Dear Residents of Southern California:

It should go without saying that all of us in southeastern Louisiana are concerned for your welfare. We remember the generosity that you showed us in our hours, days, and weeks of need. We are happy and eager to return the favor.

That said, as someone painfully familiar with Mother Nature’s increasingly bipolar ways, I can’t help but feel jealous of your situation. Or perhaps jealous isn’t the word–let’s say thankful.

I’m thankful that your state has the financial clout to pull through this disaster relatively quickly. I’m thankful that you’ve got political clout, too: although you’re a tried-and-true Blue State with some important Dems in congress, you’ve also got a GOP governator. Not a bad combination. (Side note: your elephantine governor and our asinine one often share an iffy command of the English language. Coincidence?)

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….about the fire-related goings-on at QualComm Stadium in San Diego.

What? Huh?

I’d like to say it’s unbelievable, but this is our Reality

We’ve had a little rain around here for the last couple of days. We also held a local and statewide election on Saturday. The election was frankly a big giant dud. A belly flop into that water that’s been blocking half the city for the last two days. Some change, hopefully for the better, but still not enough to matter in the big picture. Voter apathy ruled the day, especially in Orleans Parish.

I find it almost cosmic that the areas that generally got the worst of the flooding yesterday were the ones that deserved it. Yeah that’s right, I said they deserved it. The West Bank of Jefferson Parish and New Orleans East still had standing water (or flowing in some cases) Tuesday, almost 24 hours since the heaviest rains fell. Do I know that people who lost personal property were deserving? No I do not. But I also know that every New Orleanian isn’t on welfare but that’s the way we are still portrayed in the national media. Life isn’t fair sometimes, just the way the world works.
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I haven’t written about this yet because it has been a touchy subject for people (so I’ve learned) but now that it is pretty much over, for us anyway, I want to share. About 3 weeks ago my Grandmother, who lives in Florida tested positive for Tuberculosis. Chance (the baby) and I just spent four weeks with her around September. The baby had been coughing for a few days and we thought he was getting a cold so when we learned about this on a Friday night we woke up early on Saturday morning and went in to the hospital, Tulane Lakeside, to get tested. We filled out our paperwork and took a seat in the waiting room, a little while later a nurse came out and told us that they do not give TB tests there and that they would have to give us a list of places that do give the test. The list they gave us was a list of charity hospitals in the area. These hospitals and clinics also do not offer the test on weekends. They said if I wanted to admit the baby for his cough they would treat that but still would not give him a TB test.
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Starting on November 11 the streetcar will run to Napolean Avenue. That is about 3 more miles of working streetcar line! I know that a lot of us, including myself, have gotten so accustomed to St. Charles without a streetcar that we really need to to be vigilant of the neutral ground. There is an article about all of this here from the T-P.

Photo provided by B. Huddleston

Today we have had a real tropical rain event in New Orleans. It’s been monitored througout the day as it gradually infringed on our daily lives, creating more and more chaos. By the afternoon hours, some roads have been closed, classes at local universities have been cancelled, making it one of our few versions of a ‘snow day’ here in New Orleans. The rain is still falling at this hour, 10 pm.

Hank Dog, you might recall, ran for City Council last year. Hank lives in the Irish Channel and is still a high profile member of his community. Today, he was out assessing the issue of flooding in his neighborhood and assisting neighbors in getting the drains cleared and making sure his parents and residents moved their cars to higher ground as pump systems struggled to keep up. More Photos of Hank’s Assessment

Hank’s assessment : “This momentary crisis is much more manageable than the long-term drought our neighbors are suffering in Atlanta. We can handle this for a day or two. We have some experience in this now.” The rest of the family is feeling safe in general. Fred pointed out, “Ollie, Jasper and Willie , we have our water-wings at the ready. The drought in Atlanta is more serious and harder to address. People can escape floods, but you can’t realistically evacuate a drought.”

This month’s Travel and Leisure takes a look at New Orleans. Considering the audience of the magazine, I’d say it’s a pretty fair assessment.

The Historic Faubourg Treme Association is hosting their 2nd Annual Fundraiser this year. Last year was great. A vote was taken and it was decided we should do it again.

The October general HFTA meeting turned out to be a productive forum for addressing the issue of the Second Lines which traditionally run through the neighborhood. The organization has been working hard in the neighborhood create a cohesive forum for all residents regarding all issues pertaining to the general quality of life for everyone. Among the agenda items, this general meeting served as a forum for residents to voice and discuss concerns regarding the Second Line for Kerwin James in which two respected musicians were arrested.
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As mentioned in an earlier post, TBK and I have already voted. I therefore have a two-word response for any of these phone-callers who have been ragging on me for much of the week (what few of them are real, live people anyway). I voted for just two statewide incumbents (Mitch Landrieu and Jay Dardenne) because they’ve been among the very few who haven’t seemingly gone out of their way to act like an idiot, promote some sort of unbelievable hocus-pocus or otherwise performed as your normal Louisiana politician. Mitch is old-school and entrenched, but he’s taken care of a main part of his job (promoting Louisiana culture) pretty well. Dardenne’s been running things pretty well for his part too, with no major screw-ups when it comes to election or corporate administration. So there.

We took part last Sunday, along with some other local bloggers, in a sit-down with District 5 Senate candidate David Williams. A genuinely nice guy with a droll, self-deprecating sense of humor. Among the many points he made during this informal discussion was that the rest of Louisiana simply wishes everything south of I-10 (and New Orleans in particular) would Just Go Away. Not that this has changed since the days of north Louisiana’s Huey Long (and before), but it’s particularly true now.
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