Viewpoint: Has Keva Landrum delivered the knock-out punch to Jason Williams in the DA’s race?

 

By most accounts former Judge Keva Landrum should be running away with the district attorney’s race. Landrum has raised and spent bucket loads of money and is the politically correct gender and ethnicity. She knows how to do the job because she has done it before, albeit in an interim capacity. 

When “tough on crime” was all the rage, Landrum was praised as a no-nonsense prosecutor. Now she is being attacked for her then-appropriate performance as the office holder and also is being burdened by other people’s political baggage. These factors among others are keeping the window open for City Councilman at-large Jason Williams to become New Orleans next district attorney.  

Williams is darn lucky that he was indicted for tax fraud last June, not last week.

Silver Lining: Maple Small Animal Clinic is busier than ever during the pandemic

This is the first Silver Lining, an Uptown Messenger series on locally owned small businesses that are thriving during the COVID-19 pandemic. Maple Small Animal Clinic has a different pandemic story to tell from many of our local businesses. For one thing, it does not depend on the tourist trade. And veterinary clinics are considered an essential business, so it never had to shut down. The clinic changed its protocol to curbside drop-off and pickup, but it stayed fully staffed and did not need to limit its services.

Uptown homes bedecked for the season on view virtually for the Preservation Resource Center’s Holiday Home Tour

Who doesn’t want to peek inside some of New Orleans’ historic and glamorous homes? 

That’s where the Preservation Resource Center comes to the home-curiosity rescue with its annual Holiday Home Tour, now the 45th, on Dec. 12 and 13. 

But with the coronavirus pandemic this year, the PRC was in a bind: How to continue the tradition, but make it safe? 

By forgoing the walking tour and creating a virtual tour of six homes located throughout New Orleans – Uptown, Mid-City, French Quarter and Bywater — available to view with purchase of a ticket. “It was thrilling to get a sampling of styles and peek into the lives of homeowners,” said PRC Executive Director Danielle Del Sol in an email. In the past, the homes were centered mainly in the Lower Garden District and Garden District, making it easy for tour-goers to navigate. 

Half of the featured homes this year are in Uptown neighborhoods. The 2020 Holiday Home Tour includes the homes of Uptown residents James Carville and Mary Matalin, Penny and Todd Francis, and Bryan Batt and Tom Cianfichi. 

The other homes are in the French Quarter (Deb Shriver’s Greek Revival townhome), Mid-City (Alexa Pulitzer and Seth Levine’s Eastlake Center Hall) and Bywater (Pres Kabacoff and Sallie Ann Glassman’s camelback style home, newly built to be environmentally sensitive). 

“With a video tour, it is still a huge ‘ask’ for homeowners, but a different kind,” said Del Sol.  “This year, we asked them to decorate their homes early for the holidays, then star in a video.” Accompanying the homeowners on the tours, filmed and produced by Calm Dog Productions, are Del Sol and Susan Langenhennig, PRC’s director of communications and marketing and Preservation in Print editor.

New Orleans Thanksgiving 2020: Socially distanced Creole Oyster Dressing

By Kristine Froeba, Uptown Messenger

Below is the Oyster Dressing recipe I’ve prepared since 2006. It was recorded at the elbow of my cousin Velma, then 93. At 4-foot-10, still whip-smart and eternally feisty, she bossily instructed me in “the right way” to prepare the family dressing for an “authentic Creole New Orleans Thanksgiving.” Her recipe cards and everything else she’d owned were stolen a year before “by that hussy Katrina,” her sobriquet for the hurricane. The recipe she passed down that day, first prepared by her family in the 1800s, had been committed to memory during Prohibition.

Bacchus announces plans for virtual parade via its own app

The Krewe of Bacchus had announced plans to hold its super-parade, before Mayor LaToya Cantrell called off the 2021 parade season. The superkrewe has not given up. It’s just, like many events this year, going virtual. Clark Brennan, captain of Bacchus, announced Monday that Bacchus will have a virtual parade in 2021 using the new “Throw Me Something Bacchus!” mobile app.

Teenager sought in carjacking, attempted murder; victim ‘faces a long road of recovery’

As friends of an injured carjacking victim set up an online fundraiser to help with her medical bills on Monday, the New Orleans Police Department identified a suspect in the crime that put her in the hospital. Diane Rogers, known for her work with the city’s feral cat population, was carjacked on Nov. 15 at 2:26 p.m in the 1700 block of Monroe Street. During the incident, the NOPD said, Rogers reportedly grabbed hold of her vehicle’s steering wheel and, while doing so, the carjacker began to drive off at a high rate of speed. During that time, she fell to the ground and was rolled over by one of the vehicle’s tires — causing her to be hospitalized with multiple serious injuries.

Police blotter: Shootings, armed robberies, stabbings, carjackings throughout Uptown neighborhoods

Uptown neighborhoods saw their share of violence during the past week. In addition to a homicide in the Lower Garden District, at least three shootings, four armed robberies, four carjackings and two stabbings were reported in the Second and Sixth districts of the New Orleans Police Department. Armed robbery: At about 1:45 a.m. on Monday (Nov. 23), two men entered Danny’s Food Store at 2000 Earhart Boulevard, displayed a gun and demanded money from the register. The clerk handed over cash from the register, and the gunmen fled.