HumidCity

NEW ORLEANSOctober 23, 2007- The New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (RTA) announced that beginning Sunday, November 11, 2007, before the sun rises, the historic Perley Thomas streetcars will once again proudly traverse St. Charles Avenue, from the Central Business District, through the picturesque Garden District to Napoleon Avenue.

We should have the whole route running by 2025 or so at this rate!

New Orleans District 5 Senate Race

Metroblogging New Orleans has a brief aside on David Williams (Craig Giesecke attended the “meet the bloggers” gathering at Still Perkin.)

The inimitable Maitri over at VatulBlog has put up her Official Endorsements. I am happy to see that she is wholeheartedly behind my uncle David.

The Gambit’s Endorsements:They like David and Cheryl.

WWW.ELECTDAVIDWILLIAMS.COM

So this did not seem to make the news in the splashy way it should have. More lies and incompetence from the people who hold our lives in their hands. Maria Garzino is a hero, and should be treated as such. I encourage you to read on and see what the latest from the Corpse of Engineers holds:

WASHINGTON, DC, October 9, 2007 (ENS) -  The main pumps protecting New Orleans in the event of a major hurricane or flood are “inherently flawed” due to poor design and still have not been properly tested, according to whistleblower disclosure documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, PEER.

The top U.S. Army Corps of Engineers specialist assigned to oversee the city’s new pumping system says that key safeguards were circumvented and “there is an erroneous assumption that…hydraulic pumps are fully operational, and hence, the risk to the public remains high,” in the words of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel.

Maria Garzino, a veteran Corps civil engineer, who was the team leader of pumping systems installation for New Orleans, has filed for federal whistleblower status with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, OSC.

In a September 21 letter, the OSC notified Defense Secretary Robert Gates that it found Garzino’s charges credible.

Writing from the OSC’s office, Scott Bloch informed the defense secretary, “I have concluded that there is a substantial likelihood that the information she provided to the Office of Special Counsel discloses violations of law, rule or regulation, gross mismanagement, a gross waste of funds, and a substantial and specific danger to public health.”

By law, Secretary Gates must respond within 60 days.

Bloch’s letter states, “My office has received serious allegations which cast doubt on the integrity of costly pumping equipment installed in three main structures by the USACE and its ability to protect New Orleans from further flooding.”

The three structures are located at 17th Street, Orleans Avenue, and London Avenue.

Read the rest at the original Environment News Service Article!

If my lunch hour were not dwindling so rapidly I would write more. Watch for future posts!

Freret Market

Originally uploaded by skeletonkrewe.

Come out and show some support for this new event. That area of Freret St took a beating during the Federal Flood, and has been slowly returning to life since.

Food, shopping, live music and blogger sightings, what more could you ask?
-Loki

Here we go, the latest email submission from Mr. Fix The Pumps! Brace yourself because this is really bizarre: good news! Take it away Matt…

Dear New Orleanians,

This morning, FEMA issued its new Disaster Specific Guidance (DSG) for the Relocation Assistance program. This is the program to reimburse folks affected by Katrina and Rita for moving back home or to a new permanent address. The guidance was issued internally to FEMA’s front line customer service folks.

Note that everything below is not official guidance from FEMA. You should call (800) 621-FEMA to get the complete scoop.

Now, on to the good news…

Previously, FEMA had restricted eligibility for the program for those people who moved between February 1, 2006 and February 29, 2008.

Today, that opening date has been changed to August 29, 2005! That means anyone that moved back after the storm (and who meets all the other tests for eligibility) is now eligible. In other words, FEMA is no longer penalizing the pioneers who came back - or those folks who decided to put down roots somewhere else - as soon as possible after the storm. The closing date remains the same - February 29, 2008.

I assume there will be a press release on this in the coming days, but here’s some more details, straight from the actual DSG (note you can’t have already received these benefits from another organization, such as the United Methodist Church, the Red Cross, or any other agency that might have provided the assistance):

- as before, the benefit is a maximum of $4000. That is counted toward the theoretical maximum Individuals & Families Program benefit of $26,200. Thus, if your household has not received more than $22,200, you could receive up to the maximum $4000.

- a new part of the benefit is that FEMA will pay for one night of hotel stay if the move was more than 400 miles. They’ll pay for the room and taxes, but not room service or any other hotel services. If you had more than one room, (due to occupancy restrictions or had more than 4 people in your group during the move), FEMA will pay for another room. For each additional 400 miles over the first 400, FEMA will pay one more night.

- as before, the move must be 50 miles or more

- FEMA will pay for truck rental, moving help, moving supply purchases from the rental company (boxes, tape, etc), car rental, and even gas. Apparently, receipts are only required for the gas purchases, although they also mention you can put in for mileage (assumedly at the standard gov’t reimbursement rate in effect at the time of the move, though I would wait until the official guidance is released to the public for that detail). If you don’t have receipts for anything else, I think you can supply estimates or you can call the moving or rental company to get a duplicate receipt. But receipts are always best.

- FEMA will not pay for gas if you used your private vehicle to move back (they feel you would have been doing so anyway as part of a normal evacuation, and that any extra expenses incurred in such a private-vehicle move were covered by the $2000 Emergency Assistance - I’m not saying I agree… I’m just passing along the reasoning). If you rented a trailer to tow behind, they will pay for that.

- FEMA’s still paying for plane, train, and bus tickets home, as long as you haven’t had them paid for by some other organization.

- the program has been opened up to everyone in the Katrina-and-Rita-affected counties and parishes in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Previously, this program was only open to Louisiana storm victims.

There’s a few more details (you can only apply for benefits resulting from one of the storms, not both), but the big news is the date change. This is pretty huge, and will benefit thousands of people.

FEMA has set up a special fax number if you wish to submit your receipts by fax. It is:

(877) 828-9388

If you want to mail in your paperwork, the address is:

FEMA Relocation Assistance

NPSC

P.O. Box 10055

Hyattsville, MD 20782

As always, you should call 1-800-621-FEMA to register for the program and to get all the information. Ask to be transferred to a Relocation Assistance specialist. FEMA has specifically trained personnel to process this paperwork and answer aid recipients’ questions.

Note that FEMA has been holding off processing anyone’s Relocation Assistance claims that have been submitted in the last month (the program was announced August 27, 2007). They knew the program would be getting changed significantly, so they wanted to wait for the revised guidance. That way, everyone is being treated equally. According to the fellow I spoke with, processing of claims should begin today or tomorrow.

When the press release comes out, I’ll point you to it.

Matt McBride

Dear New Orleanians,

I have confirmed that there is a written policy change to the Relocation Assistance program now making its way through the Disaster Assistance Directorate at FEMA. I do not know the exact contents of the change, but have strong indications that the eligibility date for reimbursement of moving expenses has been moved to a date earlier than February 1, 2006, potentially making many thousands of people eligible for up to $4000 in FEMA funds.

The policy change has to go through five layers of bueracracy before it is issued. It has currently made it past two of those layers:

5) Individual and Households Program (which is where it originated)

4) Human Services Division

As of Friday, September 14, it was on the desk of the policy shop for the Disaster Assistance Directorate:

3) Program Management Section

After that, it has to work its way through two more layers:

2) Individual Assistance

1) Office of the Director for Disaster Assistance

In terms of how the government works, this is pretty speedy. I’ll keep you updated as events warrant.

Matt McBride via email

Dear New Orleanians:

This past Monday, FEMA announced a new program for those displaced by hurricanes Katrina & Rita. It is meant to provide reimbursement for relocation expenses incurred by any disaster victims. But there is a serious problem.

First, here’s the press release on the program.

and here’s the Times-Picayune’s article about it.

Right after Katrina, FEMA had a program called the Facilitated Relocation Program. From what little I can find about it now, it’s the program that paid for one-way airplane, bus, and train tickets for evacuees to come back to the disaster zone. It didn’t pay for moving expenses or rental cars, so it’s not an exact analogue. In fact, it’s very different. But (and this is the important part) it apparently officially ended on January 31, 2006. Here’s a FEMA press release on it.

Yes the press release says it was to end December 31st, but I’ve confirmed with FEMA that it actually ended a month later.)

Despite the significant differences in the two programs, FEMA views the new one as simply a continuation of the old one. It is NOT.

You cannot compare paying for a one way bus ticket to the costs incurred in renting a moving van in Houston or Atlanta (where U-Haul and Penske were charging triple and quadruple their normal rates after the storm) and hiring movers to bring back what you salvaged from your flooded home, along with what you had acquired in the first few months after the storm (some of which, such as furniture, was funded by FEMA!).

While this January 7, 2007 article in the Times-Picayune says that even 16 months after the storm, truck rental companies were charging through the nose, I can tell you that from personal experience, it was already expensive just five months after the storm. That article also talks about what finally led to the new policy. There is no discussion of the earlier bus-ticket program, because that program had nothing to do with people renting a moving truck. How FEMA can conflate the two is beyond me.

So this policy has to be changed to move the start date back to something more common sense.

I’ve already alerted the Times-Picayune to this, and they will probably be writing something about it next week. I’ve also spoken to the bureaucrats at FEMA in Washington. At first, they claimed they couldn’t tell me why February 1, 2006 had been chosen (in fact, I had to pry even to get the name of the person to whom I was talking). They claimed it was a matter of internal policy deliberation, and that I had to submit any questions in writing to a generic email box (fema-correspondence-unit@dhs.gov).

When I asked if it was because the Facilitated Relocation Program had ended on January 31, 2006, they said that was indeed the reason. I’m pretty sure I was speaking with - if not the person who crafted the policy - at least someone who knows its history.

So please let anyone you know about this, and how ridiculously unfair it is. Every individual is entitled by law to $26,200 in individual disaster assistance from FEMA. If this latest allowed allotment does not cause you to exceed that amount, I don’t see why FEMA should arbitrarily limit it with a silly date on a calendar. Hopefully we can get this policy changed to something that recognizes the enormous struggles Katrina and Rita victims went through in the immediate aftermath of the storms.

Matt Mc Bride (via email)

So. It’s been two years. The memorials and the commemorations and the celebrations are ramping up, and I have to admit, I won’t be attending any of the hullabaloo.

This time last year, I was living in my gutted house as my man and I put it back together around us. It was hot and exhausting and I’ve never worked so hard in my life. When I asked anybody, everybody, if they were going to any of the K-related festivities, the answer was always the same: “Hell no.” They were working on their own houses, going to their jobs, living their lives. The consensus was that the memorials were more political photo-ops for the money-rich or time-rich, than they were for the populace of a city for whom the hard work had only just begun.

Therefore, that I’m moved to write this now makes me something of a hypocrite, doesn’t it? And yet, I don’t want to talk about that rainy, windy, bitch, or the failure of our federal government to protect us with the money we gave them for that purpose, or the crazy, exhausting blur of the last two years as we all try to regain some normalcy in the midst of lives that even before, had anything but.

What I want to do is congratulate all of you who have dug in, soldiered on, gritted your teeth, rolled up your sleeves, and are working to make your home, your city, and your lives your own again.

No one else, anywhere else, will ever understand what it is you’ve been through like we do. They may cluck with sympathy, they may have sent money on to the Red Cross, they may have housed you in a faraway land, they may have changed the channel when yet another story came on about stupid, destroyed New Orleans who got what it deserved, but here, we GET it. Like it or not, we have been made into one extended, dysfunctional family with a shared reality. Where else in the world can such an innocuous question as “How much water did you get?” take on such onerous overtones? Where else does a Lowe’s or Home Depot resemble a multicultural circus? Where else can you laugh, or cry, over a Wednesday afternoon cocktail as you compare skyrocketing costs of sheetrock and wiring?

I know New Orleans is aggravating, scary and crime-ridden as hell. The frightened, dangerous children, killing other children when they’re not making more or brutalizing the rest of us. The crumbling infrastructure. The caboose-less parade of corrupt officials begging forgiveness for that which they crucified their constituency. The streets that still flood, the missing road signs that confuse even the longest-term residents, the lackluster schools, the poverty cheek-by-jowl with the entitled, the escalating crime rate coupled with an overburdened, understaffed police force. The reasons to leave seem almost insurmountable.

But even these things bind us together with invisible threads of simpatico and camaraderie. The rest of the country will never understand why we fight to keep living here. They see a week of flashy parades and cheap baubles and overindulgence and can’t equate all the difficulties with a blip of perceived debauchery. But still, they visit US. And when their vacation is over they return to cookie-cutter lives replete with ticky-tacky houses, 80 hour workweeks, air-conditioned muzak elevators and two hour commutes. They drive-thru a Burger King for dinner and get home just in time to numb themselves in front of the television before passing out and doing it all over again the next day.

What they don’t understand is that here, we are free to be our ourselves, more than anywhere else I’ve ever been. I can afford to make a living as an artist here, own a home here. Here, the question is not “What do you?”, but “What are you passionate about?” Here, we have whole rooms devoted to our kink, be it costuming, painting, metalworking, music-making, glass-blowing, or…kink. Here, we can devote our lives to being ourselves, and I’ll make any sacrifice I have to in order to live the way I want, and be surrounded by people who do the same. It’s real here. We’re not isolated from the realities of life and death. We live hard every damned day, we know what we’re up against, and it makes the good times all the sweeter. We FEEL things here. We’ve learned how tenuous our hold is on life, and we respect it all the more because of that knowledge. We’ve been isolated in a plastic place, and I don’t ever want to be there again.

So to all of you who are sticking it out, working your asses off, rebuilding your homes, restarting your lives, and are using this hellish setback as an opportunity to make better, brighter lives for yourselves and your city, thank you.

You are the ones who make it all worth it.

-Marrus

The second annual Rising Tide conference will be held August 24-26, 2007, at the New Orleans Yacht Club. This is a NOLA blogger-organized and supported conference featuring speakers, panels, breakout sessions, and other dialogs on the future of the city of New Orleans.

This year’s emphasis is on ground-level, grass-roots efforts. It has become clear to those of us in south Louisiana that we will have to watch the watchmen, as well as take the upper hand is setting the city back on track. To that end, there will be presentations on local politics and how to influence them, making civics sexy, sustainability, levee engineering, and media outreach.

The keynote speaker is Dave Zirin, author of Welcome to the Terrordome, published by Haymarket Press, a columnist for SLAM Magazine, a regular contributor to the Nation Magazine, and a regular op-ed writer for the Los Angeles Times. Timothy Ruppert, president of the Louisiana Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers, will give a comprehensive report on the status of our levee protection two years after the failure of the federal levees brought catastrophe to New Orleans. Matt McBride of Fix the Pumps will present via video conference. Panelists will include community activists Karen Gadbois of Squandered Heritage, Bart Everson of b.rox, and Peter Athas of Adrastos, muckraking blogger Mark Moseley of Your Right Hand Thief, New Orleans political sage Michael Duplantier and author Joshua Clark Heart Like Water

On Friday, August 24, there will be a party at Buffa’s Lounge featuring the work of New Orleans videographers, and Sunday is reserved for a hands-on service project in aid of the NOLA school system. At the Buffa’s party, we are serving cocktail party-type food, but there will be a cash bar.The weekend’s events costs $20 per person. This includes admission to the Friday night party at Buffa’s, Saturday’s events at the New Orleans Yacht Club (including morning coffee and croissants and lunch from Dunbar’s), and participation in the Sunday service project. Please register to attend using the PayPal link on the website. If you don’t use PayPal, feel free to call or e-mail me to reserve your space at the conference and, more importantly, your lunch from Dunbar’s. We have no problem with people paying at the door, we just need to know that you are coming.

There will, f  course, be liveblogging of the event, and materials available online. If you can’t come, there is also a paypal link if you'd care to donate (this is a non-profit endeavor). Feel free to contact us through the website, or ask questions by replying to this e-mail. Rising Tide’s toll-free phone number is: 866-910-2055.

Although I am sending this e-mail to over 200 people, I’m sure I’m missing some. Please forward this to anyone you think might be interested. Unless they have a blog or have expressed interest in the past, they are probably not on my e-mail list. Also, bloggers, please spread the word on your blogs!

The population numbers here in NOLA are something that gets a lot of play in the media and a lot of mindshare amongst the residents. Who is leaving? Who is returning? Who is moving here for the first time? Etc, ad nauseum.

While many are getting burned out and departing, as I myself almost was a few short weeks ago,  I see almost as many finally returning. This last weekend I helped to pack a U-Haul headed to NYC, but I also had a camper parked in front of my neighbor’s house containing a couple who has only now made it back. This organic tide will continue to ebb and flow, it always does. The severity is thrown into sharp relief by the media and the extra attention people pay to it in the aftermath of the Federal Flood.

What would be interesting would be if we could get reliable numbers (pipe dream, I know) on how many new residents there are thta have come here from elsewhere to participate in this new fangled version of the Old West that we live in.

Just an observation…

I do not have much time to write before leaving to go to work, but there are two issues that I ran across this morning that almost made me choke on my coffee. Acording to the Daily Advertiser our illustrious House of Representatives has voted for a bill authorizing raises for the Gov. and various other State Gov. officials. Have these lackwits earned a raise? In the Governor’s case a 40K raise pushing the job 10K above the national average for State Governors?

When the bill came up for a second vote Wednesday, 22 lawmakers who voted against it or were absent in May switched their votes and supported it 57-42. Another 13 who voted for it or were absent last month voted against the proposal.

The vote exchange puzzled even Speaker of the House Joe Salter, D-Florien, who said, “I can’t explain it.”"I don’t think some people knew what they were voting on,” said Rep. Monica Walker, D-Marksville, who with Rep. Kay Katz, R-Monroe, voted against the raise both times.

Katz agreed “some people weren’t paying attention.”

The bill, which now goes to the Senate for consideration, seeks to increase the governor’s salary from $95,000 to $135,000 and the salary of the lieutenant governor, secretary of state, treasurer, attorney general, commissioner of insurance and commissioner of agriculture from $85,000 to $115,000.

Does this seem like a well deserved raise? Does this seem like people who are supposed to be steering the state (HA!) were paying attention? Does it seem like a bad acid flashback? Is there any sanity left in Louisiana?Was there any to begin with? And what about Naomi?

So as I’m choking on my coffee reading this I get another jolt. I wish I could say it was a shock, but it was not. More like getting confirmation from your doctor that you have cancer…

The Corps. Deception. Corruption. Reckless endangerment of every life in New Orleans. Hardly new news, but the scope of things as revealed by their own internal investigation is something out of a delusional paranoid’s fantay world. The unfortunate thing is that it is not. I have leave and go t a contract job so I will steer you over to Fix The Pumps to get all the gory details from an actual engineer.

Top points
The Corps New Orleans District has lied to New Orleans and the nation for over a year.

• The pumps are far from ready.
• Millions of taxpayer dollars have been misspent or are unaccounted for.
• Multiple cover-ups have taken place.
• New Orleans remains nearly as vulnerable to flooding as it was immediately following Katrina.

His article includes excellent documentation and reasoning as well as a link to the Corps Report itself. Prepare to become nauseous as you read.

Big Hat Tip to Greg at Suspect Device for the info on the raises. Huge bow on bended knee to Matt at Fix The Pumps, our very own homegrown NOLA Sperhero!

Xposted on  the Livejournal New Orleans Community

Friday, April 20th 2007, the day the Camellia Grill returns to operation! You still cannot get a streetcar there, but as of the morrow Judg’s Chicken and Chocolate Cherry Freezes once again assume their places in the New Orleans lexicon. I may take a stab at going on saturday or sunday…

Finally something else important is back! This seems to happen far too infrequently…

Well, I cannot completely drop the vitriol, there is too much that is deserving of it. Instead I will mock the worst of it:

The Infamous memo that Matt Mcbride leaked to the media, the one that caused all the media outlets to jump on the “defective pumps,” bandwagon. Where is it, what does it actually say?

Well, if you go here you will find it. How much “mea culpa,” on paper does it take before we can force the Corps to be held accountable?

This is a great example of why blogging is important, the media has consistently been months behind on most stories nd usually seems to cull their material from the local blogs. Damn fine to see a local blogger once again being the whistle blower. Tell him thanks when you stop by his site, he more than deserves it!!!

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Gee whiz, golly! The Corps installed faulty pumps in New Orleans to make up for their failed levees! Everyone who is surprised please raise your hands…

Yup, thought so.

From Yahoo News via the AP wire:

NEW ORLEANS - The Army Corps of Engineers, rushing to meet

President Bush

’s promise to protect New Orleans by the start of the 2006 hurricane season, installed defective flood-control pumps last year despite warnings from its own expert that the equipment would fail during a storm, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

The Churchillian verbiage of the infamous Speech at Jackson Square continues to prove that talk, no matter how lordly, is cheap. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, the US seems to have declared war on the city. Granted we have our own batch of lackwits running the show, but the Federal efforts seem almost deliberately geared towards stamping us out under the guise of assisting us.

We lived here because we were told by the Army Corps of Engineers that it was safe within certain parameters. That was a lie. The Cat 5 part of the storm ht the MS gulf coast and obliterated it. The winds that hit New Orleans were clocked at Cat 2, one level below what the levees were supposed to be rated for. They failed. “Act of God, ” try “Act of Man.”

So our supposed protection, promised before last hurricane season has been provided by these pumps:

The pumps failed less-strenuous testing than the original contract
called for, according to the memo. Originally, each of the 34 pumps was
to be “load tested” — made to pump water — but that requirement for all
the pumps was dropped, the memo said.Of eight pumps that were load tested, one was turned on for a few
minutes and another was run at one-third of operating pressure, the
memo said. Three of the other load-tested pumps “experienced
catastrophic failure,” Garzino wrote.

What is it going to take for pink slips to start being issued? Or even better, we make it law that members of the Corps, politicians, and mebers of the Levee Board have to live in house that back directly up to the levess.

This is not simple dishonesty, these are people’s lives! Something has got to give, we need a serious change in the way these people are paid, contracted, and held accountable for works that directly affect the lives of an entire city.

One of my favorite little details, one I will end on, is about the company that made the pumps (a company that still got 80% of the mony for the job). They have *GASP*connections to the Bush family:

MWI is owned by J. David Eller and his sons. Eller was once a business partner of former Florida Gov.

Jeb Bush
in a venture called Bush-El that marketed MWI pumps. And Eller has
donated about $128,000 to politicians, the vast majority of it to the
Republican Party, since 1996, according to the Center for Responsive
Politics.

MWI has run into trouble before. The U.S. Justice Department sued
the company in 2002, accusing it of fraudulently helping Nigeria obtain
$74 million in taxpayer-backed loans for overpriced and unnecessary
water-pump equipment. The case has yet to be resolved.

Because of the trouble with the New Orleans pumps, the Corps has
withheld 20 percent of the MWI contract, including an incentive of up
to $4 million that the company could have collected if it delivered the
equipment in time for the 2006 hurricane season.

xposted on HumidCity, DefendNOLA, LJ New Orleans, Powers and Morrison

The Senate Local & Municipal Affairs Committee will meet as follows:
DATE: Wednesday, February 21, 2007
TIME: 9:30 a.m.
PLACE: John J. Hainkel Room
AGENDA: Follow-up with Community Development, LRA and Dr. Blakely

Members: Senator Ann Duplessis, Vice Chair
Senator Heulette “Clo” Fontenot
Senator Lydia Jackson
Senator Tom Schedler
Senator Derrick Shepherd
Senator Mike Smith
Senator Diana Bajoie, Interim member
Senator Edwin Murray, Interim member
FROM: Senator Cleo Fields, Chairman
Senate Local and Municipal Affairs Committee
Senate #: (225) 342-2040

———-

[via Michelle Kimball of PRC]

Is it just me or does scheduling this on Ash Wenesday seem like a blatant attempt to pare down attendance? -Loki

A big hat tip to Morwen for unearthing this before I did!
Of course the real Bill of Rights is pretty tattered under the current administration, so this one’s chances of being adopted and followed is slim. Still, I love the content:

From the T-P:

A newly formed group advocating for Road Home grant applicants has released “Bill of Rights,” which it calls “minimal guarantees that we believe grant applicants deserve.”
The document comes from the Citizens Road Home Action Team, or CHAT, and seeks to prod more efficient delivery of federal grants from the $7.5 billion hurricane aid program to owners of flooded homes and rental properties. In the short time since the group formed, it has succeeded in getting several policies it believes will smooth the application process.

CHAT’s bill of rights:
I. The right to the complete rules of the program.
II. The right to timely processing of your application.
III. The right to a fair and swift resolution of errors, disputes, and appeals.
IV. The right to a fair and accurate calculation of your benefits and tender of your award (acceptance of grant money without losing the right to dispute resolution and appeal).
V. The right to simple, fair, and easily understood closing papers.
VI. The right to simple and fair rules for lenders to administer grant funds (disbursement accounts) that make it easier to rebuild, not more difficult.
VII. The right to accurate information about the status of your application by informed and trained personnel within 24 hours of your request.
VIII. The right to reasonable residency requirements for grants and loans and fair rules for grant benefit assignment or compensation if you must sell your home.
IX. The right to receive sufficient affordable or forgivable loans to enable you to rebuild or repair if you have a low pre-storm appraised value.
X. The right to have the disposition of LRA-acquired RHP properties benefit grantees and the neighborhoods in which such properties are located, with neighborhood input in the process.

Seem like simple things, eh? The type of things Americans should not even have to bitch about, right? Well, we have not been treated as Americans since the 28th of August in 2005…

NEW ORLEANS - Residents whose homes were flooded during Hurricane Katrina can sue the Army Corps of Engineers over claims the agency ignored warnings about defects in a nearby navigation channel, a federal judge ruled Friday.

The ruling, one of the first significant decisions in a set of cases over what caused the flooding, may force the Corps to hand over documents about the management of the channel. (via yahoo news)

I had given up hope for this! The unassailable position of immunity that the Corps(e) has held is finally getting some scrutiny and action!

The Corps and federal government had argued they were immune to legal challenges because decisions about the waterway were based in policy.

But U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval said there is no way to know that at this point, and said plaintiffs should get a hearing for their allegations.

Is that the tiniest flickr of hope I feel begining to ignite? Stanwood Duval is my new hero, one I’m sure will enter our peculiar local pantheon. Now the question is, will the suit have a chance?

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Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you’re always afraid
You step out of line, the man come and take you away

We better stop, hey, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
Stop, hey, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
Stop, now, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going dow
Stop, children, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down

-Buffalo Springfield

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Alrighty then boys and girls, now that we have worked that black and gold fever out of our bones it is once again time to turn our attention to the buerocrats who are sabotaging the recovery of our city through inaction, incompetence, and/or corruption.

With this in mind HumidCity endorses the effort known as Operation Scary Clown.

On monday please make a copy of following cover letter or compose your own. Then using the list at the end of this post fax and email copies of letter on Monday (Jan 29, 2007). We need to make them understand that we will not put up with much more of this.

January 29, 2007

Elected Officials Of Louisiana

Dear Sir or Madam We, the citizens of New Orleans, are concerned that our leadership is failing us. We are 17 months into the recovery of this great city, and feel that because of Mayor C. R. Nagin our efforts have been less than acceptable. We wonder if you, as one of our elected officials, have come to the same conclusion. We have marched against crime as a community, and we will march against lack of leadership with the same conviction. Our hope with this letter is that you join us in asking our Mayor to step down.

This is a challenge to our elected officials to stand along side us. We only ask for strong and proper leadership at a time that anything less is unacceptable. If you stand with us you can stand proud that you are giving New Orleans a chance. If you do not stand with us , we can accept that you have failed us as an elected official and it will be duly noted upon election time. Give our city a fair chance, take a stand against irresponsible leadership.

We are faxing and emailing as many elected officials that can help us save our city. We feel that a recall can and will be an option if need be. If you truly want to help, contact other elected officials and let them know that you will not stand by as our chance at recovery slips away. Time is not on our side.

Thank You for your time
Respectfully

Whoever You Are

and the list of targets-

City Council:

• Oliver M. Thomas, Jr. (President and Council Member At-Large)(504) 658-1070 Fax: (504) 658-1077O
• Arnie Fielkow (Vice-President and Council Member At-Large)Phone: (504) 658-1060 Fax: (504) 658-1068
• Shelley Midura (District A)Phone: (504) 658-1010Fax: (504) 658-1016S
• Stacy S. Head (District B)Phone: (504) 658 -1020Fax: (504) 658-1025
• James Carter (District C)Phone: (504) 658-1030Fax: (504) 658-1037
• Cynthia Hedge-Morrell (District D)Phone: (504) 658-1040Fax: (504) 658-1048
• Cynthia Willard-Lewis (District E)Phone: (504) 658-1050Fax: (504) 658-1058

House of Representatives:

• Arnold, Jeffery “Jeff” J. 4480 General DeGaulleSuite 205 New Orleans, LA 70131(504)393-5801(504)393-5809
• Badon, Austin 3212 PrytaniaNew Orleans, LA 70115 ( 504)896-1491(504)896-1412
• Bruneau, Emile “Peppi” 145 Robert E. Lee Blvd., Ste. 206 New Orleans, LA 70124-2585 (504)288-1200(504)483-4686
• Gray, Cheryl A. 1100 Poydras St., Ste. 2621 New Orleans, LA 70163(504)568-2098(504)588-2179
• Heaton, Alex 2920 Dante Street New Orleans, LA 70118 (504)865-0751(504)865-0752
• Jefferson-Bullock, Jalila 3313 S. Saratoga St., Ste. 7 New Orleans, LA 70115 (504)896-1478(504)896-1480
• LaFonta, Juan 6305 Elysian Fields Ave.Suite 207A New Orleans, LA 70122(504)282-0265(504)282-0821
• Marchand, Charmaine P. O. Box 94062 Baton Rouge, LA 70804
• Morrell, Jean-Paul J. 1660 Treasure St.Suite B New Orleans, LA 70119 (504)942-5996(504)942-5998
• Richmond, Cedric P.O. Box 44457 Baton Rouge, LA 70804 (504)242-4198(225)342-5763
• Tucker, Jim 732 Behrman Highway, Suite C-2 Terrytown, LA 70056 (504)393-5646
• Scalise, Steve 824 Elmwood Park Blvd.Suite 220 Harahan, LA 70123 (504) 888-9899(504)838-5212
• Carter, Karen R. 1215 Prytania StreetSuite 364 New Orleans, LA 70130 (504)568-8346(504)568-8405

Louisiana state Senators:

main email address: websen@legis.state.la.us Subject line: “SENATORS NAME”

• Diana E. Bajoie Post Office Box 15168New Orleans, LA 70175(504) 568-7760
• Derrick Shepherd 2009 Ames BoulevardMarrero, LA 70072 (504) 371-0263
• Julie Quinn 3330 North Causeway BoulevardSuite 438Metairie, LA 70002(504) 219-4640
• Francis C. Heitmeier 3709 General DeGaulleNew Orleans, LA 70114 (504) 361-6014
• Edwin R. Murray 1540 N. Broad St.New Orleans, LA 70119 (504) 945-0042
• Ann Duplessis P.O. Box 94183 Baton Rouge, LA 70804 (225) 342-1751Toll Free Number(866) 406-6281
• Walter J. Boasso 100 Intermodal Drive Chalmette, LA 70043(504) 270-9258Toll-free: 1-866-926-2776

US SENATORS:

• Landrieu, Mary L.-Hale Boggs Federal Building 500 Poydras StreetRoom 1005 New Orleans, LA 70130 Voice: (504) 589-2427Fax:(504) 589-4023
• Vitter, David- 2800 Veterans Blvd.,Suite 201 Metairie, LA 70002 Phone: (504) 589-2753Fax: (504) 589-2607

GovernorKathleen Blanco
Phone: 866-366-1121, 225-342-0991 or 225-342-7015 Facsimile: 225-342-7099

Xposted and rewritten from LJ New Orleans

Xposted to HumidCity MySpace (also sent as a bulletin), HumidCity, and Powers & Morrison

For those fortunate enough to have been invited, The Skull Club is a well known and loved gathering. I have had that good fortune. As a result Lord David, who orchestrates the proceedings and keeps the rolls of membership, has become a friend. I am proud to be able to add his voice to the ongoing dialogue:

Spain & Rampart, Marigny
Sunday, January 7th, 2007

Having just returned from the Ad Hoc town meeting on violence in the Marigny/Bywater neighborhoods, in preparation for a march on City Hall, this Thursday, 1/11/07, I am reviewing the Times Picayune I picked up on the way home.

While I expected some good and bad ideas to arise from today’s meeting, I was not surprised by any in either extreme, pleasantly so, as this gathering was thrown together in the last few days, mostly by friends and neighbors still stricken with grief.

While some of these suggestions meet with sour looks, like disarming all residents as a start for peace, some met without outright booing, like boycotting Mardi Gras until the murders stop. The thought of disarming everyone in the neighborhood sounds reasonable in a TV Land, sing-a-long kind of way, but would leave us all publicly at the hands of those with weapons. I might point out the young couple who, when being robbed at gun point out side the Pheonix, saved their own lives by killing the gunman on the spot. As for canceling Mardi Gras, that sounds like grounding your kid because the bully beat him up. And in that regard, I got the shock of the day…

It seems that Warren Riley is now putting forth the idea of curfew once again.  Since we have a police superintendent who cannot manage his forces, or personnel.  He wants to hold us all prisoners in our homes while the criminals with guns roam the streets. This would not have helped Helen Hill, who had her attacker knock at her door at 5:30 in the morning. The local policeman who web surfs in his cruiser down the block would have seen nothing either way.

I recall being chased down by police for being on my neighbors’ doorstep at 8:30 one night, just over a year ago, for being out after curfew. They threatened my wife, neighbor & I with arrest for Public Intoxication for having a cocktail together on his doorstep. While residents of Uptown New Orleans enjoyed a 2am curfew in the French Quarter, we who live a few blocks across Elysian Fields, and in the Bywater, were herded like cattle, sometimes at gunpoint, into our homes at 8pm. Why? Because of the rubber-stamp curfew of the 70117 designed to protect the lower 9th Ward. Obviously, those of us on this side of the Industrial Canal were not flooded out, returned to our homes & jobs and intended to rebuild our city. We waited months before being allowed out after 8. I haven’t been so restricted since entering Junior High School.

The idea that the lack of police management can be ignored while we, the citizens of this Great City, are locked behind our doors, quivering in fear of any late knock, is absurd beyond all possibility. I’ve lived in Washington DC when it took the Murder Capitol Crown from New Orleans. I lived in New York City’s lower east side during the crack epidemic. No police force ever locked the citizens down because they couldn’t do their job. Let’s find somebody who can. I’m told that New Orleans has a ratio of 600 police officers per every 100,000 citizens, one of the highest in the country. I’ve seen as many as nine at a time, gathered on Bourbon Street, as many as three protecting one single exotic dancer. A shift in management skills is in order.

Our very freedom is at risk by this kind of thinking, Mister Riley. Our very lives.  Better you lose your job then another child loses a mother, another husband, his wife. Do your job, or let us find someone who can. We’re not going to lockdown.

Lord David - Artist
New Orleans