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Gentrification and its Discontents: Notes from New Orleans

I’d like to call attention to this thorough piece by one of my absolute favorite thinkers in New Orleans: Rich Campanella, geographical historian and bike riding New Orleanian.
Gentrification is the opposite of community; it is the warning bugle call from those who used to wear armor and thunder into your town on horses, trampling the less fortunate and sticking their flag on your home. It’s war and those of us who want a city and not fake facades aren’t going quietly.
As you can see, my definition of gentrification is entirely negative and has to do with the imposition of new values and traditions on top of existing ones. It also is entirely tied to the commodity of place, and the dollar value rather than any other.

Love Rich’s analysis of N.O. gentrification in this piece (which sparked a very lively discussion for months around town) even though I don’t necessarily agree with his timeline. Gutter punks as the start of gentrification? I don’t think that group has anything to do with this topic) and then hipsters second? I’d say hipsters come much later in the game, maybe right after the gentry actually. The use of bourgeois bohemians is spot on (as is their attendance at the farmers market on Saturdays!), but where are the up and coming artists (who sometimes become the gentry by the next generation) or the gay urbanists or even the temporary natives who land in gentrifying spaces when they first come?

Gentrification and its Discontents: Notes from New Orleans | Newgeography.com.

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Echoes of community

There is often a bittersweet air to these posts that I find reporting the loss of one of the bygone characters of the Quarter and the Marigny. When you read the details, you can almost hear and see the late nights and shared experiences in these groups of friends having fun while also struggling to find their own way. In this blog piece are the names of some of our literary folks who, back in the day, were working toward something, something that they achieved in this case.
It’s the same as when I read about the group that started the Arts And Crafts Club back in the 1920s, or the friends who began Southern Decadence or Barkus or Tiptina’s; I can hear the laughter and fun that they had while doing it.
I’m glad that camaraderie is alive and well with new groups of friends and colleagues in the Quarter working on their own future.

LEJ's Blog: 02/01/2013 – 03/01/2013.

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Lovely St. Louis Cathedral

Lovely St. Louis Cathedral

Local photographer Roy Guste shares another gem

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Super Bowl Bicycle Share · Bike Easy

Besides the many places to rent or buy a bicycle in New Orleans, it seems that bike sharing has finally come to the Crescent, at least for a short time. Check out Canal or Julia Streets for a chance to see how this works-I love using this system in cities that I visit, like Toronto and Washington DC.

Super Bowl Bicycle Share · Bike Easy.

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“Super-DUPER” Carnival?

With the gorgeous weather this late January, we are poised for a great holiday season. For most locals, we began to celebrate a few weeks ago, and at this point, most have their plans ready for parade routes and what king cakes to eat this year.
My two favorite parades are this weekend: ‘tit Rex and Barkus. ‘tit Rex rolls Saturday on a new route through the Marigny, and Barkus has its usual meandering Quarter trot. Both are unusual parades as ‘titRex is a shoebox parade and Barkus is the pooch parade. I love the informality of the walking parades much more than the pageantry of the riding parades, but I may also catch Muses this year on its Uptown route. I appreciate both types of carnivaling.
The wrinkle in this Carnival season is, of course, that the Super Bowl is being played here and smack dab in the middle of the revelry. The February 2 weekend should be a wild time throughout the downtown sliver by the river, especially since the city has rented much of the public space to the NFL and the media partners.
Whole city blocks will be cut off from regular passersby for the fee-paying corporations who have taken over half of the Quarter. For example, walking down Orleans at Burgundy last night, this is what I encountered:

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Literally, a blinding walk more than 4 blocks away from the offending area that it was purportedly to light – Jackson Square! It certainly means that the residents who live on that side of the street have a miserable few weeks to live through. And with lights that overwhelming, certainly means noise at that level to follow which means all residents within a mile will live with it.
Listen, we get it: we are a tourist destination and Super Bowls are a money maker for restaurants and cab drivers and many others. We welcome them, but all of this has to happen within reason, and its our city’s responsibility to ensure the comfort of its resident first and foremost.
The level of interruption that I am seeing in the Quarter for this NFL event even dwarfs Carnival which is hard to do.
Keep in mind too that a few years ago, a beautiful walking parade of downtown artists was pushed out of the Quarter entirely and when they moved to the nearby Marigny, had police pushing and shoving them and the bystanders off the route. They have since suspended their parade because of the harassment.
How come we can’t find a way to hold both of these types of events in our city center without selling ourselves off the highest bidder or shoving the informal culture off our city streets?

This mayor seems a bit lost about how to weigh what to offer corporations versus local creative entrepreneurs. Maybe he needs a blinding light shining on his house-maybe it will help him to see.

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Make My House a Mardi Gras Float by Levy Easterly – GoFundMe

talk about “eyes on the street”!
If you have been to the corner of Barracks and Chartres during Carnival in the past few years, you have seen this house. Always decked out in Mardi Gras finery and welcoming dogs.

Help Levy reach his goal of topping himself with this latest idea for Fat Tuesday. (They also have “porch sales” throughout the year where great deals can be had….)

and get some serious Karnival Karma for helping with this.

Make My House a Mardi Gras Float by Levy Easterly – GoFundMe.

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Lillian Rodos, French Quarter fixture, dies at 94

Miss Lillian knew how to live.

Lillian Rodos, French Quarter fixture, dies at 94 | NOLA.com.