Treme Brass Band leader Uncle Lionel Batiste dies at 81 | wwltv.com New Orleans.
Category Archives: people
Cosimo Matassa honored
The great rock and roll engineer and studio master of New Orleans music has been inducted into the hall of fame as is proper. The Matassa family remains entrenched in the Quarter with sons Louis and Johnny running their grocery store on St. Phillip, so stop by for some of their hot food (watch out for that step up halfway back!) and take it over to Dumaine to view Cosimo’s plaque commemorating his legendary studio.
Lee Kyle, roaring in for Tennessee time (TWLF tip #6)
A 21st century Tennessee Williams. Performer, artist, pedicab driver Lee Kyle. He will be selling his linoleum cut postcards of Tennessee and other characters at the merchandise table of the festival (lobby of the Monteleone Hotel)
Envie
Texaco building on Canal to be renovated for low income seniors
Canal street needs to add a diverse set of residents and this project may be the kick off to that.
In any case, it has long been my contention that tax credits for Canal building owners that renovate their largely empty upstairs floors should be considered; those tax credits would be given with rent controls so that regular people can animate our main street.
However, the Texaco building has been empty for far too long-I wonder how long it will really take to renovate it? I also wonder if this is the beginning of the end of the Iberville housing; this article talks about moving seniors from there. Besides high-rises being sometimes difficult for seniors to navigate it makes me wonder if moving people from there is to change the community aspect of Iberville in order to hand it over to developers.
Curfew for the few?
One of the city’s most original writers, CW Cannon takes on the curfew in this piece from non-profit journalism site The Lens and I think, nails it.
Here is the piece I’ll quote to those who argue for keeping kids out:
“This law isn’t about protecting them, it’s about protecting tourists from seeing them. If the price for getting people to come to New Orleans is hiding my actual New Orleanian family (or moving to a family-approved residential zone), whatever is left of New Orleanian “authenticity” will finally be dead.”
For anyone who wants to maintain the Quarter as the vibrant middle of the city, rather than as a genteel police state for visiting consumers, this curfew is a warning shot. I’d also add that the assault from the NOPD on informal gathering and cultural camps throughout the Quarter and the larger city has done little to nothing to reduce the heavy crime in the Quarter and beyond.
As someone who grew up in the Quarter and would walk to see my hard-working mom while she was still at her office at 8 or 9 pm, or walk to the schoolyard and play basketball at Royal and St. Phillip after dark (since we didn’t have a TV or even a yard), I would hope that those few kids being raised in the area could feel that the city center is as theirs as their own residential block when needed. To limit the Quarter to less hours for youth is to limit future residents and workers from becoming acquainted with their own town square, which could be its demise.
The Lens
Time Banking
TimeBanking.
What is it? How does it work?
There are hundreds of TimeBanks around the world. TimeBanking is based on the belief that our communities work better when all of our contributions are valued. It rejects the notion that we belong in separate classes of “givers” and “receivers” and establishes a way to reward all types of work — caring for our children, elders, and others who need it, building community, helping out our neighbors.
TimeBanking is about spending an hour doing something for somebody in your community. That hour is counted as a TimeBank Hour that you can spend on having someone in the network do something for you. You earn TimeBank Hours for each service you perform. Instead of members “owing” the one person who helped them individually, we can choose to give and receive the many talents and skills of all the members.
TimeBanking connects you to the best in people because it creates a system that connects unmet needs with untapped resources. It provides ways for us all to contribute and benefit.
Timebanking can be a very effective way to bridge gaps across different demographics, bring people together as a community, build a resource base to solve problems or realize dreams, connect people with needed goods and services, and give people a way to feel valued and do what they like to do.
How do we start a TimeBank?
For an opportunity to learn more about timebanking and have your questions about about the process of participating in a timebank answered, join Stephanie Rearick, co-founder of Dane County TimeBank in Madison, Wisconsin (www.danecountytimebank.org), as she speaks to us about her experiences!
When? Monday, September 26 at 7 p.m.
Where? LHA Community Center, 621-623 N. Rendon (in Mid-City, btwn. St. Peter and Toulouse)
French Quarter block by block 
You must be logged in to post a comment.