Jindal is ‘good’ and ‘bad’

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor 

Is Bobby Jindal good or bad?  

According to the two Web sites, he’s both. 

Check it out at jindalisbad.com and jindalisgood.com.

Signs that the world still cares about New Orleans

 By Deon Roberts, Online Editor 

It’s always encouraging to hear about people outside Louisiana helping the state recover from Katrina even though its been more than two years since the storm. 

Elton John, B.B. King, Bonnie Raitt, Paul McCartney, Lenny Kravitz and other musicians have come together to record a Fats Domino tribute album, which will be sold to raise money for the nonprofit Tipitina’s Foundation and rebuild Domino’s Lower Ninth Ward home. 

The album was released this week. 

Also, this week actor Brad Pitt announced a plan to build 150 homes in the Ninth Ward.

Thank God for the private sector. Where would the recovery be without it?

Gubernatorial forum was tame

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor 

Based on the many mudslinging political commercials on TV lately, you would have thought last night’s gubernatorial forum might have displayed more fireworks. 

I’ve heard people say they thought the forum was boring, that they expected more out of the candidates, particularly frontrunner Bobby Jindal. The candidates played it safe, with safe answers. They stuck to the forum format and mostly steered clear of any mud throwing.

I wonder if the gloves are going to come out closer to the Oct. 20 primary.

Even more interesting is that many people I’ve spoken to today say they did not watch the forum. 

Did anybody watch it? What did you think?

Racist stickers remain

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

Yesterday, I promised to tear down racist stickers from a utility pole at the intersection of Barataria Boulevard and the West Bank Expressway. 

I went to the site on my way home from work. Unfortunately, the stickers have bonded so well to the pole, I could not peel them off with my fingers. I guess they’ve been baked on by the sun, because, after much effort, I was only able to pull a piece the size of a postage stamp off the corner of one sticker. 

This is a job for someone with the right equipment.

It’s the job of our elected officials to take this racist propaganda down.

What do we elected them for anyway? 

I was pleased after speaking to Jefferson Parish Councilman Elton Lagasse’s office today. His secretary told me Lagasse, who represents the area, will have the parish’s parkways division remove the stickers, and that Lagasse was not aware of them. 

Considering what just went down in Jena, our elected officials might want to be more aware of racist graffiti and stickers displayed in public places. 

By the way, there’s more at Patriot Street and Barataria, Mr. Lagasse, in case you did not know of those either.

Younger Young bows out

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor 

John Young Jr., who is running for re-election for Jefferson Parish’s District A at-large Council seat, is no longer running against his son. 

John Young III, 22, has dropped out of the race. 

Young III won’t be following in daddy’s footsteps after all.

Macy’s is all about Jefferson Parish

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor 

Since Katrina, Macy’s has been gone from the New Orleans area. 

But today, in a vote of confidence in the storm-battered region, the department store announced it will reopen its store at The Esplanade in Kenner and open a new store at Lakeside Shopping Center in Metairie. The new store will be a substantial size at three levels. 

What a shot in the arm for Jefferson Parish’s economy. 

However, there is no love for New Orleans, as the Macy’s in the still-shuttered New Orleans Centre on Poydras St. is not reopening.

More toxic talk for St. Bernard

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor 

St. Bernard Parish might need some serious public relations to entice people to move there, especially the type of people who obsess about their health. 

First there was the Murphy Oil spill after Katrina. 

Now, groups are saying an Exxon Mobil Corp. refinery is exceeding federal air standards for sulfur dioxide emissions. But ExxonMobil said tests show no unusual spikes in sulfur emissions. 

Regardless of who is right or wrong in the sulfur case, all this toxic talk can’t be good for St. Bernard’s image.

Racism at the corner of Barataria and West Bank Expressway

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor 

I’ve lived in Jefferson Parish all my life, with the exception of four years in New Orleans for college and a year in Hammond. 

I own a house in Jefferson Parish. I went to public school in Jefferson Parish. Most of my family lives there, too. 

There’s a lot I like about Jefferson Parish: Jean Lafitte National Park, the large number of Vietnamese restaurants and Asian markets, the fishing holes. 

So it pains me to see racist stickers plastered to a light poll at the intersection of Barataria Boulevard and the West Bank Expressway. 

“Wake up White People!” says one. 

Above it is another sticker of a Confederate flag, obviously not being displayed for its graphic design merits. 

Similar stickers have also been sighted in Orleans Parish, but I don’t live in Orleans Parish. I live in Jefferson Parish, and I don’t want to see them anymore in my parish. 

It is in-your-face-racism, a bold statement of hate prominently displayed in one of the parish’s busiest intersections. 

Worst still, they’ve been there for more than two months at least.

A photo of the stickers ran on the July 13 cover of The Journal, a Jefferson Parish community newspaper published by the same company that publishes New Orleans CityBusiness.

It’s disgusting that Jefferson Parish officials haven’t ripped the stickers off by now. Shame on the parish for allowing them to stay up there. By doing so, the parish is, in effect, condoning the message. 

Councilman Elton Lagasse, who is seeking re-election, represents the area. I wonder if he’s seen the stickers. I hope he hasn’t, because I would expect him to have taken them down by now. 

You mean to tell me that the state Department of Transportation and Development and the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office also haven’t seen these stickers? Why hasn’t someone from those groups pulled them off? 

I’ve looked at them long enough. They come down today. I just hope they’re not too high off the ground for me to reach them. If they are, I might have to go home and get a ladder.

The recovery according to Spike Lee

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor 

Did anyone see Spike Lee’s video piece before the Saints game Monday night? 

Apparently, New Orleans tourism officials are not too happy with Lee’s comments about the city’s recovery. 

“Two years after Katrina, folks are still catching holy hell. Half the population’s not returned. Of those remaining, many are homeless with basic services still lacking,” Lee said on national television. 

What effect could this have on tourism and the recovery?

Vitter wants to avoid ‘broken welfare society’

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor 

Sen. David Vitter, R-Metairie, is critical of a bill pending in Congress that he said would “recreate the New Orleans housing projects exactly as they were.” 

Vitter says he supports converting public housing sites into mixed-income developments, “not reverting back to a broken welfare society.” 

It’s not clear what impact Vitter’s criticism will have on the bill.

Road Home to run out of gas this year

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor 

Today the head of the Louisiana Recovery Authority said The Road Home will go broke by the end of the year. 

According to Andy Kopplin, 90,000 applicants will be helped before the money runs out. But 76,000 eligible applicants will be left in a lurch. 

Congress? Are you listening?

Can the Saints turn it around?

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor 

The Saints are now 0-3, after being crushed 31-14 by the Tennessee Titans Monday night. 

This season isn’t shaping up to be like the stellar 2006 season. 

Anti-Saints comments were all over the Internet this morning.  

“I’ve had it. Saint(s) need to get their heads into the game,” wrote CajuninNH on nola.com. 

“Time to face reality folks. The Saints were a fluke!” wrote whodat1125, also on nola.com. 

Can, or will, the Saints climb out of this rut?

Will Nagin cash in with a book?

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor 

Since Katrina, a cottage industry has emerged in the publishing of books about the storm. 

A recent example is Sally Forman, Mayor C. Ray Nagin’s former communications director. 

This begs the question of whether Nagin will eventually write a book after he leaves office. 

And what if he does? Should he keep the profits or donate them?   

All eyes on the Saints

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor 

The Saints are 0-2, but most fans still support the Black and Gold, according to a recent CityBusiness poll. 

But what happens to the Saints’ fan base if the team is defeated in tonight’s game against the Tennessee Titans in the first home opener of the 2007 season? 

The Saints definitely can’t blame their losing streak on a lack of fan support. More than 60 percent of voters on CityBusiness’ poll are still behind the team. And, last week, fans flocked to the Saints’ Metairie training facility for a rally. 

A loss tonight would surely erode some of that support.

And people thought taco trucks were controversial

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor 

First there were taco trucks. 

Now the latest mobile sensation in the New Orleans area is a breast museum. 

The museum, which is touring the country and features plastic painted breasts called Jingle Jugs, is scheduled to be at the Superdome for tonight’s Saints game.

The exhibit is part of a campaign to raise funds for breast cancer, museum officials said.

Louisiana woman makes rich list

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

The widow of oilman Pat Taylor is one of the 400 wealthiest Americans, according to Forbes magazine.

Phyllis Taylor has a net worth of $1.6 billion, which ranks her at No. 297, the magazine says.

She is the only Louisiana resident to make the list.

Weather system waiting game is no fun

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

The National Weather Service has upgraded that irksome weather system south of the Florida panhandle to a tropical depression.

According to the National Hurricane Center, it could impact south Louisiana. There is a tropical storm warning for the area from Apalachicola, Fla., to the mouth of the Mississippi River.

This has been one tiring system to watch. It seems to be moving so slowly. For days, Gulf Coast residents have been wondering where it will strike and how strong it’s going to get.

I’m ready for it to do what it’s going to do and move on. This waiting game stinks. 

Not your grandmother’s civil rights demonstration

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor 

The civil rights rally held in Jena on Thursday was, well, civil, according to news reports. 

Thousands attended the rally in support of the “Jena Six,” a group of African-American high school students involved in a racially charged case. 

Some Jena natives feared the worst and shut down their businesses and stayed indoors during the protests. 

But unlike civil rights demonstrations in the 1950s and ‘60s, Thursday’s demonstration was tame.

“It was peaceful, it was beautiful,” one man said, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The demonstrators petted police horses, chatted with cops and posed by the Jena Police Department sign, The Associated Press reported. 

Horses? Chatting with cops? 

Sounds almost like Mardi Gras, doesn’t it?

Nagin goes to Jena while weather system worries

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor 

Mayor C. Ray Nagin is going to Jena today to join the frenzy created by the Jena Six case. 

In the meantime, emergency management officials in south Louisiana are preparing for and monitoring a weather system that could hit Louisiana …

If Edwin Edwards wanted to …

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor 

Former Gov. Edwin Edwards, who is 80, is expected to be released from a federal correctional facility in 2011. 

By then, he’ll be about 84. 

If he lives to be 100, he could run for governor again, according to the Louisiana Constitution. 

The constitution says people convicted of a felony must wait 15 years after their sentence ends before running for public office. But Edwards would not have to wait until he turns 100 to run. The constitution says a person can run before the 15-year period if they get a pardon from the governor. 

This is all hypothetical stuff, of course. I mean, Edwards wouldn’t run again, would he? Would anybody vote for him, anyway? 

N.O. public housing making comeback

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

A section of the Lafitte public housing complex will reopen, according to newspaper reports.

The Housing Authority of New Orleans will repair Lafitte, shuttered since Katrina, and open nearly 100 units in the complex by the end of the year, according to The Times-Picayune.

That announcement is sure to draw mixed reactions.

What one man in San Francisco thinks of New Orleans

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor 

It’s no secret that people in other parts of the country question the logic of rebuilding New Orleans. 

On the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, here’s what San Francisco radio station personality Lee Rodgers had to say: 

“Parts of New Orleans, where some of these silly people are trying to rebuild houses, are 14 feet below sea level and sinking by another inch every year. Where in God’s name is the logic about trying to rebuild a city in a location like that? Let’s do the logical thing: Blame the French who built it there in the first place and just say it’s another piece of French stupidity and move on. Keep the parts of New Orleans that are above sea level, or at least closer to sea level, as a theme park, which is really what it’s been to a lot of people for many years anyway. It’s a theme park with booze, the French Quarter.” 

Click here to listen to his full rant. He even complains about continuing to help hurricane victims. You can taste the hate.

Road Home can’t touch $1B state surplus

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

So, Louisiana is projected to have a surplus of $1 billion at the end of fiscal year 2007. 

But according to restrictions in the Louisiana constitution, the surplus cannot be used to fund any shortfalls in The Road Home program. 

I wonder what the politicians in Washington, D.C., would say about that.

As Mayor Nagin would say, “the state is flush with cash.”

Will ‘K-Ville’ be all gumbo and no substance?

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor 

Did anybody see “K-Ville,” which premiered last night? 

I wanted to see it but missed it.  

People are saying some of the acting was good. But others said it turned out to be a lot of car chases and a lot of talk about gumbo.

GNO Inc. calls on Austin firm to help N.O.

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

Greater New Orleans Inc., an economic development organization, is responsible for retaining and creating jobs, developing the work force and fostering pro-business public policy, according to its Web site.

GNO Inc., which has been around since January 2004, has said an Austin, Texas-based economic development consulting firm will develop a strategy to improve the 10-parish metro area’s business climate over the next five years.

The firm, AngelouEconomics, will be paid $200,000.

“The goal is to create a road map for economic development going forward,” said Pam Meyer, director of regional business development for GNO Inc.

Meyer said AngelouEconomics will create a plan for determining and marketing “our most competitive assets.” AngelouEconomics will also come up “with specific action items we can implement,” Meyer said.

GNO Inc. said the plan will be ready in December.

Sounds like positive news for economic development in the New Orleans area. But when I first heard the news, I wondered whether it meant that GNO Inc. was only now creating an economic development plan in the wake of Katrina.

Kelly Mitchell, spokeswoman for GNO Inc., told me that that is not the case. GNO Inc. has worked on short-term recovery issues following the storm, she said.

The latest planning effort is different from a full-scale economic development plan, which GNO Inc. has always had, she said.

“There was never not a plan in place,” she said. “We most definitely had an internal strategy and plan that we were on the road to executing before the storm. Then Katrina hit, our staff downsized and priorities shifted to recovery issues such as insurance, levees, etc. Now we are excited to have found the funding to bring experts in and help us identify our key assets and goals post-storm.”

The new plan is not a recovery plan. Rather, GNO Inc. is seeking a long-term strategy for determining and marketing assets and goals in the New Orleans area in the aftermath of Katrina, she said.

“You have to do continuous studies such as this to keep up with the changing landscape,” she said.

It’s good to see things being done to improve economic development in the metro area post-Katrina. And it’s interesting that an Austin firm is helping GNO Inc. identify the assets of the New Orleans region.

The Big Easy ain’t so for musicians

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor

 

Since Katrina, New Orleans’ musicians have been singing the blues, saying there aren’t enough gigs in the Big Easy.

On Aug. 26, the city’s musicians tried to illustrate what life would be like without them. Carrying their instruments, but not playing them, they walked in silence from Armstrong Park to Jackson Square in a “Solidarity March.”

But apparently, New Orleans never was a gold mine for musicians, at least according to a member of one of the city’s most famous bands.

“People thought there was a music scene in New Orleans – there wasn’t,” Cyril Neville, percussionist for The Neville Brothers, told the Chicago Sun-Times. “You worked two times a year: Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest. The only musicians I knew who made a living playing music in New Orleans were Kermit Ruffins and Pete Fountain. Everyone else had a day job or had to go on tour.”

Neville, who went to Austin, Texas, after Katrina, said he had more work there in two months than he did in two years in New Orleans.

That’s not a positive statement for New Orleans, whose leaders frequently proclaim the Crescent City’s music as one of its biggest assets, in addition to its food, of course.

New Orleans musicians are not alone in griping about lack of work. Musicians in Austin, Texas, another city with a big art and music scene, share the feeling.

“Nobody comes to see live music in Austin,” said singer and songwriter John Pointer. “I’ve got nine Austin music awards and have appeared in five national television commercials and I can’t draw a crowd in Austin.”

Bascially, times are tough all over for musicians. But it seems to be worse for those in New Orleans since Katrina.

New Orleans musicians aren’t willing to accept defeat, though. They are marching and calling attention to their need for more work. They recommend that they be booked to play for tourists getting off planes at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. They want to play at more press conferences or when politicians and other leaders visit the city.

 

New Orleans is known around the world for its music.

 

But New Orleans musicians say it might not always be that way if nobody is willing to pay them to play.

 

Faulty levees are not just New Orleans problem

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor 

Apparently, south Louisiana is not the only place where the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has built faulty levees. 

In Florida, an Everglades restoration project is on hold because of leaky levees at a reservoir that could threaten Interstate 95 and nearby communities if the levees were to fail, according to a Wednesday story by The Associated Press. 

The roughly $34-million, 550-acre manmade reservoir is supposed to help restore the Everglades. But it has already sprung leaks and has so many design flaws that it can’t be safely filled to its capacity, a Florida water manager said, according to the Miami Herald. 

George Horne, deputy executive director of the South Florida Water Management District, said the levee around the reservoir is so weak, it could be loosened with a penknife, the Miami Herald reported. 

Although the Corps hired a contractor to do the work, the Corps “was ultimately responsible,” Horne said, according to the AP story. 

Construction of the reservoir was completed last year, but it has been filled with 684 million gallons, only 38 percent of its capacity, because of safety concerns, the AP reported.

It’s interesting to see other American communities blaming the Corps for shoddy work. Now perhaps they understand how those of us in south Louisiana feel.

Life as a toll tag holder

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor 

I’m a toll tag holder. You know, one of those people who have to dig out their toll tag during rush hour and hold it up to the scanner at the Crescent City Connection toll booth? 

I’m not the only person who does this. Relying on no scientific data, I would estimate 25 percent to 40 percent of toll tag owners do it. 

I found myself wondering why we do this. I mean, why not just stick the thing to the windshield? After all, they come equipped with tape and Velcro at no extra charge. 

For me, it began out of fear of someone smashing my windshield and taking the tag. Not that I knew anybody who had experienced that, but I think I heard stories about toll tag smash-and-grabs. So, I decided to keep mine out of site from would-be thieves. 

But that was about four years ago. I honestly am not worried anymore about someone breaking into my car just to steal my tag. So, why do I still do it? I guess it’s become a habit, a reflex, my routine. 

There are different ways of pleasing the scanner, of making it change from “Stop” in red lights to “Paid” in green. Some people roll down their windows, stick their tags into the air and waive them like they are trying to wake up the scanner. “Hello?” they seem to be saying. “See, I’ve got my tag. Now change to green, please.” Others simply thrust it out the window without waiving it, as if to say, “I’m not moving my arm for you, scanner.” 

Still others, including me, keep our windows rolled up. This is the most ridiculous group to be in, because we hold our scanners to the windshield, in the position they would be in if we would just stick them there with the tape and Velcro. 

But, there’s a benefit to being a toll tag holder. I’m right handed, so my left arm doesn’t get much use. At least by holding up my toll tag, I’m giving my left arm a workout, as pitiful as it may be.

Government should play role in nursing home evacuations

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor 

The St. Rita’s nursing home trial ended last week with a jury acquitting owners Sal and Mabel Mangano. 

The highly publicized trial came after the deaths of 35 residents of the nursing home, which filled with floodwater during Hurricane Katrina, trapping and drowning the people inside. 

The Manganos’ defense said the owners did what they thought was best for the residents. The defense argued that a long evacuation is risky for the elderly and the Manganos had safely sheltered residents in the facility for 20 years. 

St. Rita’s was not the only nursing home that did not evacuate or that had storm-related deaths. In the St. Rita’s trial, the defense was not able to introduce evidence that 36 of 57 nursing homes in Katrina’s path did not evacuate and that people died at other nursing homes because of the storm. 

The nursing homes’ deaths underscore the need for government to get more involved in nursing home evacuations. The way it stands, nursing home owners must decide whether to evacuate residents. But it’s a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t situation. If the elderly die during travel, the nursing home’s owners get blamed. If the patients die of drowning, the nursing home’s owners get blamed. 

A report released last year by the inspector general for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said the majority of frail elderly residents evacuated for the 2005 hurricanes suffered more than those who were not moved.  

So, nursing homes are understandably nervous about moving residents. 

But there must be more the federal, state and local governments can do to make this an easier ordeal for nursing homes. For example, why can’t the government have state-of-the-art buses outfitted with medical equipment ready in case a storm is headed our way? To defray the costs of such a service, perhaps the nursing homes can charge a fee to those residents whose families will not evacuate them. The nursing home can give those funds to the government. 

The bottom line is the government should do more to make it easier and safer for nursing home residents to be evacuated rather than putting the burden entirely on the nursing home. 

Nagin enjoying gubernatorial guessing game

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor 

Mayor C. Ray Nagin continues to keep us guessing whether he’ll run for governor, even on the last day of qualifying for the office. 

Nagin seems to be enjoying the attention, too. 

“You guys are having great fun with this, and I’m having great fun with this,” he said on WWL-TV. 

But are New Orleans residents “having great fun” with the mayor’s last-minute announcement?

Don’t say we aren’t helping ourselves

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor 

A new Veterans Affairs hospital is scheduled to be built in downtown New Orleans. But to build it, about 50 homeowners and renters will lose their housing, which will be demolished to make way for the much-needed medical facility. 

The proposed hospital will be built on 34 acres bordered by South Rocheblave Street to the north, South Galvez Street to the south, Tulane Avenue to the west and Canal Street to the east. 

Of course, some homeowners are not happy about losing their homes. However, they are willing to part with their homes because the hospital is sorely needed, they say. 

“If it’s going to help the city of New Orleans, it’s something we’re going to have to do, so long as the (compensation) process is fair,” property owner Carl Tate tells reporter Richard Webster in this week’s CityBusiness. 

The rest of the nation needs to hear about sacrifices like Tate’s. 

New Orleans is criticized for all the federal aid it has been given since Hurricane Katrina. But many across the nation don’t seem to recognize, or maybe the national media isn’t writing about, stories of sacrifices people in south Louisiana are making to improve our home. 

Tate has to give up his home to make way for a hospital that will benefit the region. Of course, he doesn’t really have a choice; his land will be taken with or without his permission. Still, his attitude is admirable. 

It’s an example of how New Orleanians are doing what needs to be done to help this region recover, despite what the rest of the nation says.

Parishes must do homework before installing traffic cams

By Deon Roberts, Online Editor 

Cameras to catch people who run red lights are a hot topic in Jefferson Parish. 

In unincorporated areas, the parish is installing cameras at certain intersections. Those cameras should start working soon. 

Kenner is not as far along as the unincorporated portions of the parish. In Kenner, officials are still studying the idea and seek input from residents and research on how the cameras have worked in other states. 

It’s good to see someone doing something to put the brakes on people who run red lights. It is a widespread problem not only in Jefferson Parish but throughout the metro area. The problem seems to be getting worse, too. Drivers have become more brazen. It’s one thing to speed up to beat a yellow light before it turns red, but I’ve seen drivers zoom through red lights long after they have changed from yellow. Are they color blind or just plain crazy? 

Cameras can catch these lawbreakers. But the cameras can also cause headaches and legal challenges if parish governments don’t plan properly. 

For example, what will Jefferson Parish do if a driver makes a right turn at a red light? Will that driver get a ticket?

Also, the parish should not take long to mail tickets to drivers, unlike the Crescent City Connection. The CCC waited for three years of alleged toll tag violations to accumulate before sending me a whopping list of fines. Hopefully, Jefferson Parish will do better.

In other communities, drivers have found many ways to fight tickets.  In California, for example, some traffic cameras have reportedly had defects and took blurry photos of drivers, which could result in a dismissal of the ticket, according to www.highwayrobbery.net, which tells California drivers how tickets can be challenged. 

Jefferson Parish would be well-served to prepare for these and any other scenarios and to make sure the cameras are a service, not a nuisance, to the public.