Katrina Update #71Katrina Update #71
(Thanks for the picture, Randy)
Janis and I are home again after 16 days on the road. We're glad to be home, and getting caught up is one of the reasons my update is a day late this week. On our way back from Charlotte, NC on Friday we stopped by The Chilihouse in Meridian, MS. Owner-sisters Tammy and Kim are frequent visitors at Coop's Place, which is where we met them. They have Coop's recipe for Pasta Opelousas on their menu (with credit to Coop, of couse). We had a wonderful meal with a grilled Smoked Ribeye with blackened shrimp, Corn on the Cob, baked potato, and Chocolate Cheesecake. If you ever find yourself even remotely close to Meridian, we strongly recommend you try them out (tell them Chuck and Janis sent you!).
The Chilihouse in Meridian, MS
If you have been a frequent reader of this site, you know that the residents of New Orleans – especially the French Quarter – will take just about any event as an excuse for costuming, and Easter is no exception. Many of who have been written about here participated in yesterday's "Bunny Rampage," in which people dress up in Easter costumes (mostly bunnys) and run around in the French Quarter, passing out chocolate Easter Eggs, Peeps, and other candies. Sean had to work, but took time out to get photographed with the rest of the group.
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For more Easter fun, check out this video.
We can tell a lot about how New Orleans is different from the rest of the United States by looking at a few key statistics. For instance, New Orleans ranks 5th in black population among cities over 100,000. It ranks 8th in terms of the percentage of its population that is in poverty, but first in percent of population who live in poverty areas. New Orleans is also has the 3rd lowest median household income and 3rd in the portion of the workforce that is unemployed. Interestingly, Louisiana has the largest percentage of its population who were born in Louisiana.
If you ever wondered why more people didn't evacuate, consider the following: 33% of the residents in the Lower Ninth Ward have no vehicle available. They depended totally on public transportation to get around. All the above numbers came from the US Census Bureau. You can read more here.
This one is just too bizzare. I had to move it up from the News section, because — well, more evidence that the butter has slipped off Kimbo's noodles really isn't news, is it? Anyway, take a look at this picture:
That's the banner from Kimbo's web site. It would infer to some that Kimbo some how belongs in New Orleans, that with her in charge, everything will be cleaner, etc. The problem is, that's not New Orleans. The streets here may be narrow, but they are not that narrow. Also, no where in the French Quarter will you find a street that curves like that. So where is it?
Disneyland.
In the picture above you can see the section of the New Orleans section of DisneyLand that was used for Kimbo's picture – and her picture is super-imposed on the Disney photo. Kimbo, btw, was born in Buffalo and served in Kalamazoo, MI before coming to New Orleans. Fair warning: once she loses the upcoming mayoral election she may leave New Orleans. Don't let her into your city government, or — of you are bored — do.
- With less than a week left before the Mayoral election (which will decide the two candidates will be in a May 20th run-off election), it is good to know that there are those who truly haven't lost their sense of humor. Ernie K-Doe, the self-proclaimed Emperor of the World, has entered the Mayoral race. Ernie's wife, Antoinette, is mounting a write-in campaign for the New Orleans R&B star, whose main claim to fame is the song Mother-In-Law. The only problem is, Ernie has been dead for almost five years. Antoinette admits the campaign is tongue-in-cheek, but adds "He's the only one qualified – that's my opinion."
- Housing continues to be the main issue in New Orleans. Dennis S. Mileti, former director of the National Hazards Center in Colorado, called the collapse of FEMA's initial trailer strategy "the largest disaster-response failure in the history of our country." Frances Fragos Townsend, President Bush's homeland security and counterterrorism adviser, reserved some of the toughest criticism for FEMA's mass trailer initiative. She said that it "foundered due to inadequate planning and poor coordination," and she recommended that the Department of Housing and Urban Development take over from Homeland Security in future disasters. Citing lack of training, expertise and engagement with other agencies, Townsend's "Lessons Learned" report stated, "The Federal government's capability to provide housing solutions to the displaced Gulf Coast population has proved to be far too slow, bureaucratic, and inefficient."
Among other things, the report refers to rushed and inefficient decisions in the first weeks after Katrina:
· FEMA spent $900 million to buy 25,000 manufactured homes and 1,300 modular homes, most of which cannot be used because agency rules say they are too big or unsafe in flood zones.
· The agency spent $632 million to subsidize hotel rooms for tens of thousands of families at an average cost of $2,400 a month, three times what it later paid families to rent two-bedroom apartments.
· The agency spent $249 million to secure 8,136 cruise-ship cabins for six months, at a cost that Inspector General Richard L. Skinner estimated at $5,100 a month per passenger. That is six times the cost of renting two-bedroom apartments.
On Tuesday, at the epicenter of the crisis, New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin carried out an election-season threat and formally suspended development of new FEMA group trailer sites citywide. He asked the federal government to find alternatives. There was a related piece on CNN this past week where a resident of a gated community was complaining about the FEMA trailers that were being put in right next to their property. He came off looking like a "Not-In-My-Backyard" (NIMBY) piece-of-work, but a little digging showed that the Nagin administration actually did not recommend or approve building on that site. They had asked the site to be built on a larger parcel of land about a mile away that could hold more trailers. While there was no doubt some element of NIMBY involved with the resident's comments, that doesn't mean that the trailers should not have been put on the smaller site – especially since the city did not approve them being put there.
FEMA officials privately complain that Nagin has failed to move on 108 approved sites. In a letter last week to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, Nagin said FEMA has housed only 600 families on 84 approved sites, which could hold 4,200.
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