Today I drove off on my way to run in the park but unbeknownst to me, a wild kitten was hiding out in my engine. I forgot my headphones and “made the block” and saw his lifeless body in the street. I had committed kitten manslaughter. I was overwhelmed with a feeling of wanting to throw-up.

We all deal with these wild cat and dog populations throughout the city again after a brief and noticeable respite after Katrina. It’s an inner battle; to feed or not to feed. Ignore? Capture? SPCA is overwhelmed too. Be humane is all we can do.

In addition to the larger issues of how we collectively deal with the feral animal population, I just have a hard time with dead animals. I can’t look at them or else I can’t get the image out of my mind and lose sleep, it traumatizes me.

The local neighborhood kids who know me came by for their usual check-in and I explained my dilemma to the kids about not feeling right about just ignoring it until the kitty became unrecognizable mush but also my inability to pick it up. I stood with them a block away pointing at the kitten corpse, asking for their honest evaluation of the situation. They are 10 and 12 yrs old but I knew they’d direct me on the right path.

Josh said, “What would Jesus Do?” I’m like yeah, bury the kitty.

A ‘rock’ of a neighbor did the dirty work for us. She rallied, along with the neighborhood kids, they ran down the street. Together, they picked up the kitty in a bag which they simply did fast. Like ripping a band-aid off a wound.

I felt bad putting this task on them, I just can’t do this myself.

Then after a little psyche talk amongst ourselves, the kids helped me to dig a hole with pitchforks and shovels. We discussed what the word ‘denomination’ means briefly and talked at length back-and-forth about the proper depth of the grave.

We were all absolute about the fact that this kitten was for sure going to heaven but couldn’t do so if the body was still in the plastic bag. We had to get it out of the bag and into the hole without looking at it. It deserved a proper burial.

We put the bag down and agreed to spill it without looking on the count of three, but Nick still couldn’t avoid a scary glimpse of the kitten as it went in but he seemed ok with it.

In the end, we felt better because we know, as hard as this is, we had to do the right thing. It was right by the kitten and right by the residents for not having to be traumatized too. I told them it really meant a lot to me for their help with this somber task.

After we did this difficult deed, the kids and I spent the afternoon printing coloring pages off the internet and I bought them a box of crayons and some colored pencils and they went off to their evening church service which is obviously giving them some fortitude of spirit which I am benefiting from.

Today a student at the Law Library came up to me to report that there was a tampon in the toilet of one of the women’s bathrooms that ‘didn’t go down’. Evidently, this problem was just so frightening that she wanted me to ‘call someone’. This was too much problem for budding attorney. I marched into the stall, stomped my foot on the lever, and the tampon was gone.

I felt particularly non-plussed by this after spending my morning listening to the acting chair of the new NCDC committee, Nelson Savoie, tell me how he’d like to hold the election for Chair in executive session just prior to the actual meeting on May 5th.

“Maybe we could all meet like, a half hour before the scheduled public meeting.”, he said. Mind you, the complete membership of this committee has yet to be ratified through the city council. I was just appointed as the representative for Dist. B and we are still waiting for some appointees to go through the process. This is exactly why we had to reform the committee. I broke out into immediate hives at this blatant attempt to skirt public/democratic processes. You’re supposed to, at the very least, start by placing a motion to have an election before the membership. Then you must nominate people.  We still have to write the functioning rules for our committee and those must go through the City Council as well.  Jesus Murphy. 

Then, I started running his New Business agenda items for the next meeting through Velocityhall.com, an online permit tracking system. It seems some of these items on the agenda have already been issued permits. I emailed him about this possible oversight in due process and am waiting to hear back from him. If you’ve been nominated to the NCDC for your district, please be sure to get your paperwork done! Ima need your help!

Getting this committee up and running is going to be a brute force kinda thing. If only I could just as easily move the current acting chair of the NCDC committee along the same route as the tampon.

(The above notepad was given to me by a friend this week, here’s the designer if you’re interested: Mary Phillips Designs)

*A.R. Ammons excerpt from the poem: Garbage

Stacy Head’s office, the Irish Channel and NORA have collaborated to put roughly 13 properties out for bid for redevelopment. Here are the RFP Docs.

If you have any questions about the process for submitting a proposal, Ommeed Sathe of NORA at 504-658-4400 or Carla Gendusa in Stacy Head’s office 658-1020.

You can submit a proposal to do ALL 13 properties or a subset of the properties. The cost of the properties vary from about $10K to $25K — so they are a DEAL!!! The best projects will be scored and selected by NORA and ICNA together.

Contact NORA
A few more photos of these properties from NORA

I have always seen a need for a computer technology center in New Orleans, or hell, like eight of them. CTC’s are community centers with a focus on computer tutoring. I thought I could start one in Treme once I got my house done over there. . . but due to a wicked turn of events, that didn’t happen.

I sort of gave up on that project over the last couple of years. But New Orleans is funny to me, it seems to secretly hold all my wants and desires and places them squarely before me to cure a bad episode of city cynicism. Rewards for my loyalty and perseverance.

So one day in December, when life was looking rather dreadful, I sat down and had three beers with Jack Ware. I figured his life is likely scarier than mine . . . he’ll help me keep my perspective. So, we’re yappin and he starts telling me that he’s set up this network for a computer lab at the Freret St. Community Center. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Completely stunned. The facility was there, the computers had been found, the operating system installed. All I had to do was get in and start teaching. I just went into shock. I couldn’t believe that Jack, with all his, non-community-meetin’-bullshit talk had done this! I explained to him that this was something that I had always wanted to do in the city and he and Kimberly had already done all the really hard stuff that I would have had to plod through in order to get to the part that I really wanted to do.

So the lab is up and running and we have been doing a soft rollout with some students which has already proven extremely rewarding. I teach on Saturday mornings, which means my Friday nights are pretty nerdy too . . . but it is a really great facility and the students are so grateful. The workshops are student driven and very flexible because we truly are teaching the fundamentals of using a computer and I do not want people to feel that they have any pressure on them. They can’t fail. Most of them are doing the two finger poke on the keyboard but that’s ok, we dive right in and start mousing around the desktop and Googling their curiosities and creating emails.

Kimberly VanWagner and Kate Peak run the center. They have a broad spectrum of programs/activities for kids and adults from FREE yoga on Wednesdays, to math workshops and there is an art gallery in the center with rotating exhibits. There is a nice backyard with a small stage, it’s a wonderful space.

The kids from the center made $600 from their art booth at the Freret Festival last week and today they did a math class about there profit/investments and about philanthropy and decided how much they would give back to the center.

For more information about activities at the center:
Freret Neighborhood Center
4605 Freret
New Orleans, LA 70115
504.373.6403 phone

If you’re on the NOLA text/email warning message system, you have gotten a couple of these warnings in the last two days.

THE FLOOD WARNING CONTINUES FOR THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER AT NEW ORLEANS. * FROM LATE SATURDAY NIGHT UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE…OR UNTIL THE WARNING IS CANCELLED. * AT 7:00 PM THURSDAY THE STAGE WAS 16.9 FEET. * MINOR FLOODING IS FORECAST. * THE FLOOD STAGE IS 17.0 FEET. * FORECAST…THE RIVER IS VERY NEAR FLOOD STAGE AND IS EXPECTED TO FLUCTUATE NEAR FLOOD STAGE THROUGHOUT THE NEXT SEVERAL DAYS. * IMPACT…AT 17.0 FEET…THE RIVER WILL RISE ON THE LEVEE MAKING NAVIGATION AND DOCKING DIFFICULT. THE CITY IS PROTECTED TO A PROJECT HEIGHT OF 20 FEET. * THE BONNET CARRE SPILLWAY WILL LIKELY BE OPENED TOMORROW TO LIMIT THE FLOW PAST NEW ORLEANS AND PREVENT FURTHER RISES AT THE CARROLLTON GAUGE.

I asked a friend of mine who is a meteorologist in the area what this means as far as preparedness. I know an overtopping or compromise in river levees would be a worst case scenario. But I asked him, ‘what are we supposed to do?’

He said he anticipated some confusion about these warnings and his response explained the risks a bit more for me.

“There is always a remote chance of two very bad things happening. One, seepage under a levee from boils (a normal occurrence) compromises the levee and the levee fails allowing water to “fill up the bowl”, including portions that did not flood during Katrina. This is probably not likely because there are levee patrols and inspections going on continuously now. The second, slightly more possible scenario - a runaway large ship, like the one that tried to get you at the Riverwalk mall, or a runaway barge, slams into the levee and slices a gap that would pour water into the city and f”ill the bowl”. There are precautions to prevent that from happening as well - a rescue tow boat in the area can be called to keep the runaway vessel from slamming into the levee. If the disaster did strike, there would be insufficient warning time to evacuate in these scenarios, but if it happened, I’d grab the kitties and head to the Lakefront levee.

The opening of the Bonnet Carre’ spillway today should alleviate the pressure on the levees and get us out of the warning mode but as most of us locals realize that a comprehensive program to divert river water to re-build the wetlands in some unpopulated areas is the real solution.

Over the last few weeks some friends and I have been heading out to the hinterland to do some exploring. It began with a trip to Natchez MS.,  with my friend, E.  We visited Longwood and a few other antebellum homes.  Longwood is a must see for architectural buffs. There aren’t many good places to eat in this sleepy town on Sunday but I always go to the Magnolia Cafe on the Mississippi River because I enjoy the dramatic view of the river which is rather humbling here. In fact, they are preparing for a rise in the river as floodwaters from the Midwest move south.  This event threatens the Isle of Capri riverboat gambling stationed near the Magnolia Cafe.

Last week we went on a walking tour of Avery Island and Rip VanWinkle Gardens. These were all really pretty adventures. The flowers are in full bloom. At the end of our safari, we rewarded ourselves with a delicious meal at Cafe des Amis.

Today we pumped it up a notch or two and visited Clark Creek, MS.  I was almost too tired to shower. The hills are a workout that can’t be mimicked on the stairmaster and the waterfalls were really beautiful. It’s a totally different world just 2.5 hrs away.

More Photos Sorry, I didn’t feel like taking photos while in Natchez. Next time for sure.

Last month, I watched as Veronica White announced on Geektv that the City of New Orleans would conduct a survey on recycling needs for a month but through various communications today we noticed that the information is just reaching the ground this week. I emailed Veronica White about this and asked her to consider extending the survey if her data confirmed the need. She reponded immediately and said her department will accept responses for another month. The news is circulating via the Times Picayune and announcements on WWNO. Editor B.  put the link on his site on the 14th so really, it’s just getting around now after a few weeks of her announcing it.  I was excited when I saw it on Geektv but I thought everyone watched Geektv and I thought it wasn’t even newsworthy because I try not to be too repetitive here. I was wrong.  The news of the survey is just now gaining momentum.   So pass it on!

There are four ways you can put in your two-cents on the need/desire to have city-wide recycling in New Orleans;

1) Call the 311 number to do the survey over the phone. Fast.
2) Send it in via snail mail from the T-P.
3) Print it from this Recycling Survey and mail it in via snail mail.  I had hoped you could fill it in electronically, but, I guess not.  Maybe they feel that would skew the stats.   
4)  A survey will appear in your S&WB bill this month too.

So there you go, “‘Tell me what you want, what’cha really, really want!” ala Veronica White!

While relaxing on my day off I was fortunate enough to catch the Keepin It Real second-line on Bienville today. It was a gorgeous day. It’s such a luxury to be in a place where you can experience a second-line in between cleaning out the cat-box and doing laundry. My neighbor and I shared some ginger snaps and did some booty shakin together. After enjoying the parade, Alvin went back to spraying pigeons off his roof with the hose and I back to my Sunday ablutions, both with the fuller sense of well-being that only a good dose of a brass band and its connections to your ‘peeps’ adds to everyday life here in New Orleans.

This conference boasts 35 art openings across New Orleans starting today with the featured event on the Mississppi River with food, music and scultpure demonstrations. For more info:http://www.nolafiredup.org/program.html
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Click the photos for more photos in the set

The Go Girl house at 2622 Gravier St. fascinated many because it has defied physics over the past couple of years, leaning farther and farther but not falling on its own. This house has probably been photographed by thousands of people. However, on Monday, it was torn down. The workers at Falstaff said they think the land will be incorporated into their site as parking. It’s strange not to see this familiar and somewhat famous building anymore as you cross the Broad St. overpass into Mid-City from Uptown.