Just go here.
June 16, 2009
April 14, 2009
Save Charity & Lower Mid-City
Here’s a new website for renovating Charity Hospital and saving 16 blocks of Lower Mid-City from destruction.
And while you are at it, watch this video on the topic.
Both are creations of E at We Could Be Famous…
February 16, 2009
It’s Time To Reclaim Property Taxes
Back in ’04 I was trying to find a derelict property with which to create a Trans shelter/counseling center since many of my brothers and sisters have no place to go safely in the Metro area. I kept running across property after property that was idle, but most of them were “owned” by churches and no-name non-profits. It’s hard to line up funding for such projects if one can’t find a place to base the concept in.
In one of my more curious modes I started searching the property database for who owned what and whether it was tax exempt or not. I didn’t make it through the entire list, but my results showed that almost 50% of the properties I went through were tax exempt, yet nothing was being done with the property. Others had hair/nail salons or other businesses that had NOTHING to do with the mission of the “owners” of the properties.The City and the citizens of said city were getting fucked over by this situation. Why should I pay property taxes on my place only to see a salon operating on a tax free basis?
Last week the City Council voted 6 to 0 on ordering the Assessors’ offices to re-examine the uses to which these non-profit properties had been employed. This has been tried in the Past, but the howls from the cross-wearing crowd and the sham non-profits drowned out any chance of change being brought about. Their bottom line was being threatened. Their milking of those of us who actually did pay our fair share under the Social Contract was going to be dried up. Their gravy train would end.
All of these efforts to equalize the City’s tax base went for naught and our city has suffered for that.
Why the Hell must we tax-paying folk have to subsidize these tax-exempt fucks, especially when the properties in question are not performing the functions under which the limits for tax free usage demands? Why should someone like myself, who does not utilize “religeous” places, be forced to pay for their share of infrastructure costs? Parks, Public schools and government buildings I have no problem with funding… they exist for all of us, but why must I pay for that which does not mean a damn thing to me or my life?
Centers of religion I have no objection to when it comes to property taxes. It’s just the outside operations, both religious and secular, that have no purpose other than to generate money becomes a business to my mind. Businesses pay taxes.
It’s time we separated religion and City here in New Orleans. Fair is fair, and for those of us busting our tushes off trying to rebuild this is a necessity.
Support the City Council in this matter. Demand transparency when it comes to determine “use” of property. Don’t back down to pressure from those who will not shoulder their part of the burden when it comes to running our home.
This is fraud… and it is extortion. This is one of the ways that some can suck off the lives of the many. It is not right, and the problem must be corrected no matter how much a certain segment of the population screams and wails.
January 16, 2009
January 12, 2009
August 25, 2008
No Fucking Shit
I am not going here right now, but this guy does hit the mark on many levels. (and I thought Nagin was paying special attention to Bush’s penis with his tongue. Guess one can’t please every dickless wonder.) Go here for more.
BTW- DR. Blakely is not worth a bullet or the soil to cover his sorry ass.
C. Ray? Following the Bushite’s lead, believing in the Shock Doctrine and pleasuring the only 50 supporters you actually have is what you is deserve coming to bite you on the fucking ass.
February 29, 2008
Raise the Drawbridge! Release the Gators to the Moat!
The peasants are revolting! (or they might not be… depends on your point of view.)
Lonely is the head that bears the crown. The Defender of New Orleans paces wearily upon the the ramparts of the Fortress of Orleans pondering the rumors that have been brought to light by his operatives in the Kingdom. He looks out into the fog-shrouded night for the glow from and armed crowd. He tries to listen for the creaking wheels of siege engines being moved into position, the sounds of marching feet or the whoosh of an arrow flying by, but alas, there are no sounds such as these tonight just as there is only the glow of street lamps.
The noble Defender stands guard through the night knowing that one day the end is coming. His End and the ending of all of the magnificent works which he so generously gave to the people of the Kingdom. Tears run down his cheeks as he wonders what went wrong…
I call B/S on the above narrative. Our Invisible Mayor is beefing up security at City Hall months after the fracas that accompanied the City Council Meeting that voted for the demolition of the Projects, but only a week after he informed the World that his picture is now on the Aryan websites. (I wonder if that’s what all the new cop toys must be for: protecting the his castle.)
Yes violent crime is up in the City, but since the Flood there have only been the aforementioned skirmish in the Council Chamber in December and the 5k+ March on City Hall to decry the upward spiral of murders here in Jan. ’07. Nothing bad happened at the march, and the probs during the skirmish was limited to a few “outside agitators”. Outside of the fact that City Hall is a bitch to get to work for your needs, it’s a fairly peaceful place (amazing, ‘eh?)
So why the beefing up of security at this time? Is King Amon-C. Ray going to spring some new crap on us in the near future? Will his minions announce the start of more stupid Nagin tricks upon the city? Or did he sell us to Disney?
I really wanna know.
Sinn Fein!
(Note to self: stock up on Greek Fire and arrows. Should get some more torches and pitchforks. Get boots… flats just won’t do for the assault upon anti-logic. Where’s my Captain’s hat? Hitch teh Katz to my chariot!)
May 18, 2007
May 2, 2007
A Park vs. A Shopping Mall
I enjoy reading the New Yorker’s “New Orleans Journal”. Yesterday’s entry concerned a trip down the Lafitte Corridor which many of us here in the City would like to reclaim as a walking park as opposed to it’s current use: a three-mile long junkyard. As I read further into the piece a sickening thought hit me: the Victory development group wants to build their retail center right through the heart of the Corridor!
Sure enough, as I read on, this conversation pops up in the article:
“A Georgia developer called Victory Real Estate Investments is trying to get permission from the City Council to hollow out twenty acres of mid-city in order to build a suburban-style shopping mall, which would bisect the Lafitte Corridor. As currently proposed, the site would include a hundred-ninety-thousand-square-foot Target, an eighty-thousand-square-foot Dick’s Sporting Goods, an eighty-thousand-square-foot Bed Bath & Beyond, a fifty-thousand-square-foot book superstore, and more than a hundred and thirty thousand square feet of other shops, surrounded by twenty-five hundred sun-baked surface parking spaces. For a city as pedestrian-friendly as New Orleans, it is a stunningly wrongheaded idea. What’s more, it might end the dream of the Lafitte Corridor. But, as Geoff put it, “This is a hard time for the City Council to say no to anyone who wants to drop tens of millions of dollars.â€Â
Now, I knew that Victory was planning retail development in Mid-City, but I didn’t realize that they wanted to build one massive project as described above. This is NOT what we need here in the City, especially in the Mid-City area. This will become a blight on the landscape, an ugly paw of the suburban mindset clawing it’s way into our quaint little landscape. The traffic alone cannot be handled by our small streets, and Carrollton with the trolley line, will become a nightmare. Our infrastructure is not set up for this kind of development.
I say that Phase One of the Corridor project should start today, and that all concerned citizens of the City stay on the asses down at City Hall to force Victory to change it’s plans and come up with a more decentralized shopping scenario.
March 16, 2007
S&WB Fun and Games
Today I woke up, looked out the front door, and noticed that one of the four water meters just off my porch was spewing lots of fresh water. Turns out it wasn’t our rental, but the shotgun behind us. I did my duty and called the emergency line for the S&WB to report the breakage.
Hours later I return home to find no leaking water, but that my home and others on this block have no public water at all. I guess our repair folks just don’t work after 5 PM and they just shut down the entire area. Yes, I have a call in on this poop too.
We have elderly and children here. I’m permanently disabled, and now none of us can bathe, run water for cooking and our toilets won’t flush, just cause the Emergency Repair boys can have a weekend at the rates they are being paid. ( I do have distilled water for cooking and drinking)
The S&WB is losing over $200,000+ a month for the unknown leaks in our water systems, and when citizens clue them in to obvious, fixable leaks, this is how the response goes down? Shut the block down and we’ll get to it when we want to?
Fuck this kind of shit!We pay handsomely for the services of the S&WB, even if my doc says NOT TO DRINK THE WATER, and this is how they deal with doing their J.O.B.s. and what they think of their charges.
UPDATE-Â Hey! the thing about my water being cut off? It turns out that my landlord doesn’t pay for water in the rent, and he hadn’t told me this over the last year of renting here. I tried to connect this rental to our account in Gentilly, but no go until Monday on that one, which means, judging from the pace at which the water folks move, I might have water come Thursday. I can’t wait to get back into our own home, a place where WE take care of everything, and we don’t have to deal with idiots who lack a first grade education for our existence.