Letters to the Editor
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It's the pointy end of the spear I guess
But it's not unique. Everywhere across America everything's becoming a homogenized bland sameness enforced by the police who claim to only be responding to someone's complaint. We're not allowed to paint our homes unique colors, stores aren't allowed to hoist flags, 1 mph over the speed limit is a ticket, or worse. And on and on. It's not a Katrina thing.
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Good Luck to Treme Residents; You're Going to Need It
When a neighborhood is gentrified, inevitable conflicts arise, and unless there is very strong local neighborhood involvment, it's hard to prevent power and money from winning out at the end of the day. There are many parallels in this story to what our neighborhood in Montclair, New Jersey went through. Beginning in the early '90's, Montclair experienced a gentrification that spread throughout the town. Previously, ours was the most rundown and undesirable neighborhood in town. But when a new train station was built close by that would allow a commute into Manhattan, the vultures started circling high in the sky, waiting for the first chance to swoop. Local realtors and developers became giddy with anticipation and poised to cash in.
Is it necessarily a bad thing for decaying urban neighborhoods to have makeovers? Isn't it something desirable, to halt the continued carbon stamp-disastrous flight into the ever more distant outer suburbs?
Yeah, I guess you could say so. Gentrification has its good points. But inevitably someone will comfortably win out at the expense of someone else who is basically getting screwed.
Here are the best things these New orleans residents can do, which greatly helped us in Montclair:
1.) Stay organized. You'd be surprised what 5 or 6 committed people can do, who will willingly meet with each other and then plant themselves at all council meetings to keep an eye on what's going on.
2.) Keep allied with the local media. The reporter for the linked Times-Picayune seemed to be attuned to the pulse of the neighborhood, a good friend to have. Local TV news is even better. We saw realtors and developers with big bucks in the ad sections of local papers, who would get pissed when criticized and then try to put editorial pressure to squelch coverage of neighborhood issues.
3.) Round up a few signature pages of registered voters in the neighborhood, and wave them in the mayor's face. Put on the occasional dog and pony show at city council meetings. If you are lucky, you might find one or two local politicians who are not simply connected hacks who are in the pockets of the local power brokers.
Here is one of worst things these long-time New Orleans residents can do:
Sit back and wait for Ray Nagin and the City Council to protect their interests and continually fight on their behalf.
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what a buzz kill!
I live in a funky neighborhood on an Indian reservation that is somewhat squalid, and according to the people who don't live here, dangerous. There's a heavy metal band that practices just southeast of here, the Indians chant and bang the big drums to the northeast, just south there's a funk band that occasionally holds forth, and there is a small pentecostal church due north that has occasional tent revivals with a gospel band and the requisite singing, stomping and hand clapping. All of this is within about 150 yards from where I sit typing this. None of these play what I put on the stereo, but I love all of them, and revel in the fact that I live in a neighborhood with all of this human generated music. No-one here would even think of calling the cops on any of this, and as both a fan and an ongoing contributor to the neighborhood racket I'd rather live here than in any gated community or CCR neighborhood full of spiritually retarded yuppie busybodies whose legally-enforced quietude and conformity represents death and all that is wrong with this country now. I am very disappointed to hear that this would include any part of New Orleans- a city that is iconic both for its great music, and for the joy and life it clearly reflects and represents.
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the whole story?
Good article to call attention to this sad drama playing out in my hometown -- the fight for the old vs. the new. We love the neighborhood parading. But, as I note with many stories about New Orleans, people start getting all nostalgic, waxing poetic, and ignoring the realities of the present-day city.
The city is fraught with crime, corruption, and just incompetence. Fights and even murders have broken out at city parades (though I don't recall one reported for a Jazz Funeral). The city is SUPER dangerous right now. The police are understaffed. People are afraid. My relatives are afraid.
I can't believe I'm writing this, because I've always had a laissez-faire attitude about my hometown. However, Katrina swept us away and I see clearly that New Orleans can, and indeed, must, function better in order to really survive and thrive.
The permit to parade should be free, but there should be a permit. We are no longer in the 18th century with horse and buggy. New Orleans is a city with rush-hour traffic, terrible crime problems, AND a beautiful culture. This is the reality.
It seems to me there can be some compromise that would protect the public safety and allow for freedom of expression.
Since I can remember, people have been leaving New Orleans in droves because of crime and lack of opportunity. It's true! I never approved of what I thought was "white flight". Now I understand. Though we "left" for a different reason, my family sadly realizes we prefer balanced living to the craziness that goes down in New Orleans.
The sad thing is, it doesn't have to be that way. But New Orleans is tragically unable to change. It must change. The best of the old can be kept, but there are other things that go into "liveability". So far New Orleans seems not to be able to work out a compromise.
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ridiculous
I live and work in the French Quarter. Forty, fifty years ago, this was the worst section of the city. Now it's one of the most expensive.
In the Quarter, seems like every damn night there's a "second line"--really, a hired brass band being trailed by a bunch of white conference attendees from Peoria listlessly waving their handkerchiefs. The city trots out this image of itself because it's what the tourists expect.
But when the real thing happens in a poor black neighborhood, the police shut it down?
It's a funeral, people.