was dedicated to checking out our new apartment and beginning to set up a new household. Best we could tell, the landlady fixed the problems we had noted in our visit last month. Yuppi
Setup in Cincinnati … 2007-06-17 08:02:00 Our furniture arrived in Cincinnati
on Wednesday via Allied Van Lines. Don’t use them; our stuff was pretty banged-up. The first crisis of the day was that our delivery truck, an 18-wheeler, got stuck on a narrow street approaching our house. Several neighbors moved their parked cars, and before long the driver, Steve, managed to maneuver the truck to the front of our house. Maybe someday we will be able to laugh about the move, but not yet. We are in an old house, and the entryway has a very low ceiling which made every piece moved a challenge. Our sofa did not make it, and was sent to storage. The stairway to our upper floor is even more restrictive, and a desk and a box spring intended for the upper floor joined our sofa in storage. We will have to get a split box spring to finish our guest room. I didn't know there was such a thing as a split box spring before this move. Steve’s moving crew was drawn from Berger, a local Allied agent. Dave and Tony were very good workers, but
New Orleans deaths up 47% ... 2007-06-24 06:36:00 By Steve Sternberg, USA TODAYHurricane Katrina's tragic aftermath lingered for at least a year after the storm abated, boosting New Orleans
' death rate last year by 47% compared with two years before the levees broke, researchers reported Thursday.Doctors say the dramatic surge in deaths
comes as no surprise in a city of 250,000 mostly poor and middle-class people who lost seven of 22 hospitals and half of the city's hospital beds. More than 4,486 doctors were displaced from three New Orleans
parishes, creating a shortage that still hampers many hospitals, says a companion study released Thursday. The indigent suffered the brunt of the health toll from the 2005 storm. The Medical Center of Louisiana at New Orleans, two hospitals that made up the city's safety net for the uninsured, were severely damaged. Charity Hospital, oldest and best known of the two, remains closed. "We're facing a lot of health care challenges. I'm sure that has a significant impact on mortality," says Kevi
A new life post-Katrina ... 2007-07-01 06:13:00 By Becky Bohrer, Associated Press, via the Philadelphia Inquirer:For New Orleans families displaced by Hurricane Katrina
, the streets are quieter 150 miles away, in Simmesport, La.SIMMESPORT, La. - When her husband first told her about Canadaville, Dawn Charbonneau worried it might be a cult.A place in the country, built by a Canadian industrialist, where hurricane-displaced families could live rent-free if they followed the rules. It sounded too good to be true.Yet she was taken with Canadaville, a sprawling property where squirrels scurry in open fields and the songs of birds carry on the breeze. It was a curative tonic for the cramped FEMA trailer park where the Chabonneaus and their three children had lived after Hurricane Katrina.The slower pace of life, uncrowded nearby schools, and corn-country peace have been good for the children, ages 5 to 13. "They can sleep at night without hearing gunshots," said Dawn Charbonneau, whose family fled both Katrina and the violence of New Orle
Some oil firms leave New Orleans ... 2007-07-08 05:48:00 By Bruce Nichols for Reuters via Yahoo News:The boom in Gulf of Mexico oil exploration since the 1970s made New Orleans
a hub of the U.S. energy industry, but the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 has led some oil companies to move out, a mini-exodus that could grow.A recent survey by New Orleans
CityBusiness magazine found that 12 of 23 publicly traded companies headquartered in New Orleans had left since Katrina, including four energy-related firms
.Tidewater Inc., the world's largest operator of oil industry service vessels, recently became the latest to say it is considering moving its headquarters to Houston, the U.S. capital of oil and gas.Others are moving but staying closer. Chevron Corp. is leaving its downtown tower for offices in Covington, 26 miles north, across Lake Pontchartrain. Louisiana Offshore Oil Port also plans to relocate its offices to the north shore.An important player, Shell Oil Co., is still downtown and insists it will stay. "We extended our le
Assimilating ... 2007-07-15 06:54:00 We have now been in Cincinnati for a month. Certainly the novelty has not worn off yet, but we are beginning to feel that we live here. A couple of recent purchases have completed our furnishings. Our guiding principle in our purchases has been to buy either something we will use long-term, or something cheap enough to throw away when we move in a year. We do plan to move in a year, but expect to remain in the Cincinnati area. There are some attractive condos on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River that have their advantages. We went to a cocktail party in one such condo development and enjoyed a beautiful view of the river and the Cincinnati skyline. We really miss our friends in New Orleans. We try to stay in contact by phone but it is, of course, not the same or even close. We have done passably well at meeting people here, but it is hard to find people our age that are retired. “Retired” seems to be an important characteristic for compatibility. Our neighborhood seems to be most
Aching for Lost Friends ... 2007-07-21 08:18:00 By Susan Saulny for the New York Times and about our former neighborhood: NEW ORLEANS — “Backwater.” Or “cypress swamp.” That is how antique maps of this city describe what eventually became its far eastern edge, an area that juts out from the rest of the old town, hugging Lake Pontchartrain, and home for centuries to little more than wildlife and trees.This came as a surprise to me years ago, because by the time my family moved to eastern New Orleans in the early 1990s, it had long been drained and tamed and offered some of the most attractive undeveloped land anywhere in the city. More than anyone else, black middle-class families like mine flocked to it, architectural plans in hand, eager to escape the crime and congestion in the tight neighborhoods of older New Orleans. They wanted to build something new. And they did, by the tens of thousands, creating the only major upscale black suburbs in the region, although a significant number of white and Vietnamese families lived Read more:Friends
Close to home ... 2007-07-29 11:06:00 In the following story the pool house where the murder victim lived was where we had stayed on our return from Katrina exile.By Susan Finch for the Times Picayune:A 54-year-old Pineville engineer working as a construction inspector for the government at two federal buildings downtown was shot to death early Thursday in front of his temporary residence on a quiet block in the city's West Carrollton section. Anthony "Tony" White had come home to the 8400 block of Panola Street after working his night shift when someone shot him once in the face at close range, then ran over him twice before fleeing in White's vehicle. The motive behind the murder remains murky. After shooting White shortly before 3 a.m., the assailant took White's keys and fled in White's blue Jeep Liberty, with Louisiana license plate PFV402. Nothing else was stolen, police said. Police spokesman Sgt. Joe Narcisse said Thursday it appeared the murder was a "random act of violence." "We haven't noticed any patterns Read more:Close
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