haiku about this evening:

Chris Owens club great
schmooze delay then dull talk why
humid walk home peeved

I appreciate the diversity of workers in the Quarter, but when organizing a talk about work and especially service workers, it’d be good to have people who have something to say about their nature of work in our city center. Author gave a good introduction, especially to his allegiance to the Quarter and to Bourbon, but in the short time I was there I didn’t get the impression that anyone understood what was being asked of them. Too bad- I had high hopes for the talk.

The multiple business owner was fine enough and seemed like the main person prepared to talk about what he did. The buggy driver gloried in her one note of being cynical about the city (“nothing’s gonna change ever”) which I can see is a useful mode for tips as a buggy persona but less so for discussion in front of locals interested in the topic of work. The waiter was quiet and seemed new to serving in the Quarter (and to being asked to talk frankly). And to listen to a concierge go on about the problem of crime and homelessness, lumping them together in her own ranting, suburban style was too much. Maybe she thought that was the point-if you don’t work, she doesn’t think you belong here. And that her international clients are important.

Couldn’t take anymore so didn’t even get to hear the gallery owners talk (neighbors of mine),  whose story seems interesting.

TL; DR: Too little free time to waste; back to work.

Source: Discussion: Making It in the Quarter: A Conversation with New Orleans Service Workers, Wednesday 6-8 pm

This is a shot of the daily bus pickup on Royal for the Little Red Schoolhouse (McDonogh 15) in proximity to the pride flags up in preparation for Southern Decadence 2015. That this school sits in the middle of 3 different parts of the Quarter is not noted enough: (1) the busy residential part of St. Philip which seems to have  many more full-time residents than many other parts of the Quarter (full disclosure: I spent my high school-aged years on St. Phil), (2) the business corridors of Bourbon and Royal, which means that the parents/kids and teachers have easy walking access to French Quarter Postal Emporium, CC’s coffeehouse, Matassa’s Grocery and assorted museums and (3) the gay community that the school borders on 2 sides. That isn’t even adding in the flow of millions of visitors or the illegal economy also interfacing with/bordering the school, sometimes negatively. I am constantly fascinated by the relationship of this school to the neighborhood and feel it is ripe for a social science study of mixed uses to gauge the level of a certain quality necessary to be present in abundance for a city or a neighborhood to be great: tolerance.