Amid government shutdown, Corps of Engineers skips Jefferson Avenue drainage canal meeting

 Posted by at 6:08 pm  city government, Congress, environment, Featured, flood protection and drainage, politics
Oct 102013
 
The undivided two-way traffic pattern that dominates Jefferson Avenue on the river side of St. Charles Avenue will soon extend to South Claiborne as the drainage-canal installation proceeds. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)

The undivided two-way traffic pattern that dominates Jefferson Avenue on the river side of St. Charles Avenue will soon extend to South Claiborne as the drainage-canal installation proceeds. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)

Although the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for overseeing the construction of four major drainage canals around Uptown New Orleans, the federal-government shutdown caused the agency to miss a planned public meeting Thursday about the beginning of the latest phase on Jefferson Avenue. Continue reading »

Same contractor to extend new drainage canal down Napoleon through 2016

 Posted by at 11:41 am  city government, Congress, flood protection and drainage, state government, transportation
Oct 012013
 
(map via U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)

(map via U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)

Boh Brothers Construction Co., the contractor currently installing a drainage canal on Napoleon Avenue between Claiborne Avenue and Carondelet Street, won the contract last week for the final phase of extending that canal down to Constance Street, authorities said. Continue reading »

Panelists at Prytania decry proposed cuts to food stamps, but praise anti-hunger efforts in New Orleans

 Posted by at 9:12 pm  Congress, Featured, food and drink, good works, politics, schools
Sep 242013
 

New Orleans health commissioner Karen DeSalvo, MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry and Sterling Farms co-founder Troy Henry are introduced during a forum at the Prytania Theatre on Tuesday evening. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)

New Orleans health commissioner Karen DeSalvo, MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry and Sterling Farms co-founder Troy Henry are introduced during a forum at the Prytania Theatre on Tuesday evening. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)

Major proposed cuts to the federal food-stamp programs could be devastating to a cycle of hunger and poverty that already exists in America, even while New Orleans is making strides in the right direction against those trends, a trio of panelists agreed Tuesday evening.

“We are represented by a Republican and a Democrat, and both of them need a call this week about this vote,” said MSNBC host and Tulane professor Melissa Harris-Perry. Continue reading »

Second Harvest hosts free screening of “A Place at the Table” documentary at the Prytania

 Posted by at 11:40 am  Congress, events, film and television, food and drink, good works, politics
Sep 232013
 

0923screening

Second Harvest Food Bank, which helps feed a quarter of a million South Louisiana residents each year, is hosting a free screening Tuesday evening at the Prytania Theatre of “A Place at the Table,” a documentary about the struggles of Americans on food stamps. MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry, New Orleans Health Commissioner Karen DeSalvo and Troy Henry of Sterling Farms will participate in a panel discussion after the event. Continue reading »

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jewel bush: Will New Orleans ever be ‘post-Katrina’?

 Posted by at 11:41 am  city government, Congress, environment, opinion, schools
Aug 272013
 
A spray-painted welcome to President Bush on St. Claude Avenue on Aug. 29, 2006. (photo by jewel bush)

A spray-painted welcome to President Bush on St. Claude Avenue on Aug. 29, 2006. (photo by jewel bush)

jewel bush

When President George W. Bush’s motorcade drove down St. Claude Avenue on August 29, 2006 — the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina — there were many signs, like sentries, stationed along his route to Fats Domino’s house in the Ninth Ward, one stop on his itinerary of ceremonial rounds.

The messages, posted on signs lined along the neutral ground and on the actual storm-clobbered buildings, weren’t flattering greetings from the city’s welcome committee. The collective reverberation to the commander in chief’s obligatory pilgrimage to the place he neglected a year earlier was that of a shimmering rage, pithy and piercing in delivery.

One of the strongest indicators of this sentiment was a lop-sided, green Port-a-Potty positioned on the very edge of the neutral ground somewhere along St. Claude, a strategic locale sure to catch the eye of, if not, the president himself, someone in his party. Among protest notes scribbled in gold spray paint on all four sides of this freestanding structure, the standout read: “Reserved for Bush.”

Mr. President, welcome to New Orleans. Continue reading »

Allan Katz and Danae Columbus: Remembering Lindy with love

 Posted by at 11:07 am  Congress, elections, opinion, politics
Aug 012013
 

Allan Katz and Danae Columbus

We are among the many thousands who are remembering Lindy Boggs with love today, relishing the moments we spent with her and celebrating her remarkable life.

Although we were certainly not members of her inner circle, Lindy always treated us – and everyone else – as though we were.

Allan always thought there was a special feminine bond between Lindy and other women, especially those like Danae, who were driven by a great work ethic and a desire to get things done. For thousands of women of accomplishment, Lindy was the ultimate role model who got things done in Congress, at the Vatican and in her own private life. Danae loved to be in Lindy’s company. Allan thought they both glowed when they laughed together and swapped stories about their lives. Continue reading »

Owen Courreges: The moral hazard of flood insurance

 Posted by at 9:37 am  Congress, opinion, politics
May 132013
 

Owen Courreges

This past Tuesday, Senator Mary Landrieu proposed an amendment to the Water Resources Development Act that would stop the implementation of National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) premium increases that Congress imposed last year.  Senator David Vitter is co-sponsoring the amendment.

However, both agree that the NFIP needs to be self-sustaining.  Thus, Louisiana’s Senators are agreed first, that the NFIP should pay for itself, and secondly, that this should not result in massive premium increases that spur voters to kick their keisters out of office.

At first blush, it sounds like Louisiana’s Senators are saying that chocolate should taste good but shouldn’t make you get fat.  That’s not quite the case. Continue reading »

jewel bush: Alone and afraid, awaiting his fate

 Posted by at 11:51 am  Congress, opinion, politics
Mar 262013
 

jewel bush

Denis Chirinos-Avila is one of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living and working in the United States, but the right word to describe him is not “alien” or “illegal” or any other common epithet used to refer to those who live and work here without paperwork.

Denis Chirinos-Avila is scared.

The 27-year-old construction worker has lived day in and day out in a paralyzing fear that his open secret would be exposed, that he would be deported away from the life he has established in New Orleans for more than seven years. Would he be questioned in the grocery store? Or on the way to work? Or accompanying his partner, Reina, to one of her prenatal checkups? Continue reading »

Allan Katz and Danae Columbus: The good and the bad both await us in 2013

 Posted by at 12:58 pm  city government, Congress, opinion, politics, state government
Dec 272012
 

Allan Katz and Danae Columbus

We’re off to a great start in 2013 with the Super Bowl, which is going to be fabulous regardless of which teams end up playing in the game. It will also show the world that our resilient, unstoppable comeback from Hurricane Katrina is almost complete. What will not be so apparent is that there are literally thousands of New Orleanians working their tails off to make it appear that hosting a Super Bowl is effortless for this city — which, of course, it isn’t. There are thousands of details involved in securing and then hosting a Super Bowl and New Orleans excels in both phases. Most of those who do the heavy lifting are virtually anonymous, hardly known beyond the tourism community. A few, like Louisiana Superdome’s SMG exec Doug Thornton, occasionally surface to be given a deserved standing ovation but there are hundreds more whose names never appear in the news media. They just labor away, far from the spotlight. It should also be said that as in every aspect of life in Metro New Orleans, just beneath the surface are scores of rabid rivalries but there is a tradition here of putting these things aside to make the Super Bowl as success. This will be the case again this year, which merits further congratulations to all involved. Continue reading »

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Allan Katz and Danae Columbus: Republicans must better attract minorities for long-term success

 Posted by at 9:50 am  city government, Congress, elections, opinion, politics
Nov 082012
 

Allan Katz and Danae Columbus

Well, Danae was right, as usual. She predicted the President Barack Obama victory and said correctly that his performance in the wake of Hurricane Sandy would be a game-changer.

Allan was wrong, as usual. He thought that Governor Mitt Romney was still riding the momentum of his fine performance in the first Presidential debate. Unfortunately for Romney and the Republican Party, the Romney momentum was overpowered by the winds of Hurricane Sandy and the pictures of President Obama being presidential, bringing aid and solace to the stricken. Continue reading »

GOP challenger to Rep. Richmond may be Florida’s mysterious “Super PAC Man”

 Posted by at 9:42 am  Congress, elections, politics
Aug 172012
 

A host of prominent New Orleans Republicans said this week that they have never heard of the lone challenger so far to U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond, Josue Larose, who filed to run as a member of their party on Wednesday.

But the hard-to-find candidate shares a name and a former address with a perennial candidate in Florida the political press there dubbed “Super PAC Man,” whose thousands of alleged campaign-finance violations and hyperactive registration of odd political action committees drew the tongue-in-cheek “admiration” of political prankster Stephen Colbert. Continue reading »

Allan Katz and Danae Columbus: Clear the decks for a real war, Obama/Biden versus Romney/Ryan

 Posted by at 8:57 am  city government, Congress, elections, opinion, politics
Aug 172012
 

Allan Katz and Danae Columbus

The teams are complete, the matchups are clear. These guys don’t like one another and their philosophies could hardly be more different.

There was a time in America when then-Alabama Gov. George Wallace could run for President as an independent complaining that there wasn’t a dime’s worth of difference between the Democratic and Republican candidates. That isn’t really a problem in 2012. The Obama-Biden view of the world is just about 360 degrees apart from the Romney-Ryan view of the world. Continue reading »

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Owen Courrèges: The latest lie about New Orleans

 Posted by at 5:30 am  Congress, environment, flood protection and drainage, opinion, politics, public safety, weather
May 162011
 

Spectators look at the rising Mississippi River at the Audubon Riverside Park last Tuesday. (Sabree Hill, UptownMessenger.com)

The rising levels of Mississippi River are consuming conversations across the city.  This Sunday, curiously got the better of me and I woke up early and decided to walk over to the river levee.  The river was, and remains, disturbingly high.  At the Steamboat Natchez, the flood gauge read about 15.5 feet.  Where normally you would see several yards of rock on the banks, you could now only see about one yard, if that.

Some are saying that this is a 500-year flood event.  The Bonnet Carre Spillway and the Morganza Spillway have been opened simultaneously for the first time since 1973.  The Birds Point Floodway in Missouri had already been blasted open, the first time in history all three have been utilized. Continue reading »

Owen Courrèges: Riding on memories

 Posted by at 10:57 am  city government, Congress, opinion, state government, transportation
May 092011
 

Map of the three phases of the streetcar expansion (via NORTA.com)

Streetcars are an iconic fixture in New Orleans, a reflection of our city’s connection to the past.  Although the technology is old and often inefficient, we cling to these aging steel transports because of their beauty, craftsmanship and history. Continue reading »

Uptown gets preview of next year’s drainage projects

 Posted by at 12:14 am  city government, Congress, flood protection and drainage, neighborhood groups, recovery, state government, weather
Oct 272010
 

Scope of the Uptown drainage projects: yellow lines are complete; red are forthcoming. (Via U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)

Massive drainage projects slated to begin in six months should alleviate some of the Uptown’s flooding woes, and new construction technology should make the work on Jefferson, Napoleon, Louisiana and South Claiborne avenues less damaging to surrounding homes than previous projects, engineers and officials said Tuesday evening. Continue reading »

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