New Orleans, LA

I got an email from the zoo:

My name is Zelda, an African Blackfooted Penguin—one of the many animals you can adopt from Audubon Nature Institute! Over the past year, my animal friends at Audubon Zoo, Audubon Aquarium of the Americas and Audubon Center for Research of Endangered Species have been doing well because of the kindness of supporters like you.

Your gift of $35 to adopt me will help feed and care for me—and for the many animals within Audubon’s care.

When you adopt me or any other animal at Audubon Nature Institute, you will receive a “parent package,” which includes a personalized adoption certificate, a photo and fun facts about your new wild child and an invitation to a special event only for adoptive animal parents. Animal adoptions are terrific holiday and birthday presents, too!

Thank you for being a part of our Audubon family! Please come visit us; we love to see the people who make our excellent care possible.

Love,
Zelda
African Blackfooted Penguin at Audubon Aquarium of the Americas

zoo, audubon, aquarium, penguin, adopt, new orleans

The New Orleans Mint is reopening in October. The New Orleans mint was the mint that imprinted an O on coins. The mint shut down in 1909 but has been turned into a museum. It took some major damage by Katrina but has been renovated and is reopening for business.

For those collectors passing through New Orleans, the restored Mint Museum is well worth a visit. The former exhibit on the history of the New Orleans Mint has been totally revamped and expanded. It also now includes a section on the archeology of the Mint. The building served as both a U.S. and Confederate mint, but lack of bullion shut it down quickly under Confederate administration. Minting operations ceased once and for all in 1909 and in 1966 the landmark was transferred to the state. It opened to the public in 1981 as a state museum.

According to web sources, the old mint was built in 1835 and is the only mint in the US to server as both a US and Confederate mint.

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new orleans, us mint, o mint, tourism, history, museum, history, historical, numismatic

I read an article in CityBusiness this weekend, Jeff Parish plans Fat City makeover. They’re talking about a potential $300 million improvement. This is great news.

Sneed and the rest of the Council have made inroads to maximize the area’s potential. Fat City is softly bounded by Division Street to the west, Severn Avenue to the east, Veterans Memorial Boulevard to the south and West Esplanade Avenue to the north.

I used to live in Fat City. For a couple of years in my late teens, early twenties, I lived in an apartment on Edenborn. Talk about “living liquida loca”.  Anybody else remember “drinkin with lincoln?”  $5 all you can drink friday night.  I was even stabbed in Fat City once. Just a flesh wound.

Anyway, it’s been a two or three years since I was last there but it was decrepit and run down then so I can imagine what it looks like now. I’m glad they are putting some thought into renovation.

“It goes against common sense that this area, with its proximity to viable real estate like Lakeside Mall, Causeway Boulevard and Interstate 10, has been able to languish,” Sneed said. “This is clearly the best real estate in the metro area.”

They are talking about high-rises and I’m not too sure about that. Keep the high-rises in the NO CBD. Fat City should be about architecture and open air. Make it an open air, walking mall like is common in San Diego. Or make it an shop/entertainment area like Universal City Walk in Orlando.

“It’s easiest in that area to build high rises,” Sneed said. “It makes it of value to developers because it makes it financially feasible for a (building like) Lakeway Center or a Heritage Plaza.”

But anything would be good for Jefferson and for Metairie. Boot out Broussard and rebuild Fat City. The future looks bright.

jefferson parish, fat city, new orleans, metairie, party, liquor, drinkin with lincoln

451Press was starting a new K-Ville blog and since I plan to watch and blog about, I jumped on the opportunity. If you are a K-Ville lover (heck, even if you are a hater), head over to Watching K-Ville.

I plan to post about the show, the stars, insider secrets (so, hey you insiders, send me some secrets!) and more.

I hope to see you there!

LewisC

kville, k-ville, watching k-ville, television, crime drama, tv

Set your DVR on Thursday, September 20 at 7PM to WYES for Reshaping New Orleans. It will repeat at 9pm on Friday.

Reshaping New Orleans is a discussion amongst several knowledgeable and involved people. They will be discussing the Unified New Orleans Plan (UNOP). The Unified New Orleans Plan (UNOP) addresses specific actions necessary to facilitate the recovery and rebuilding of New Orleans. The objective of this multi-level planning process is to successfully integrate community input and a set of deliverables from the district-level and neighborhood planning processes into a Unified Recovery and Rebuilding Plan that will be submitted to the City Planning Commission, City Council, Mayors Office and State of Louisiana. The plan culminates with a city-wide plan that encompasses all districts and neighborhoods.

Is the Citywide Strategic Recovery and Redevelopment Plan more than just thoughts and words on paper? Can it really serve as a practical, workable blueprint to rebuild the city into the community that all residents and neighborhoods want?

The discussion is being led by John Snell (WVUE) and includes:

Stephen D. Villavaso, local planner who worked on Unified New Orleans Plan (UNOP); David Dixon FAIA, a Boston, MA planner who worked on the UNOP; LaToya Cantrell, President of the Broadmoor Improvement Association; David Voelker, board member on the Louisiana Recovery Authority (LRA) and a Federal Representative; Dr. Edward J. Blakely, Executive Director of the Office of Recovery Management for New Orleans and Donald E. Powell, Federal Coordinator of Gulf Coast Rebuilding. Prior to his new appointment, Mr. Powell served as the 18th Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

Tune your radio to AM 690 WIST Thursday, September 20 at 8pm after RESHAPING NEW ORLEANS with local hosts Eric Asher and Shane Warner as they discuss the program and take calls from locals. Watch on AM 690 WIST Inside New Orleans with Eric Asher weekdays from 12-3pm and don’t miss The Shane Warner Show weekdays from 3-5pm.

new orleans, planning, katrina, rebuilding, wyes, wvue, wist, reshaping new orleans

Get’em while they’re hot. The party in park. Voodoo Fest tickets are $40/per day. If you aren’t sure which day you want to attend, check out the Voodoo Fest Schedule. For a single day, Saturday looks like a winner.

If you’re really in the mood for some voodoo festing, check out the “How Would You Do Voodoo?“ contest.

• Grand Prize: One winner, chosen by StarCostumes.com from the top 50 entries, wins 2 three day passes, $1000 for travel & lodging, $100 to StarCostumes.com and a feature on their site.
• 2nd Place: One winner, chosen by highest score, will win a $100 credit at StarCostumes.com.
• Most Viral: One winner, who gets the most attention across the internet, will win a $100 credit at StarCostumes.com. About Most Viral.
• Sweepstakes: One registered member of Brickfish that participates in the campaign by entering, voting or reviewing will have a chance to win a $100 credit at StarCostumes.com. See rules for details.

Sweet!

new orleans, voodoo, fest, festival, costume, music, city park

Ok, let me clarify. It’s not a comic book, it a graphic novel. An anthology, actually. From what I have seen of it, it looks pretty sharp. The book, Hope: New Orleans, is from Ronin Studios and says “100 comics creators joined forces to create an anthology to benefit the victims of the hurricane and subsequent flooding of New Orleans”.

The proceeds from the sale of this book will go toward the Southeast Louisiana Chapter of the Red Cross and its continued effort to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

The front and back cover are painted by David Mack, creator of Kabuki. The pinups by Lark, Shinn/Barkmann, Stahnke, Villegas and Wachter are placed throughout the book, rounding it off perfectly.

Some of the stories in the anthology:

Persistent City
An ode to New Orleans by writer Alex Wilson and artist Mario Boon, this story was created for HOPE: New Orleans and first printed in The Florida Review, Fall 2006

Goth Ninja in New Orleans
Stepping off the pages from her Silent Devil book, the Goth Ninja takes on an enemy in the streets of New Orleans.

Brotherhood
A father tells his son about the power of music in a seemingly hopeless situation.

Epsilon Realm: A Reason to Believe
An international group of superheroes goes to help the victims of Katrina.

Lightning Squirrel: Terror in the Ruins
Lightning Squirrel and his friends help New Orleanseans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the flooding of the city.

Sweet Marie
The last story in the anthology is a tale of the indomitable spirit of New Orleans, symbolized by the Voodoo Queen, Marie Laveau.

You can get more info from this discussion about the book. I haven’t been able to find it on sale yet. Doesn’t amazon carry things like this?

new orleans, katrina, comic, book, graphic, ronin studios, hope: new orleans

Joshua Clark, author of Heart Like Water, recently told me about a new Katrina news site. The site is HurricaneKatrinaNews.org and it is a very comprehensive news story site.

The name of the page is Hurricane Katrina 2007, your go to page.

This is the description:

We present here the latest articles of note, and include a brief synopsis and quotes from each below its link, so you need not go any further unless you want to delve deeper about a particular subject. This is not a site not of outdated, archived news items. These pieces include breaking news, highlighting the ongoing debates, resources to better understand the hurricane—what we can do about both healing its wounds and preventing a future disaster—as well as resources for those still in need. Sadly, despite the fact that the storm’s second anniversary is approaching on August 29, 2007, Hurricane Katrina’s devastation is far from over.

Katrina made landfall just before dawn on August 29, 2005, seventy miles south of New Orleans. Largely because the wetlands that make up Louisiana’s coast had been eroded, the storm surge pushed unabated into southern Louisiana, breaching New Orleans’ levees at multiple points, leaving 80 percent of the city submerged, tens of thousands of victims clinging to rooftops, and hundreds of thousands scattered to shelters around the country. Many have yet to return. The devastation to Mississippi and Louisiana by hurricanes Katrina and Rita has been called the greatest disaster in our nation’s history.

The images of anguish and anger from Hurricane Katrina have been forever burned into the hearts and minds of all Americans. They must be the catalyst for change. Prevention of a future disaster of similar proportions is both possible and practical. But the United States must act now to restore the wetlands.

There are links here to current Katrina-related news stories, a Katrina info central with timelines and graphics, a lessons learned section (including myth busters). The page also has links to additional resources, important phone numbers, and some very impressive details on the Louisiana wetlands and what has been happening to them.

This site is a bookmark for sure.

new orleans, katrina, rebuilding, news

Shelley Midura, New Orleans City Council member, recently posted a Katrina 2 year fact sheet. I thought this was a very informational post and wanted to pass it along. The sheet, Katrina Two Years Later Fact Sheet, covers some interesting details.

Based on this fact sheet, Shelley created an open letter to George Bush. I am including the open letter here. Check out the fact sheet also though as the information is a bit more concise. Based on what I have been hearing about Shelley Midura and this open letter, I am thinking this is a person that New Orleans needs. I am glad she is on the city council and I hope she moves on to better things (like Mayor).

Posted: 29 Aug 2007 at 11:17am

An open letter to President George W. Bush:

August 28, 2007

Dear Mr. President:

Thank you for visiting New Orleans for the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the worst federal levee-failure disaster in United States history followed by the worst federal disaster response in United States history. We’re also grateful for the $116 billion federal allocation for the Gulf Coast. That $116 billion has served you well, as your spokesmen often cite it as an indicator of your dedication to our recovery. But, it hasn’t served us as well — it’s not enough, it’s been given grudgingly, and only after our elected officials have had to fight for it. So I feel I must correct the record about you and your administration’s dedication to our recovery and implore you to take action to make things better.

Indeed, you have allocated $116 billion for the Gulf Coast, but that number is misleading. According to the Brookings Institute’s most recent Katrina Index report, at least $75 billion of it was for immediate post-storm relief. Thus only 35% of the total federal dollars allocated is for actual recovery and reconstruction. And of that recovery and reconstruction allocation, only 42% has actually been spent. In fact, while your administration touts “$116 billion” as the amount you have sent to the entire area affected by Katrina and the levee failures, the actual long term recovery dollar amount is only $14.6 billion. This amount is a mere 12% of the entire federal allocation of dollars, billions of which went to corporations such as Halliburton for immediate post-storm cleanup work, instead of to local businesses. Contrast that to the $20.9 billion on infrastructure for Iraq that the Wall Street Journal reported in May 2006 that you have spent, and it’s an astonishing 42% more than you have spent on infrastructure for the post-Katrina Gulf region. The American citizens of the Gulf region do not understand why the federal obligation to rebuilding Iraq is greater than it is for America’s Gulf coast, and more specifically for New Orleans.

(more…)

In an effort to talk about something besides Katrina, I figured I would talk about Voodoo Fest.

That’s right. October 26 - October 28, 2007 in New Orleans City Park. It’s the 2007 Voodoo Music Festival. Come and go weekend passes were $100/head. Those have sold out and now there are only limited $115/head tickets left. You can also get a VIP pass if you want to pay for one. Those are currently $450/head and the price is going to increase as the day gets closer.

The line up is amazing. From The Smashing Pumpkins and Rage Against the Machine to Dr John and Dumpstaphunk. The complete line up: Rage Against the Machine, The Smashing Pumpkins, Wilco , Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, Sinead O’Connor, Kings of Leon, Mute Math,

(more…)

Kim left this as a comment but I thought it was good enough to post as entry by itself. Alas, I will not be there. I will be in Tampa. Blech.

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 in 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).

(more…)

Just wanted to share my current New Orleans blogroll. If you know of any other good sites, please post a comment.

New Orleans Metroblog
NOLA View
Think New Orleans
Blogging New Orleans
New Orleans Wiki
New Orleans City Business
New Orleans Newspapers
Bayoo Buzz
New Orleans Levee (satire)

Thanks,

LewisC

new orleans, blog, blogroll, links, sites, nola

I’m Kristyn, the new blogger here. I wanted to post a quick “WELCOME!” and say that I look forward to bringing you all the latest news and info on New Orleans.

NOTICE:
Got news about upcoming events? Email all the juicy details to me at kristyn.huckaby@451press.net. I’ll share the info right here and help you spread the word.

Have questions about New Orleans? Email them to me at kristyn.huckaby@451press.net and I’ll do my very best to answer them.

See you tomorrow!

New Orleans, New Orleans blog, New Orleans info