History, people, fables and critical essays on the 24/7 life of the French Quarter. “The great music of the city is…when you say good morning and good evening.” (Mr. Jerome Smith)
“Gray tailed him for a few blocks, when, he said, Wells found an easy target: a red cruiser bike tethered with a cable lock. With a snip, the bike was free and Wells was on the move, Gray said.
Wells pedaled up to the Lowe’s hardware store on Elysian fields where he tried to sell the ride to the day laborers out front, Gray said. Finding no takers, Wells approached Gray, he said.
“Know anyone who wants to buy a bike,'” Wells asked, according to Gray’s account.
Gray said he only had about $15 on him. Wells said that was good enough, and the deal was sealed, Gray said.”
Keep your eyes and ears out about suspicious behavior around bikes and report it to the Stolen Bikes Nola Facebook page. And DON’T use cable locks.
Especially for downtown residents and visitors, City Park is a necessary amenity and is conveniently located only a few easy miles down Esplanade by bicycle, leg or vehicle. As a FQ teenager, I rode my bike to City Park regularly, learned how to drive there and generally used it to escape from my fabulous but often trying daily life of the Quarter. Because of all of that and more, it remains one of my favorite places in the entire region.
This new golf course will take away what has been a much-loved and well-used space since the 2005 levee breaks. There is no doubt that City Park management has had to find ways to monetize/program much of the park, and has done so by offering many great amenities (i.e. 24 hour beignets, putt-putt, Botanical Garden/music, soccer fields, stables, Grow Dat Youthfarm) but they also need to balance that with open space that encourages a wide variety of beneficial insects, wildlife and plants that add diversity and won’t be attracted to a golf course. People need diversity of spaces too, and the space in question has served as a recuperative spot for thousands who rebuilt the city and were here in the gloomy days after 2005. I believe this need was clearly defined by that use and the management should attend to the felt desire to offer non-programmed or non-monetized space that benefits its residents, visitors and the rest of the natural world.
Please consider signing the petition and sharing it so we can show the support for balanced uses of our beloved City Park. Petition · Cancel plans for development of the "Championship" level golf course in Northern City Park · Change.org.
And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!”
In one 2-hour period today, a drunk driver hit and killed a pedestrian on Conti and this illegal 18-wheeler hit a house on Chartres. I might suggest that we get some traffic enforcement in the city? 18-wheeler hits French Quarter home.
Writer Katy Reckdahl covers New Orleans with her usual tact and fair approach in this article from the Advocate. I wish there was more of the story covered here, but at least the idea of examining New Orleans’ “exceptionalism” has been raised along with comparing that assertion to its massive challenges. Certainly, the larger idea of American exceptionalism and its etymology should be examined as well. In other words, only reminding ones citizens about “positive” indicators-what for us is tied up entirely in our culture-seems to blind or restrict a more in-depth conversation about the systemic inequalities that also characterize life in New Orleans. Or as one astute online commenter said : let’s not keep falling for bread and circuses.
Allison Plyer, of the Data Center, who has crunched the city’s demographic numbers for nearly two decades, said the city is exceptional “only in terms of culture.” For the few indicators the Data Center keeps about culture, New Orleans is “well above the national average,” she said.
“We’re also well above the national average in incarceration,” Plyer said. “But we’re not different than other places in other measures of hardship, and those are glaring and need to be addressed.”
For all of New Orleans’ numerical similarities to places such as Cleveland, when Plyer looks up from her spreadsheets and PowerPoints, she sees a city that is special, she said. “And because it is special, I am interested in working to address issues of hardship and well-being here,” she said.
Tony Recasner, who heads Agenda for Children, said that because of the city’s small size and tight geography, the problems of the poor are often in plain view, just like the brass bands and parades. That proximity among people of all income levels contributes to high levels of volunteerism here, he thinks.
Food We at People United for Armstrong Park are excited about the amazing local food options we have put together for Season 6 of Jazz in the Park, which starts September 4, 2014. Join us at Jazz in the Park and enjoy some delicious food from the following vendors:
Mello D’s Catering, LLC chicken Pasta, Apple Cobbler, Merliton Dressing sides: white beans, loaded mash potatoes
Lil Dustin’s Italian Ice Italian Ice in several different flavors and deep fried oreos
A & L Catering Services crab cake with crawfish sauce, chicken and sausage Jambalaya, shrimp and crawfish fettuccine, seafood sausage (alligator, crawfish and shrimp) on a bun
Ms. Dee’s Catering red beans and rice, fried chicken, hot dogs and homemade chili, file’ gumbo sides: french fries, salad
NOLA Foods ghetto burger, jerk chicken, ribeye steaks, BBQ shrimp
Ms. Ackie’s Meal on Wheels snowballs, nachos and cheese, yaka-mein and hot tamales.
(2013 post is below and shows how delicate the funding and support for this wonderful series is in constant peril; take a second to write to your council and mayor to let them know how much you enjoy the activities there.)
People United for Armstrong Park needs your help now more than ever to keep the spirit of Congo Square alive! Jazz in the Park’s future in danger as City fees double: Armstrong Park’s Nola for Life program suspended, musicians cut
Today (10/10), major programming cuts will take effect as the fees imposed on Jazz in the Park by the City of New Orleans double. Most notably, the at-risk trainees of Armstrong Park’s Nola for Life-funded Event Production Program (EPP) will lose hours. Additionally, the 2-4pm musical act has been cancelled and Thursday will be the final second line at Jazz in the Park from 4-5pm. If city fees remain at their new level, organizers say the spring series will only feature one performer per event instead of the four acts that currently perform weekly. Additionally, the event founders (themselves unpaid volunteers) have been forced to cover city fees through a personally-guaranteed emergency line of credit.
Jazz in the Park is produced by People United for Armstrong Park, a volunteer-led Treme-based non-profit now in its second year. Since the spring of 2012, PUfAP has produced 30 free public concerts, featuring more than 100 local performers and bringing over 70,000 residents and tourists into the newly renovated Armstrong Park. In four seasons, PUfAP has trained and hired 20 community members in need, many of them public housing residents, unemployed and with criminal records. All told, Jazz in the Park events provide weekly employment opportunities to over 100 community vendors, musicians and staff.
Fees levied on the free event have increased 100% this year and 1000% from 2012. Sadly, it will be those who depend on their Armstrong Park jobs the most that will pay the greatest toll. “There is no fat to cut,” says Founder Emanuel Lain Jr., “we are cutting into bone at this point.” Jazz in the Park provides its high-quality cultural programming on a bare-bones budget – approximately 80% lower than those of the concerts at Lafayette Square.
Through its community programming, PUfAP has significantly improved the perception and reality of Armstrong Park, Rampart Street and the Treme neighborhood. Their goal is to transform Armstrong Park into a premier hub of the city’s cultural economy by honoring the cultural traditions of Congo Square.
“People United for Armstrong Park has made Armstrong Park a real park instead of an under-used landscaped backdrop for the City’s performing venues. Jazz in the Park brings together such a diverse group of people – it is unlike any other event in the city,” says Treme resident Dabne Whitmore.
Malcom, one of the organizers, led a group of about 100 protestors from the cathedral to the river amphitheater, where they stopped for speeches, and then marched to the 1st District Police Station and eventually staged what organizers called a “die-in” or “lie-in.”
French Quarter block by block 
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