Jeld-Wen, maker or doors and windows is having a contest to see which lighthouse on their final list of contenders gets free doors and windows. Here’s the link.
Heres another way to help out locally.
June 12, 2008
April 29, 2008
The Lost Neighborhood Lives!
Today the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center (GNOCDC), released their repopulation maps for the city. The data is based on mail deliveries to addresses, LRA Grants received and those selling their home to the Road Home.
What I found from this map is that our little neighborhood is doing far better than I had expected. There are only four sell-outs, and from the numbers of folks receiving LRA Grants, it looks to me that we should have 95% of our folks home and into their houses soon. (Can’t find my block-by-block house count currently) As our little area has been occupied since 1821 (not the houses, but the properties), this makes me very happy.
Eight more days to go and we move back into our darling home. Yard still looks like crap, but ya’s gonna do?
April 17, 2008
Mid-April House Repair Pics
Some shots from yesterday’s work and two of the house before the Flood. Most of the appliances are there, but still in boxes. (New pics are at the end of the set.)
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!)
February 28, 2008
Nagin’s 39 Pages of “New Rules”
Crossposted to the Wild Wild Left, and Docudharma.
Alright, I’m an anti-blight type of gal. I’ve watched buildings slowly collapse over the last six years since I returned into piles of rubble. Most of the ones I’ve been watching for years still stand, and the City ain’t done Jack concerning them. (Many are owned by churches, Black non-profits (?) and “little people”. The usual suspects.)
Back in ’04 I was trying to purchase a blighted building to create a Trans shelter and education house. Whenever I approached a member of the City with this concept, there was a sputtering sound, accompanied with the sounds of crucifixes banging against the walls. All I was doing was to locate some property and then it was up to me to get support from the Trans community to make it whole. Bingo! One less blighted property in a neighborhood. One gem amongst a block of bits of coal. (not a Racial statement, but one of a geological nature, thank you very much.)
So today, our “Chocolate City” Mayor springs a 39 page revamping document changing the city’s anti-blight rules on the City Council. Needless to say, as a homeowner, I didn’t get a copy, and neither did Betts. I don’t know of anyone else who has seen this document. So we are to just be mushrooms: kept in the dark and fed shit until you decide to “use” us? To fine us? Fuck you Bro! And fuck you with a hayfork.
I am not against many of the prohibitions on the list of offenses, but I am against a wholesale overwhelming of the City Code covering 170 chapters. This “feels” like a takeover and a Disneyization, especially when it comes to the poorer neighborhoods which are primarily Black and poor.
Per the “unknown, and therefore invisible document”: “owners of unoccupied buildings would have to maintain in good repair such decorative features as cornices and trim, keep insect screens on open windows and doors, and repair cracks in foundation walls .” If the place is unoccupied, what’s the point in this? I know many folks who own homes here and there are cracks in their brick foundations. Screens on windows of an unoccupied home? FUCK me now! (There’s no one living there.) Cornices? Shit you fuckmooks, the costs of recreating the cornices and gingerbread could easily pay for 25 sheets of wallboard to make the interior whole and livable. Is Disney trying to require us to keep things looking nice so it won’t cost them too much when they do a corporate takeover of the city as an amusement park?
Will “No-See-Um” Ray become the Mayor of the new Wonka-ville? Will he wear a funny hat? Is there going to be a flowing chocolate river where Bayou St. John once flowed?
Inquiring minds would like to be clued in.
Here’s another one: “unhealthful biological growths” . We have eliminated the two greatest threats to Humanity from our yards: kudzo and St. Augustine grass. I fail to see where theses are “unhealthful growths”, just unsightly pains-in-the-tushes.
Here comes the killer: “Other possible penalties against owners whose properties harm the “public health, welfare, morals, safety and the economic stability” of their neighborhoods could include fines of as much as $500 per day, or foreclosure to collect outstanding liens.” . MORALS? Sweet Zombie Mother Freakin’ Jesus! We are going to legislate morality in this housing shit? Dammit! Most of the offenders of this part of the Code can’t find a trashcan for their McDonald’s shit… they do like at home: drop it on the floor. Morality? Fuck babies, clothing is optional in our courtyard (I’m the only one who will go sky-clad in the side yard for my morning prayers). If some purient cross-wearer peeks over our security fences and sees naked bodies running around and reports it, we’re in violation of this new Code? Fuck you again Mr. “Shouldn’t Be” Mayor. “Morality”? What about your dealings with folks that do not involve prior information (like more than a 24 hour heads up) before you bulldoze their homes? “Morality”? Does that mean anything that would upset the Disneyites visiting our Sacred City?
I want that 39 page report in my inbox in the morning Mr. Nagin. (Your minions can pull that one off, right?) I want a copy of that document in every homeowners’ hands by Monday you massive whack-job. We are the constituants, the Council are our representatives, and you aren’t God passing down the Golden Tablets about how things will be here. It’s OUR city you congenital idiot. (You can run back to Dallas when the shit hits the fan, but we live here.)
The Council will consider this on March 21st… okay, I want copies of this document in all homeowners’ hands by the 7th. We are the homeowners of the City, so we should get some say on this shit… savvy?
Or do you have a hidden agenda with these kinds of pronouncements?
February 24, 2008
The Center of the Universe
In today’s T-P, Chris Rose write a very spot on description of life here post-Flood. It dovetails nicely with many of my posts over the last few years, including last night’s piece and this recent one.
Curtsey to World Class New Orleans for the heads up.
A Tightly Wound Spring…
These last several days have been very, very tiring for me: getting the house fixed enough to get us out of this “dumpster” we been living in for two years, deciding how I’m go to pack stuffs and have it moved to the house… when do we get the girls fixed so they can roam the courtyard and then, how will the catz act through the entire process. There are mounds of papers and files all through the hovel (must not lose them…. that’s Grants and SBA poop). And then there are the tools and the kitchen.
Setting up the offices are first, but I need the Contractor’s map of all the wiring in the house to bring it all together in order for Betts to be able to function on the next workday. Four ‘puters need to be networked right away and the three extra terminals must be ready for the cottages and the gameroom. (have two new 8-point routers and 16 lines running through the place.) Must get Cox in so Betts can have her phones. Still need to get Entergy up there in order to put in the new gas and electric meters.
Our guys are doing great work, but weather (humidity) and final probs keep cropping up. (The ceiling in the offices had the beams a little warped when the tidal wave from the canal walls lifted one end of the house, and the resulting ceiling looked like the surf at Moloki.) The plumbers put the drain collection pipe for our bedroom potty in a strange place, and I want that fixed. The first part of the back deck must be built next week… I want a back staircase and the generator landing ready soon.
And there’s things we should be attending to, but it’s hard to get out of here early enough to get them done. Betts’ biz is hopping, so we can’t bug-out of the office in order to take care of things like buying the appliances (they don’t take payment over the phone), getting the last few fixtures and buying/making curtains. The rains force us to stay in since the sidewalks have 8″ of water on them and we can’t get out, or the traffic starting around 3 PM is so bad we can’t make it to where we need to. (Still haven’t picked up Opal’s ashes.)
The rains are also slowing down the cementing of the new connection to the sewer main, and that means we still have a huge hole in front of the only garage that we can get to at this time. The gravel for that one drive cannot be laid yet, and that means slogging through a mud pit to get into and out of the place. The sewer drain for the FEMA trailer still needs to be moved to our side yard connection so’s the dumpster can be put in place and we can move forward on finishing (and re-finishing) the drives.
Still awaiting the delayed House Elevation Grant and the next infusion from the SBA. Both will come through, but waiting and worrying is taking it’s toll on both of us. Things would have been pretty much done now if the grant would have hit last Summer as promised… the State had to find a way to screw up what we were to get months ago. This kept our worker count lower than expected so we could keep them doing our house instead of running off and starting other projects (thus putting us on the back burner).
It seems like the only times we leave this dump are for food, household stuffs and buying building materials. We have only played one tournament since right after Thanksgiving. Going to the bar to socialize doesn’t really happen anymore: we show up at odd times once in a while, and it’s almost always that the two of us are the only folks there. Shopping for some nice clothes is out: no place here to store them. (I’ve learned to mix and match various warm weather clothes in layers with my short supply of winter stuff to stay warm)
I’m just rambling and peeved that with all we have done to rebuild here, it is still like slogging through 4′ deep mud. I can’t do Psych meds because they either do nothing or they knock me out for the day. There’s only so much I can drink (and not become a total lush). Betts and I alternate with bouts of stomach attacks. I’m lucky to have a decent night’s sleep one a week… most of the nights are spent laying there with my mind racing over the entire ‘Verse. The only thing in my mind are how’s this affect the Coast, or the city, then Gentilly and lastly our home. It is like living in the center of a merry-go-round that never stops, and the characters are always changing on each spin.
Alright, enough bitching and moaning. We ARE the lucky amongst many in this city. We are almost home, though it seems like that promise changes daily. Many folks here haven’t even started on rebuilding. (I don’t know how they are keeping it together in the face of all this shit)
And I just made a decision: I’m waking Betts up from her nap in a few minutes, and we are going to the Starlight for a few drinks as we should have done earlier. Thank the Goddess that the bar is open all weekend nights. Maybe I’ll get to see the Sun rise as we leave with our to-go cups make it home and fall into a deep sleep.
“Bartender? GROG! NOW! Aaarrrggghhh me maties. We have returned… “Â
February 16, 2008
I’m Getting a B’Day Present
WHOO HOO! *does cartwheels*
We are moving back into our home at the end of this month. It will have been 30 months since Betts and I slept in our house. Things won’t be finished there when this happens, but we’ll have enough ready for us to be able to use the place. One bathroom will be finished, same goes for the kitchen, our offices and the bedroom.
I can’t wait to see how our construction crew deals with us being around 24/7, much less having to deal with the katz bouncing off the walls. (Thank goodness that they are painting this week: I don’t want the walls “textured” with cat fur.) And we also have to remember not to walk around in bras and panties. *giggles* Hell, we need curtains! I don’t wish to be seen in the office windows as a Hollywood Hustler second story display ad.
The first thing I’m cooking in the new kitchen will be two huge vats of seafood gumbo, followed by a vat of clam chowder. Betts will want some escargot, I just know it. Being back in that kitchen will be a salve to the last 30 months of Hell.
When the gameroom is finally finished I order the billiards table. This is becoming so much fun: getting to decorate the house our way, not the way the boys did before we bought the place. It’s a bright and airy space. And this time, it is all us and no one else’s. We get to make the changes that we wanted to do in the 8 short months we owned the place before the Flood hit. (Sadly, the yards are going to take a long time to fix up… they look like Godzilla and King Kong held a wrestling match there.)
Finally, we are going home.
February 11, 2008
Looking Back… (A Memory)
| Here is another look back at the first few months post-Federal Flood here in New Orleans. At the time Betts and I were in SoCal, and the only way for me to “be with” Gentilly was to use an e-list.This letter started a movement to build a community association, and ultimately it did. (Just not exactly my version of the dream.) |
| (posted to Docudharma) Â GentillyGirl :: Looking Back… |
| Maybe it’s just a melancholy nature, maybe it’s inherent memory of things, but I’ve started looking back at some of my writings  post-Deluge and what has become of my observations. Maybe I’m just searching old ammo to try to stop what I am beginning to see in the UNOP (Unified New Orleans Plan stuffs, especially the limited performance demographically within these “meetings”.I wrote this to Gentilly After Katrina on Samhain, 2005. These are my thoughts that helped to start the GCIA. Now that all of us in the city are in Phase Two of the rebuilding torture, I hope that this reminds us all of what we aspired to accomplish when we got involved with the recessitation of New Orleans.
Dear Gentilly folks, In Life, we all must live within the circumstances of For those who for whatever reason will not return, may Myself… we’re going back, even if it means that our Many of us shall. Yes, even with our limited resources and years This is what makes up “History”, and anything less is I stated this concept before on this list… those who Take a look at the banality of what passes for life in Does that sound like anything we had here in this Is this all that Life is supposed to be? Shall the cheap triteness of Post-Modern civilization Doesn’t work for me, just as it doesn’t work for many The problems of Old New Orleans, (graft, corruption, It can only happen if we speak and act, not the fools We are the ones who can create an equitable society. All of us, no matter one’s particular situation in Let’s get this baby up and running, rebuild Gentilly, Her Blessings! Morwen Madrigal, |