What is evident from the project record is that the Army Corps of Engineers recommended raising the canal floodwalls for the 17th Street Canal, but recommended gated structures at the mouths of the Orleans and London Avenue canals because the latter plan was less expensive.”
A corps spokesman didn’t comment specifically on the report, but said the agency gained valuable knowledge from such studies that it has used in rebuilding the levee system after Katrina.
“The Army Corps is first and foremost a learning organization,” said spokesman Ricky Boyett. “Our focus over the last ten years has been to learn from all the lessons of Hurricane Katrina.”
He noted that New Orleans’ revamped levee system protects much of the area from a so-called 100-year storm, or one with a 1 percent chance of occurring in any given year, and it’s also designed to resist erosion during stronger storms. “As a result of this effort and the efforts of all of our partners, the greater New Orleans area now has the best level of risk reduction in its history,” Boyett said.
Category Archives: New Orleans
2 protests from the levee break life, 2006 and 2010
First, an installation done by my neighbor Jonathan in 2006 in the bayou next to our flooded apartments. I just happened to see him setting this up at dawn on the morning of August 29.
A quote from local activist Tracie Washington made into a poster by activist/printer John Fitzgerald in 2010 or 11:
And an interesting post from 2012 about another negative association of resiliency, with a great quote about how it can reveal the deform in certain systems:
Resilience, from the Latin resilīre, to spring back, is the ability to return to an original form after deformative stress. When it comes to institutions, those moments of deformative stress can be revealing. The institution loses its decorative bunting and what we see is its essential nature.
“The next person who calls me resilient I’m gonna stab in the neck…”
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dammit I am tired of the passive and the aggressive war on bicyclists in this city. way too many “No bike parking” signs, drivers driving in bike lanes without regard to anyone’s safety, (or almost as bad) driving JUST behind us out of eye sight as if we impede your driving lane. Scary to see how many drivers who cannot calculate safe distance on either side. Trucks using dedicated bike lanes for parking even when there is ample parking to pull into, thieves running amok with tools to cut even the best locks in less than a few minutes and entirely too many people immediately blaming the DEAD cyclist when an accident happens.The fact that the cyclist is often no longer among the living should tell you that an accident involving a car and anything human-powered is not a fair fight. What is really going in in many cases is the driver either “doesn’t see” the cyclist at all (which tells you about the level of distraction and road awareness among many drivers) or the driver felt the cyclist had no right to the road and encroached on their space, resulting in a tragedy for one side. And yes, I am also tired of the few cyclists I see who have a disdain for bicycle traditions, including communicating with savvy drivers when possible with hand signals, using eye contact and acknowledgement and ceding the road to pedestrians when necessary. I see those cyclists, but I do not believe they actually number as a significant number of us. In order to ride a bike for a long period, one has to believe in those rules and to honor them. And those few who disregard the rules are just that, few. They are just more visible to those looking for examples of bad cyclists.
There seems to be a belief that the “grown up world” is about owning an auto and bicycles are for the immature, the Peter Pans of the world. That the rights of car drivers extend to the ownership of the road and that their decisions should override every other conveyance, even while they using their car as a weapon or wreaking havoc on the streets because of the distractions they have added to their driving time. For those who believe in auto-only roads, I would be happy to cede the highways to you and to take back the city streets for pedestrians, for cyclists and for low-powered motor vehicles. I am sure we’d all be a lot safer.
ESCAPE MY ROOM
Many thanks to Abita Springs activist/artist John Preble for linking to this site today. Fascinating.
An escape room is a live-action puzzle where five to six people work together in a locked room to find clues that will eventually unlock the door. This is the first New Orleans version:
June 1
My friend John is currently searching for a natural indicator to mark the end of summer in order to bookmark the termites swarming at the beginning. If I know him, he’d be pleased if it could be another pest.
I always think the summer season is hard to decipher in New Orleans. Used to be that once JazzFest was over, people began to shut up their apartments and stores and head to other cooler places for a month or two, coming and going throughout August. With the arrival of the casino downtown, that changed. Or maybe it changed with the addition of thousands of hotel rooms downtown through the 1980s and 1990s or maybe it just changed. In any case, visitors come year round now and festivals like Tales of the Cocktail and Essence are big draws in July and there are things in August too that I cannot remember at this moment, but I know I am always surprised when they come-oh yes, just remembered one: Satchmo Summerfest.
Maybe summer is really here when the figs ripen and drop and draw flies and make walking in alleys a distinctly squishy experience, except that fig trees are largely gone from the Quarter, courtesy of part-time residents and non-Sicilians who tore them out at the beginning of their renovations.
Or maybe it’s when the children finish their school year at McDonogh 15 and St. Louis Cathedral School, except that Cathedral is no more; soon to be condos I am sure.
Probably many locals would identify the start of summer with the official beginning of hurricane season, which is today, June 1. That’s as good of a choice as any, since summer is a largely hostile time here, unlike the land of my childhood, the shores of Lake Erie. There it is a glorious and kind season with lightning bugs in jars, sailboats always on the water and cool walks in the dark before bedtime.
Tonight in my adopted hometown, I went for a bike ride around the neighborhood with my hard cider in a koozie cup as I do many evenings before heading in for the night. The Quarter seemed different, slower and more neighborly than I have seen in many recent evenings. Lots of people on stoops with the front door open, dogs pausing on their walks with their people attached (when did huge dogs become a thing in the Quarter? and why usually 2 of them?) The Square is quieter, but will have more overnighters than the spring does. Lack of air conditioning at home will drive many to catch any night breeze they can out there and hopefully pick up a buck or two or make some friends.
The chalkboards in front of restaurants and bars praise their fruity drinks and their cold air conditioning and hope for a few big groups to come in and spend and tip well.
Seeing the row of smokers in chairs in front of Cosimo’s Dauphine Street windows was lovely even though I know they don’t think so, in these new days of no smoking inside. Of course, sitting out there may also just be a leftover experience from their crawfish boil season. In any case, a great bar with the best well drink in the Quarter in my estimation.
The tourists in town this Monday are quiet and mellow. Few whoohooers or Hand Grenaders seen (or heard). These kind of folks are always welcome as they proudly take a photo near architectural details rather than of the silver guy or the drunk passed out woman.
On Royal, I counted 4 tours and 2 more on Saint Ann this evening. I remember once a friend of mine hissed at me as we passed a ghost tour, “You know they make it all up” and I laughed out loud and said, “really? you mean they don’t just stick to the truth about our ghosts?”
Let’s hope the entire summer is as quiet and as sublime as this first June early evening was.
Here is a list of nola.com’s “favorite” summer festivals.
Jazz In The Park-2015 schedule
Oysters at St. Roch and Piety Pizza at the Rusty Rainbow
(Update 2016: the girls are no longer slinging oysters at St. Roch Mkt.)
I drove in a serpentine fashion uptown to get to Riverbend, or maybe it was more like playing Pacman- right turn! no, go back, hurry! 2 left turns…. forward forward get it GET IT…..Ugh Uptown folks, I feel for ya these days.
Did that to retrieve visiting Greg R, so we could catch up downtown at St. Roch Market. Not sure what I think of St. Roch yet. Maybe you know me and you suspect I have a dozen or so theories and just-formed opinions about St. Roch and you’d be right. I know I like the oysters at Effie and Melissa’s stand: had East Coast (1), West Coast (1), and Gulf Coast (6) oysters.
Yes, these two women are longtime pals of mine, buddies from the farmers market/Festivus/White Boot Brigade trenches, but even so, they know their food and hosting, friends of mine or not. The GC were from a St. Bernard oysterman and so robust in flavor and huge that it’s hard to fully appreciate the others. Effie told me specifics about his business and his oysters, (which I then later thought might be good for everyone to see when they come, maybe on a chalkboard?) That level of detail, along with their Cajun authenticity, are important for people to know, I think. The pickled shrimp was really good- the sauce is fresh and sweet and clean. Next “door” the rum drink was nice, as was the bite of the dirty mac with crawfish and tasso from the other end of the hall. Greg bought some sheepshead, kale, garlic (acted like it was a market or something) to make his hosts some non-JF dinner. We discussed the Koreole vendor (which looked inviting especially on a cold winter day, not so much right now oops) and how Asian food in the last 20 years or so keeps expanding. Is it because Americans have become more comfortable with the different nationalities and cultures so we see more breaking away from calling all Asian restaurants Chinese? Or is this about successive generations feeling more comfortable staking their claim in the restaurant business, serving what is authentic and yet Americanized as an experience?
We decided to leave the hall to get a slice at Pizza Delicious and for the first time for me, not another eater was in there. I’m sure it’s a temporary lull, but let’s remember that it remains one of the best slices in town (I hear salads are top notch too, but I’ll probably never know) with charming service. As we went in, the Piety Ironworks was abuzz with a party- seemed to be a film thing as, oddly, the actor who played Red Forman in The 70s Show (or Robocop character ______ someone else pointed out) was standing in the middle of the street, seemingly waiting for either a ride (Greg said waiting for his Uber) or maybe he was hoping for a second line. In any case he graciously allowed those who asked to take a pic with him, which seemed an appropriate end to this new set of experiences. Who says non- JazzFest days are off days?
French Quarter block by block 
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