Over in Orlando, folks are apparently tired of hearing about Katrina–specifically, tired of hearing about New Orleans and Katrina. They wonder why we’re getting all this attention when other cities and towns along the coast received far more damage than New Orleans did. They wonder why we weren’t better prepared, why folks didn’t leave, and why, oh, why there are so many goddamn telethons.

Well, lemme bring you up to speed, sister.

1. If you think you’re sick of hearing about Katrina, try living in New Orleans for a couple of weeks. Actually, make that days. I mean, we have to drive through it on the way to work, on the way to school, on the way to the grocery store. And on top of all the weedy yards and houses still marked with spray paint, we have to hear about it on the evening news, too? We have to read about it in the paper? We have to see it online on every media outlet and on the front of every CD package emblazoned with the words “Proceeds to benefit the recovery effort in New Orleans”? Enough already.

2. We understand that we’re not the only city affected by the storm. We know there are places that suffered much worse than New Orleans–places where there’s nothing left to salvage because even the slabs of houses were washed out to sea. We’re painfully aware of all that, and I think that each of us, to some degree, is experiencing a bit of survivor’s guilt. However, as much as I like to think I control everything in the universe, I have no power over the media. Nor do my friends and neighbors. Evacuees sitting around in Red Cross shelters don’t make front page news, and felled trees don’t generate much human interest. New Orleans won out because we had the best story: people in despair amid neighborhoods full of muck.

3. We were also an important story because we were a great example of the government’s inability to respond to disasters at the local, state, and national level. The human suffering that you and I and everyone else with electricity witnessed that week was not matched by an outpouring of concern from the government, and that disconnect made great news. This shouldn’t be surprising: it’s journalism 101.

4. Not to be snotty or anything, but New Orleans has generated a great deal of sympathy among Americans because we’ve given so much to the country over the past three centuries, from music to food to literature and more. No disrespect to Orlando, but, um, I don’t think losing Sea World would be as big of a story.

5. And just so you and everyone else in Orlando knows: New Orleans is not “GONE”. The parts of the city that most folks know and love–the Quarter, Uptown, and so on–are alive and well. I don’t know if you noticed, but that thing we call the Superdome reopened a few weeks ago. I think it was on TV. Don’t write us off.

I’m not even going to bother to mention some of the other crap discussed in those posts. How many times do we have to explain to others why residents didn’t leave–residents who didn’t own cars or even know friends with cars? How many times to we have to explain that the New Orleans/Katrina story was not so much about a natural disaster as it was about government ineptitude, from the Corps of Engineers’ faulty levees to Brownie’s botched rescue/recovery efforts? When you folks come up with something new to say, some new criticism that you wanna level at New Orleans or the media or whatever, by all means let us know, but until then, please, give us a break.

P.S. I’m disabling comments for this post ’cause I’m not in the mood for a flame war. You wanna respond, post it on your own blog. I’ve got work to do.

I’m always amused, even though my kids are now legal adults, to hear conversations when an obviously pregnant woman walks by — particularly if it’s at a restaurant and the woman is carrying, oh, a 72-pound salad or other hefty meal. Someone in the group always says, “well, y’know she’s eating for two….” and everyone sagely nods their heads.

But this week really does bring an opportunity for those of us in New Orleans to actually do something “for two” — and that’s to go vote. Given that roughly half of the Orleans Parish electorate doesn’t live here right now, it means those of us who ARE back will be choosing representation (and amendments) for many of those those who will be. We’ve got to make it count, since so much is hanging in the balance. But it disturbs me to read things like this, since I keep hoping more people are going to take an interest. I hope the article is proven wrong in its predictions about lower turnout, since we can indeed help ourselves.
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Driving downtown from St. Charles Ave to Lee Circle at dusk, you can see the lights of LeCirque, from a distance, it’s simply gorgeous. This is our city?!

One thing I was really enjoying prior to the storm, was making the early evening hotel circuit to see local musicians in a setting other than a stinky dark bar full of the same faces. The St. Charles Hotel was fun on Friday, the front is all windows and there you can sit right at the streetcar stop and watch tourists. Matt Lemmler played piano and the guys from Brooks Brothers would come over after work. Bob French would play at the Fairmont and I would also head over to the Ritz occasionally. It was a nice place to hear Kermit. I intend to start investigating what’s happening on the elegant music scene once again even though some of the best hotels remain shut. If you have any good tips, please share them and perhaps I’ll see you there !

A quick two thumbs up to both Entergy and Cox. I am in the process of moving from the Marigny into the French Quarter, in case you haven’t picked up on that yet, along with all the problems that this entails (can we say police escort?) I have been on the phone with every little agency know to man in the New Orleans area in the last few days.

In the past few weeks (months?) I have seen adds on TV from both Entergy and Cox Communications apologizing for taking longer than usual to answer the phone and/or finish services at your home but I have experienced none of this and would like to say those guys are going a good job.

My calls to both companies were answered within just a couple minutes of holding and at Entergy the first time I called there was no wait at all and someone was there on the line, cheerful and ready to help change over my services. I am sure there are plenty of people with much worse stories but I just wanted to say they are working hard and should give themselves a pat on the back.

I picked up the keys to our new apartment today and went to look around the place is pretty much everything I remember from a week ago but in my looking around, I found these two things.

A child’s artwork and a notice from the Constable saying he has seized and evicted the personal property of whoever lived here before us. The story I make up in my head may not be what happened at all. Still, I feel sadness for the situation they must have been in to have left these things behind.

..and while you’re at it, SEE THE SPECIAL MAN!

You’re welcome.

I was thinking about how delicious donuts are this morning and I cam across the Tastee Donuts website. It makes me giggle a little bit because considering that this is all they have on it, it has a counter and people have checked it out. It also makes me laugh because frankly, what more do they need to put on the site? When you want a donut you want a donut and you know where to get them with or without a fancy site.

I know, let’s create an ethics board and an inspector general’s position for the City of New Orleans. I know its unnecessary since the city and the state have an impeccable record. Wait, wait, wait, you say everyone agreed that the whole thing was a good idea about 11 years ago? Sweet, then what has the inspector general accomplished in the last 11 years. Nothing you say? Well, maybe there hasn’t been any corruption so everything’s fine. Oh, you say it was never implemented? I’m guessing politicians in New Orleans stonewalled it because they didn’t want the attention brought to how they function. That’s fine, they are politicians – filthy beasts the whole lot of them.

Ha ha, you say that it wasn’t the politicians so much as the people of New Orleans? Why in the hell would the fine people of New Orleans not want an inspector general to stop corruption and fraud and all the other shit that makes this city such an embarrassing place to live at times? Oh, it’s racist. I see.
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During the past week there has been much controversy surrounding the plans for the Krewe of Endymion’s 2007 parade. Endymion wants to parade in Mid-City, and Mid-City wants them back. But the NOPD says they don’t have enough man power to patrol both the Uptown and Mid-City parade routes simultaneously.

As a concession, the NOPD suggested that Endymion could parade in Mid-City, but only if the Saturday uptown krewes Iris and Tucks paraded there as well. Of course, nobody wants to part with tradition and Iris and Tucks got their feathers ruffled, with the Iris captain saying about Mid-City: “[Krewe members’] families will not go into that area. The area is dilapidated. It hasn’t come back at all.” This in turn pissed off plenty of Mid-City residents who have been rebuilding, because their neighborhood has actually made great strides in the past year.

Anyway, this idea was shot down rather quickly by Nagin, as he certainly does not want to piss off the uptown socialite ladies who are his bread and butter. So it has since been assumed that Endymion will be parading Uptown again, as they did last year and in 2003. However, Mid-City residents are not giving up the fight just yet and plan to take their arguments to the city council meeting on Nov. 16th.

The facts as I see them:
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This may make me sound like I’m not very civic-minded, and I originally thought of calling some of my more responsible friends and asking them in private the answers to me questions. But rather than that, for the sake of helping others, I though it would be nice to ask here – embarrassing or not.

- Where can I find out what voting district I’m in? I know what ward I live in but I can’t find out what voting district I’m in.

- It would be nice, if after knowing what voting district I’m in, if I could get a list of names for the people who are running for the various offices. And then, of course, I could organize my research a little more instead of relying on TV/radio ads and debates. To me the ads don’t really tell me anything tangible, and the debates make me think they’re all idiots. This has the combined effect of making me feel like I shouldn’t bother to vote.

- I assume I’m allowed to bring in some, uh, say, crib notes with me to the voting booth, right? So I can remember who I’ve decided on and who I’m still uncertain about?

That should be a good start. I hope more questions come up in the comments because I’m sure I’ve left out a million questions. And I hope I’m not the only one who doesn’t really understand the whole thing and want to make sure I cast my votes the way I intend. I did attend civics classes in my youth, but truthfully, until shit really started to go wrong down here I didn’t have a lot of interest in politics.