Grumpy Man in Black Sweats Dumps on the N.O.

I don't know about you, but I sorta like the interviewer kid. For real, he seems like a pro and he certainly got Blakely to indict himself. As for Blakely...

1. Is he wearing a bulletproof vest?

2. Doesn't it seem proper that he'd be in some backyard garden, ala a dictator in exile from some Garcia Marquez story?

3. Really, who will hire this guy? We still don't have confirmation that this university actually exists, as we paid his salary for them over the last 3 years. Even his past exploits are in question.

4. We did do it ourselves. No one who waited around for someone else to do it is still here. Many of us waited for a partner, a government, a self-described savior/football coach/master builder, but we got the message, Ed: no help but our own help. We opened barber shops, charter schools, neighborhood centers, playgrounds. You sipped cocktails at the W, you couldn't build metaphorical bridges, let alone actual ones, and you didn't know what you got yourself into. Ray shat on many people, but you can't seem to get over the stench. Your response: explain to some undergrad journalism student why exactly you are innocent and appalled.

I saw Ed just after he got here, at the Mayor's Ball, Mardi Gras 2007. That upset stomach look in the video? It was there. We're still here. He can gain weight in Berkley, pretend he needs two cell phones (really?!), call us racists. It's some seriously Darwinian shit we deal with down here, and all the hateful prophecies from far-off gardens in the world won't weaken the resolve.

Peace, Ed. Some people have their cars stolen within the first few months of moving here. You lost a whole career. Hope you can live on the bile awhile.

Imagine the Present

Saturday
I sit on a panel for the Imagining America conference. The location is the former funeral parlor now called the Jazz & Heritage Center. I do not know what we are here to imagine. One panelist says he is trying to imagine Jacksonville and the Carribean and a life for himself. I like that.

Today's theme is How Can We Help? I.e., how can the professors, graduate students, undergrads, and researchers help New Orleanians, either in the city or by doing for us outside of the city.

Yet at this point, a better question (at least for the academics) is How Did We Help? Many are the ways, and while I think they can continue to provide studies and volunteers, it may be time for students to refocus on what the last four years created. Because right now is ripe for some "discertating."

Uptown at the 3rd anniversary Freret Market, Jena Street is home to the New Orleans Coffee Festival. Perhaps 8 booths of vendors offering their brand of coffee, this is a small festival with great potential. In today's N.O., if it IS, it can be a festival. Regular items such as shoes, cigarettes, and roofing materials should emerge in the coming years as festival topics, complete with their champions, appointed place on the calendar, and loving audience.

At one end of Jena, there's a stage where bands rotate in and play one hour sets. The festival has two stages, the other in the parking lot near Napoleon. I sit on the steps of an elevated house with a giant for sale banner and listen to Margie Perez and her band. She's a good singer and they run through some later New Orleans standards--a sped up Fats, a welcome Here Come the Girls, and People Say.

So for the academics in town, ask--what does it mean that a 2o-year old Meters anthem about people asking "Have I got the right to live?" plays to a crowd of hungry gourmet shoppers, while the band's backdrop is Ochsner Baptist Hospital? The Baptist where the anguished staff euthanized several patients in the nightmarish days after the storm, when the hospital filled with people and swelled with evil heat and desperation.

In the year after the storm, many in New Orleans came to grips with acts such as these being a consequence of that insane time. The lead doctor did not go to jail and the hospital reopened. Then, for the 4th anniversary of Katrina, the NY Times came out with a long story of hushed tones and shadows, asserting that the doctors acted rashly, that relatively healthy, viable lives were taken. As a result, the case might be reopened, and the doctor, Anna Pou, may find herself defending again her actions during possibly the worst stretch of days any stateside doctor could imagine. In detail, the Times reporter pieced together each death, so that America and the city could again look into that dark heart of our age, Katrina, and ask, What?

And for us, what does it all mean? That we can rise again, live, forgive, and shop to our music? We are certainly back, more than ever, with a whole new configuration of history arrows to challenge, threaten, steer us. How did it happen? And What are we Now?

I sit on those steps and hear that bassline and stare at the peeling, unopened section of that hospital, that landmark to the bottom, and I try to imagine New Orleans. With all its past and bloodiness and sound. If there is ground for study in today's city, surely the connection between the hospital, the band, and coffee festival is worth a look. Right?

NEWS RELEASE: Guess Who's Back (Us, too)

NEW ORLEANS -- Someday soon, Kenya Smith might just run this place.

"I think it's possible," said the recently returned aide to Mayor Ray Nagin. "I mean, the way this shit is going, I could be wearing some big shoes. Big, Ray-sized shoes, if you see what I'm saying."

Many in the city do. Or rather, they've heard, been mystified, and slowly comprehended the facts. Famous for his soft touch with a credit card and his masterful implementation of the city's 311 hotline ("Do you think I'm hiding people?" he once asked a councilperson), Smith seems destined to run things in the last 200 days of the history-making administration. Fortunately, he's well-rested.

"What have I been doing? Studying. Well, I ran for Congress, of course."

Of course. Smith's strangely low-key run at William Jefferson's seat left him with a sizable period of time to reflect on the city's recovery and rebirth. Back in the saddle, he's not short on ideas.

"Basically, put me back in the saddle. That's number one on the list. We need to get back to a 2007, 2008 state-of-mind, back before all this contract hubbub and FBI B.S. I mean, there's a lot of work to do, a lot of lunch to eat, a lot of interim-appointees to groom. I'm back, and I'm ready to hit the Council chambers and do what I do."

The mayor agrees.

"Kenya Smith is like a breath of familiar air in this place. We know what we're gonna get with Kenya--good old fashioned combativeness and great taste in food. Now, all those guys up in Baton Rouge [where Smith served as the mayor's legislative liason], they may not remember him. But they'll get to know him soon enough. We've got 200 days to go, and Kenya's gonna get his brand out there. We welcome him back."

Smith says he appreciates the mayor's support.

"Not much has changed, really. Yeah, Blakely's gone. Other than that, my key code still works. Hell, most of my stuff is still right where I left it. Let's get lunch."

Greg Meffert "Put This City on the Right Track"

Happy Aeromexico Day in New Orleans!

This afternoon's press conference at City Hall announced the opening of passenger flights from New Orleans to Mexico City, the first international route from Louis Armstrong since Katrina. On hand were the head of Aeromexico, the consuls of Mexico and Honduras, representatives from the tourism board, Greater New Orleans, Inc., Ochsner, and the mayor. Also present were several members of the local media, who watched as the officials congratulated one another. The Mexican consul was hard to hear over the noise of machines demolishing the federal building behind us. The woman from the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce noted that her parents first date corresponded to the opening of the original airport, and that her father's birthday this year landed on the start date (July 6th) for the new route. The GNO, Inc. guy seemed to joke about "public-private partnerships," and a few media folks loosened their ties. Then the mayor complimented the greatness of Mexico City, recieved a model airplane ("better check with the ethics board!") and presented a key to the city to "all the people of Mexico and Honduras," in the person of the Aeromexico guy. Today is officially "Aeromexico Day in New Orleans."

Questions about the deal came first, as Nagin's slim hangdog sidekick made clear, and then we'd get to other matters. The media shuffled their feet, moved the tripods around. After maybe 3 half-hearted questions, Nagin asked for a moment for our guests to leave. The collection moved to the side and broke into conversation, so that at first you couldn't hear the mayor. After a few moments, things got clearer.

From what he can tell, there were two seperate companies involved, the one who paid for his trip and the one that had dealings with the city, and if you know anything about business, sometimes two companies are owned by the same company. He did ask the questions at the time of the trip, and was satisfied with the response.

On Perception: this whole thing has been "cleverly portrayed" by the people he faced this afternoon.

One of them asked a muddled question about Midura's dissatisfaction with the crime plan (wow, I thought, Midura's mealymouth infects even those who translate her) and Nagin said by and large, he's good with the current plan to decrease crime. No, we'll never beat it completely.

Has the FBI spoken to him about Meffert? No. He has talked to them, though, about some procedures and about crime cameras. Another questioner asks about the UNO poll showing low satisfaction with him. Nagin says they've always had a hard time when they try to "poll me," and that of course this city is still in a funk.

Then I get my shot.

"With all the cloudy dealings that people are investigating with Meffert, one of the things people are looking is the interoperability grant for emergency response that the City lost due to a perception of insider deals. And some are tying that to the poor communication during Katrina.

"I know you don't like to speculate or talk about regret, but at some point, do you start to think maybe he wasn't the right man for the job? And do you think there's a tie with transparency and things like poor communication during Katrina?"

"Are you press?" he asks, and sorta looks at the hangdog, and then at Quiett.

"Yes."

He explains that when he got to City Hall, there was a lack of computers, no website, and that Meffert came in and "attacked that," he "changed the technology and the rhythm." Was he perfect? No. But he "put this city on the right path."

Then the hangdog asks if the NPR lady behind me has any questions.

Later, Nagin says that Meffert was "a bright guy, but a boastful guy." The Fox News kid asks if he owns property in Jamaica.

"I wish."