In case you missed it, here’s a look at how our election turned out yesterday. Can’t say the results are much of a surprise.

I’ve tried to keep local politics at arm’s langth. I wrote about politics for so many years and I learned long ago that pretty much anyone who enters the arena has an overblown sense of self-worth. The voters basically battle over your jerk versus my jerk and this is pretty much true regardless of party label. That said, local politics gives more of a chance to see the personal quirks of each candidate, and this one had plenty.

So, basically, we’re down to two outwardly nice guys in the mayor’s race. I was still flipflopping about which of these guys to vote for as I walked to the polls yesterday morning. Both come with lots of baggage — but I wasn’t going to try to register some kind of protest vote by going for a lesser candidate. I’m still somewhat on the fence, and I’m hoping to get a better sense of which way to fall between now and the runoff in May. I can’t say I’m anti-Nagin. The guy’s a CABLE TV EXECUTIVE, fergodsakes, and his first term DID go extremely well until The Late Unplesantness back in late August. I can’t think of anyone who would have done a better job reacting to only the LARGEST NATURAL DISASTER IN US HISTORY. That said — he panders too much and there are other stumbling blocks. Landrieu, on the other hand, has a fine record as Lieutenant Governor. But he talks in too many platitudes and is short of specifics and comes from an old-line political family (something New Orleans was moving away from in the Nagin era). See? Lots of baggage either way.

Gimme something to vote FOR, you guys, instead of simply voting against something. I dare ya.

In the meantime, another round of sazeracs, will ya dawlin? We got FQ Festival today and JazzFest the next two weekends.

I was prepared for a nightmare at the polls this morning. I’d already set a rule for myself- if I have to stand in line for more than 30 minutes I’m not voting. So I was pretty suprised when I got there and there were only two people waiting in line at my precinct. Easy as pie. I was in and out in under 5 minutes. You have no excuses people, get out there and vote!

Concerted. Harmonious. Tight. Soulful. Rhythmic. These are words often used to describe New Orleans music. And what a show we will get starting this afternoon at the French Quarter Festival. I can’t wait until 4:30 to see the Preservation Hall Jazz Band (sans Narvin Kimball) play at Woldenberg Park on the banks of the mighty Mississippi.

In sharp contrast to our musical expertise, the same words cannot outline our city’s rebuilding effort. Yes, so many work extremely hard to reanimate their former homes and neighborhoods and those of others, yet the effort as a whole is very dissonant*. More hurricanes are coming, people, we need a joint effort to get this city ready now and way past the next hurricane season and beyond. For that, we have to put on a real concert.

Tomorrow is Orleans Parish Election Day. Amidst promises for stronger levees and the growth of business, not one of the candidates has proposed methods to take care of the existing woes of New Orleans. Who is going to get on FEMA to deliver trailers to the homeless living out of their cars in the hot, hot heat of this spring and the upcoming summer? Who is going to sit on Entergy, Bell South and S&WB until they come out to hook up the utilities of those who want back in their homes?

This reminds me of the anger felt by Mark’s wife, which she believes is not shared and focused by the citizens of this city. We’re tired, we’re simply happy to be back, we want to live it up until the next hurricane season. And, quite frankly, this city does not know the meaning of concerted when it comes to citizen anger and activism. The independence and musical discipline that defines this place seldom translates itself into a harmonious concert of vocal and lasting change.

So, what do we DO? For starters, I propose an independent recycling program. It’s useless to talk about saving the wetlands when we dump our plastic, metal and paper into landfills that undermine the very protection we need. I need your help. My vision: We take our recycling to a parish that will accept it. If that is deemed illegal or unsuitable by the parish in question, we get a quorum of interested people who can then create a petition to request a recycling parish to help Orleans Parish in this regard.

Perhaps this can grow outwards from the Metroblogging community. Any takers? I have a pile of recyclables just waiting to find new incarnations.

1 2 3 … all together now.
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Happy Election Eve y’all…I have been wondering aloud, ‘what is that ballot going to look like?’ Sample Ballots
You can take a look here, you need your precinct number. I am 12/08. If you can’t make a decision then you can always throw back some Guiness with friends and use the dart method. Any wagering going on out there?

One of the glorious things about living here these days is the renewed person-to-person connection. Even in the Sliver on the River, which remained high and dry (literally, if not figuratively), so many neighbors have gotten to know each other because they HAVE to — watching each other’s places to make sure contractors show up, realtors are doing their jobs, etc. But in the parts of the city that aren’t working as well, it’s even more crucial.

My business is in Mid-City and, like everyplace else, took some water during the flood. Before the Late Unpleasantness, my only connections to surrounding businesspeople were to simply look at their signs or maybe wave a bit. But these same people, at least those who have returned, are now my lifelines. We jealously cover each other’s asses, questioning newcomers, answering each other’s business questions and sometimes coming up with excuses to do business with each other. I need new signs — so I sought out a lumber guy in the neighborhood. Normally, I would have just gone to Home Depot or depended on the signmaker to use whomever they thought could do the job. The signs are being painted (for free) by a schoolteacher who’s about to retire anyway — so she’s using the opportunity to get back into using her Fine Arts degree. And the guy who runs the candle shop around the corner is putting together a flyer advertising all the area businesses — so we can all contribute and get the word out about our little six-block area.

While New Orleans is still a metropolitan area, we’ve also turned into a collection of very small towns. What used to be the $30 I’d blow on a couple of drinks and a mid-priced, crowded dinner at Anyplace That Works is now the difference between my neighbor being able to pay the water bill or not. Economic reports be damned — this has become a very personal matter these days. Spend it with your neighbor today and it literally comes back to you tomorrow. The exchange now has a face.

It’s true even at Wal-Mart. I stopped at the one on Tchoupitoulas this afternoon — on the one hand feeling bad at supporting a Big Box, but also knowing that nearly all its employees live in my neighborhood. The guy in the meat department not only went out of his way to help me find a cut of meat I wanted, but also walked all the way across the store to find another department manager when I had a question about something else. When he came back with the other manager, I thanked him for helping me. He looked at me and smiled and said, “No problem. We all gotta push it these days.”

We do. And we are.

I have been watching these guys working with those mysterious sheet metal and iron tubes that have appeared along the streetcar line on St. Charles. Finally asked them what those things were, they are the bases for new poles that will be part of the concrete encasement. They are replacing all the wood poles on the line.

Also, our Sav-A-Center uptown is now open until midnight ! This began Easter weekend. So you can go on those beer runs again.

And god, I wish it would rain. Tomorrow we have a substantial chance for precip. So go wash your car and make it stick. There is someone on Louisiana Ave. that has run their own hose/sprinkler over the roadway, suspended on the tree limbs, to the neutral ground and is taking care of it.

And did you know that New Orleans was one of the top five cities for fires, according to the Red Cross? This stat was pre-K and I am sure we are holding strong.

I was down at the concert in Lafayette Park (I still call it Rat Park) last night and it was really busy. I felt like I was being circled by sharks because there were so many political candidates there. When will they get rid of the ticket thing?

There was this really nice contractor guy in our building, from GA, I think. He said he was going to leave because the city is making it harder for them to operate since they lifted some special emergency status. He said he was required to have a certain number of local workers which he tried to comply with but they would work a few days and then not show up. He had to bring his own people back in to finish some jobs. Anyway, there’s one less team of people helping us rebuild. I wonder how widespread this is, sure sounds like N.O. at it’s best again.

There were a band of young college guys running past the side of my building at 2 am last night yelling, “They’re gonna see that we turned down here!” They sounded pretty drunk. I found one of them passed out in the courtyard this morning. Poor yuppie college bum was full of dirt, and out cold. I woke him up to see if he was, not dead and all, and I was sort of annoyed. I said, “Do you know someone here? Can you call them and get in? You can’t be passed out here.” He got up, made a call and was let in. I met his friend, the host. He apologized, explaining that he just got back from China and they were out partying and he still had jetlag and totally passed out, leaving his buddy outside. I told him it was cool but warned him that the people in this building can get hysterical about nothin’.

First off there’s a pretty funny article in this morning’s Washington Post about the absurdities of this mayorial race, with a suprising amount of attention given to candidate Manny “Chevrolet” Bruno, as well his photo. Manny is an aquaintence of mine and I’d intended on interviewing him for this site but never got the time. Has the Daily Show done a story on this mayor’s race yet? Seems like perfect fodder for them. I don’t have a TV.

Slate also has a three part series called “An Economist Visits New Orleans” and I think this guy is dead-on. A lot of what he says is controversial- turning the lower 9th ward into a shantytown for hispanic laborers, letting illegal workers have free reign in the city.. but it’s unconventional thinking like this that will save this city. I don’t think traditional urban planning solutions really apply here anymore. And those who oppose the recent wave of latino immigrants need to understand that New Orleans was built by wave after wave of immigrants– all of which were met with resistance by the established population but eventually served to better the city’s culture. In other words, you ain’t gonna stop it, so you might as well embrace it.

Slate also has an article on the mayorial race.

I have been blessed in my new post-K life that I have happened upon some interesting projects helping the media document what has happened, what is happening as we make progress and how people are dealing with their situation. I have been following StoryCorps since it’s inception and have visited the one in NYC and am really honored to be a part of it right now.

StoryCorps is an oral history project whose mission is to instruct and inspire people to record one another’s stories in sound. The idea is simple and powerful: you sit down with someone close to you - a friend, colleague, family member - and talk about the things that matter most to you. A trained StoryCorps facilitator makes two professional-quality recordings of the 40-minute interview. You receive one copy; the other, with your permission, is sent to the American Folk Life Center at the Library of Congress. There it will be preserved for the benefit of future generations.

Working at the PRC, I hear stories almost every day and I never really get tired of hearing them. Some days when l am out just taking care of business, someone begins talking and there I am, an hour late. I do not like to chat much but I do love to listen. Periodically, all these stories of people’s fear and struggles make me really blue, but ultimately, these stories motivate me to stay and to work and I like to hear the way people tell them. I can’t be trusted to remember them all on my own. So, please, come and tell the world your story so that people can hear your account in your own words.

StoryCorps, in conjunction with National Public Radio and WWNO 89.9 FM, will bring its MobileBooth to New Orleans May 4-28, 2006. For information, visit http://storycorps.net. StoryCorps was scheduled to come to New Orleans before Katrina.

NPR’s presentation of the project offers a bit more polish: NPR StoryCorps

To schedule a StoryCorps interview at the MobileBooth, you can do so online or call the reservation line at 800-850-4406.

I remember they did this after 9/11 too . . you can see the results here: http://understandingamerica.publicradio.org/

So, I moved back into my house in Mid City this past weekend. There was little fanfare involved with this because, well, 2/3rds of the house is still unliveable, I’m sleeping on an air mattress, the kitchen has no counters, sink, or stove, and no gas. Well, no gas until today. The gas thing was particularly irritating because I figured I’d just be able to turn the valve at the meter and it would come on, since my neighbors have working gas. I’d planned on doing a bunch of laundry and being able to cook next week when the stove gets here. So I was a bit miffed when it didn’t work.
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If you’re interested in the arts and culture of New Orleans–and I certainly hope you are, cherie–you might wanna check out this little morsel of Arts Council goodness. It’s probably as close as we’ll come to having a bona fide arts and culture industry forum with the current crop of mayoral candidates, and some of it’s freaking hilarious. Peggy Wilson, in particular, shows off her Martian upbringing, and Nagin…well, what more can you say about that sexy-but-empty chromedome that hasn’t already been said? I’m sorry Mitch isn’t represented, but then again, he’s been shouting about the importance of the cultural economy for some time now–even before the storm.