Posted on 08/28/2007 9:51:44 PM PDT by LdSentinal
Last summer I was the poster girl for New Orleans . My picture ran in the Sunday paper with the headline Generation K. I smiled, flanked by hot pink oleander and golden hibiscus.
In the interview I praised the city for its social warmth and tropical elegance. I declared my goal to tell stories about its stumbling, slow recovery. I'd quit bussing tables at an Uptown bistro so I could report full time.
I've reported for this network and others on crime, housing, insurance and tourism. But unlike most reporters who fly in for a few weeks at a time, I've LIVED here. So, when I go to the drug store, and chat with the drug store clerk ...she recognizes me. Last year on Labor Day she was crying. In the past, she'd have thrown the family picnic. Her house flooded to the roof. Some of her family died; the rest, left. No more family, no more picnics. Then there's the family I met at the mechanic. They were waiting for an oil change. They were part of the crowd at the Superdome after the flood. A bus took them to Arkansas. That's where they live now. They had a cooler of andouille sausage to bring back. No more hot dogs in the gumbo!
I've taken fierce pride in being a local. When I travel I'm a junky for talk about the city. Someone will ask "So, how is it down there?" I launch into a litany. There are busted traffic lights, leaky sewer lines, mountains of debris, the skyrocketing murder rate, miles of desolation, and the levees still aren't fixed. But you should come, I say. It's like a battered beauty queen. Hard to look at, and messed up even more on the inside, but still so regal and charming. This is where the listener I've taken hostage turns away slowly to engage someone less insane.
They don't understand that I'm in love. I talk to friends about New Orleans like a dysfunctional romance. I gush over it one day, then call up bawling and heartbroken the next. Why can't it change? Stop being self-destructive and violent? It has so much potential.
Recently, my blinders started to come off. It was building for awhile. My friend Helen Hill was murdered in her home;other friends have been mugged. We don't go out much any more...
But then there was this hot Friday night last month. I went on the perfect date with New Orleans . Saw live, local music, danced with friends on the stage, then headed home through my neighborhood of craftsman cottages and angel trumpet trees.
A block from my door, I was attacked from behind by a stranger. I escaped, with the help of my roommate. The case is moving forward, so I can't say much more than that.
Now I'm a jilted lover of the city. I'm angry and confused. Which is the real New Orleans? The one that's violent and desperate? Or the one that coos softly, and caresses me? The answer, of course, is both.
I just hauled my things out of New Orleans in a big truck. I am still in love with the city, but it's hard to trust it. Maybe we'll both heal, and the relationship will rekindle. I don't know what - or how long - that might take.
You, too, huh? I was in mourning for the place until the residents started opening their mouths wanting handouts. I had loved New Orleans all my life until that point. The mourning period was over.
There can little hope for New Orleans, until the rats have been exterminated..
All of them....
Literally...
Nagin is attempting identify the turds in his Easter Basket as “chocolate”...
Well, they aren’t
Read that one can see NO’s true beauty by comparing it to the Islands. New Orleans shouldn’t be seen as the foulest, most crooked, least efficient of American cities, but rather as the cleanest, best-administered, and least-wasteful Caribbean city.
i agree ...they have to WANT it back. THey will have to TAKE it back..but like all dems, they will try to UNDERSTAND why, blame everyone and everything but themselves....sad, very sad...maybe she will wake up..but i wont bet on it...
i dont know about the police so i cant comment..
Here’s a thought: quit voting for dems, and maybe something will get done in New Orleans.
In America we like an underdog, but these people take it too far.
dumba@@
I know several people — some government, some private sector — who have been substantively involved with the N.O. relief effort. They all speak with a mixture of contempt and disgust with the local political structure. N.O. right now is full of outsiders trying to put things back together, but the locals keep throwing up roadblocks.
I have loved New Orleans since the 1970s despite knowing that everything you say here is absolutely true. Filthy, grimy, dishonest. Period. Great food, great music, unbelievable spirit and culture and yet utterly filthy, grimy, and dishonest. That's New Orleans.
But there is one more thing to be said. New Orleans is now run by black people who decry "white racism" whenever anyone raises the issues of corruption and incompetance. Thus there is no accountability.
“Today, $116 billion has been appropriated to remedy the effects of Katrina. The rebuilding effort includes: $17 billion for housing and community development; $8.4 billion for levees and flood control; $10 billion for Small Business Administration loans; and, $3.5 billion for highways and bridges.”
That amount was not just for New Orleans, but for the recovery of the entire Gulf Coast.
Ok. I had quoted from a speech and was asked for verification. This is the only info I could find.
http://www.senate.gov/~budget/republican/pressarchive/2006/2006-08-22Katrinatally.pdf
Hi,
Well I know the whole thing is very confusing. When one says Katrina, everybody just thinks about New Orleans because of all of the press we’ve gotten. I have tried to find a breakdown as to what went to each state, but as of now I am having no success. Oh good gosh, I just realized I posted to you about this on another thread too. Didn’t realize that it was you. I’m sorry,please don’t think I’m on your case, I guess it’s just too early for me to be sharp.
Hey, I did find this, it’s not great but it’s something.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/printer_082307R.shtml
And instead of getting out a stepladder and a shovel and a fresh light bulb, they curse the darkness. Pitiful.
New Orleans simply re-proves an old proposition: you get the government that you deserve.
The water ALWAYS wins.
Hey, man, that's a big chunk of America today, especially in the cities.
I have been going to New Orleans for over 38 years... and not once without a .45 ACP!
LLS
Suppose my neighbor built his home in the path of a old railroad. Trains don't come by often, but sooner or later, BAM! A train goes through his living room, destroying everything. The insurance company says, "hey, fire and earthquate, sure, but we TOLD you a train runs through there!" They're not paying. So my neighbor comes to me and says, "be a sport and build me a new house." I might get a hundred people together to volunteer their time out of Christian charity; I could try to convince Sears to give them beautiful new appliances, I possibly would give of my own pocket to see that they were in out of the cold. But you know, I definitely wouldn't be such an idiot as to help them rebuild the house right on the same railroad tracks.
And for that matter, why would I prop up Nagin, a racist? If I said, “Cincinnati is a vanilla city, and it should be more so! Whites forever!” do you think the MSM would hang me twisting in the wind?
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