New Orleans art colony shows hopeful disaster recovery

We often recall the worst about an area following a weather disaster and seldom learn what happens later, after the worst has past and recovery has occurred.  So here's the story of how one area of New Orleans has bounced back from one of the most high profile disasters every to hit that city.

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, it hit the artists hard.  People who make their living on the streets, selling art out in the open found it difficult after the wind and rain made it impossible to work.

And the tourists were afraid to return, even as the artists had difficulty making a living, as they made their living from people who visit New Orleans for just plain fun or part of a forum or conference.

The tourists came back, however it took some time before that happened in earnest.  And now a few years later, where are the artists and what is happening now?

Around Jackson Square the artists are back, but not like they were in those good old days. Some of these old-timers are the survivors who hope for better days ahead even as they mourn those good old days that at the time of the flooding of the city seemed just a long ago hope.

According to an artist named "Babs" those good old days meant artists with style whose paintings were on demand as visitors walked around Jackson Square, lingering here and there for a look. These days, however, the artists have to share their space with tarot carot readers who come and go while luring tourists with their tricks.

This oldest art colony in America stands out for its uniqueness. Artists
obtain licenses from city hall on an annual basis. For years the only
way an artist could set up around the square was to be recommended by
another artist. Now it is a first-come, first-served basis, with annual
identification and licenses available every January. This allows the
city to have some semblance of authority with the artists, who have
become part of the merchant culture on Jackson Square. 

For years, the artists and fortune-tellers quarreled over spots along the fence, at various times having serious and audible quarrels. These days a peaceful
truce exists, haven taken place sometime between the late 1990's and the days after Hurricane Katrina. The artists line up on the front and sides of the
square; the fortune tellers and musicians occupy the section in front of
St. Louis Cathedral and the Cabildo, sharing their spots with a
sprinkling few of artists on both corners. They can also be seen in the
art galleries that abound through the Quarter.

The art colony of New Orleans underlines its place in history.  It has been connected with tourism over many years.  Artists recall its tenure and its culture with both affection and disdain for the life of never knowing each day if one will win or lose a customer.  It is a hard scrabble life at times, with the money flowing when times are good and wasting away when it is bad.

When the oil economy is booming, artists have made good money.  These days, however, it is literally a wonder that many of them survive with the cost of living as it is these days.

Yet the art colony's survival at all is a testament to recovery itself.  The hurricane came and went and the memories remain.  So do many of the artists, many who drifted away, then drifted on back.  It was a habit that could not be broken.

Just like the city of New Orleans itself, the resilience of the artists demonstrates the authenticity of courage, as people find a way to make it work, make home again, wherever that is in some flood-driven or fire-torched place somewhere or a historic city like New Orleans.  People find ways to survive and live again as they once did---or at least try.

The hopeful know the art colony will always be part of the French Quarter and the future of New Orleans, whether in good times or bad.

The artists, like others, continue to say, "Let the good times roll, and hopefully I can be part of it."

Handyman response to water damage example of good service, human kindness

[caption id="attachment_21133" align="alignleft" width="225"] Larry Alfieri, good service[/caption]

Carol Forsloff----At a time of hurricanes, floods, wind storms of all kinds and weather disasters everywhere, it's difficult to get construction done, given the numbers of people and structures affected, unless you are lucky enough to live in the Beaverton-Hillsboro Portland, Oregon corridor and you know Larry Alfieri.

Nothing can bring the holidays down in mood and direction than a water tank break. Add to that a cold snap with rain already and snow in the offing, and a condominium with limited space becomes even more uncomfortable with belongings everywhere and clean clothes at a premium. Insurance company promises and delays are one thing, but finding the right people to help at the right time can also be an issue, especially when many people need repairs or upgrades, as the Christmas holidays approach.

A visit to a local hardware store brought a valued name of a valuable “handyman” whose title should be much more, given his all-around skills. This Do-All name that is the monikker of the man's business outlines the real facts. He does it all and well.

Humanitarian approaches to services means a focus on real needs and having real concerns about a customer and the problems faced when a call is made, especially when it's urgent. So a handyman who does repairs is often the only individual outside of an insurance company representative that folks can interact with regarding their feelings and concerns when there is a household disaster. While neighbors may rally for support, the real thrust of help comes from where the money and work flows, as that often means the future for individuals and families.

[caption id="attachment_21134" align="alignright" width="300"] Water damage clutter[/caption]

In areas along the East Coast, impacted by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, people still wait for help. In New Orleans it has taken people many years to recover economically from Hurricane Katrina, and construction delays and fraud was everywhere for months, if not years, leaving people to manage their feelings of depression and anger in sometimes desperate ways. But how about finding something or someone good, who knows how to meet the crisis and do the right thing, just because it's the right thing to do? That's the Larry Alfieri model. Having the skills to repair construction damage is important, but the people skills needed to support folks impacted by the damage is also very important, and sometimes lacking, as folks look for serious help when problems occur.

The bedroom closet where the water heater broke is nearing completion, even as clothes and belongings remain scattered everywhere, which will be part of the clean up process faced by the condo occupants. But the process of correcting the damage from the water offers information about not just the work itself by how to do it well, in a manner others might use as an example, as the work unfolds in phases. And in a year fraught with difficulties, as has occurred with the occupants of the condo with water heater damage, having someone whose gifts of service and helping others around to correct the problems can be a blessing, and a real symbol of what being good to others really means.

Climate change deniers continue to refuse support for going green at earth's peril

Tar sands risks

Melinda Owens---The naysayers on the issue of man’s contribution on climate change continue to interrupt the progress of moving forward to improve environmental concerns that continue to threaten the earth’s climate.

Rep. Henry Waxman, Democrat of the 33^rd District of California,  asserts there is a  “climate disconnect” between the increasingly warmer earth temperatures and how congressional representatives vote, who reject science and cast their votes against science, as reported by the League of Conservation Voters.

Scientists continue to warn governments and individuals that climate change is seriously impacting weather patterns that produce more powerful storms, record heat waves, water shortages and flooding all over the world.

Check here to see your Congressman’s voting record.

This is an old story, denying climate change, as Republicans asserted that it was either not occurring or not happening as a result of anything done by man.    At the heart of the dissension is a Republican Party strategist named Frank Luntz, who said in a leaked memo,  ‘The scientific debate is closing [against us] but not yet closed. There is still a window of opportunity to challenge the science.’

Jim Jeffords  left the Republican Party in 2001 over the issue of climate change, referring to Luntz’ remarks as “outlandish” and asserting , 'They have a head-in-the-sand approach to it. They're just sloughing off the human health impacts - the premature deaths and asthma attacks caused by power plant pollution,' Jeffords said.

The denials, more than ten years ago, that were initiated years before at the outset of the Repbulican Party’s victory for the Presidency in 2000, meant years of the public’s hearing there were two sides to the climate change debate.    Today that debate continues, even as scientists remind us that the earth will see more and more rapid change in climate conditions that will inevitably create increasingly devastating weather events, even as many congressional members refuse to support efforts to do anything about it.



----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Melinda Owens is an environmental activist from the Midwest who has advocated for environmental responsibility for more than 25 years.

Pick your poison

[caption id="attachment_5553" align="alignleft" width="256" caption="Poison"][/caption]

Joel S. Hirschhorn - One of the hardest truths to accept is that for most sources of pain hitting humans there seems to be nothing effective for government to do.  Nowadays, those of us who do not gobble various distractions but work to stay connected to reality see two dreadful conditions.  Nature seems mad as hell.  People are dying or suffering from earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, tornadoes, wildfires, hurricanes, extreme heat, huge snow storms and more.  While some idiots keep trying to deny the reality of global climate change, those of us who have lived a long time see firsthand that killer weather events are more prevalent than ever.

While you may be fighting your paranoia about being victimized by foul weather the other ugly reality already devastating the lives of so many people is a dismal set of economic conditions.  Contrary to all the usual lies by politicians about the economic recovery, a mountain of data shows non-delusional people that only the wealthy have escaped economic pain.

According to a recent Pew Charitable Trusts poll, 55 percent of Americans still rate the national economy as poor, and just 47 percent believe their kids will have a higher standard of living than they enjoy.  If more people paid closer attention to the facts, those percentages should be more like 80 or 90 percent.

The US has recovered just 1.8 million of the nearly 9 million jobs lost in the downturn versus an average 5.3 million job gains in the same period of the 1970s and 1980s recoveries.  The number of people with jobs has barely changed since June 2009 — up just 0.4 percent.  Many economists say the turnaround shows no signs of generating the 300,000 to 400,000 monthly payroll additions needed to rapidly lower the unemployment rate.  There are probably about 50 million Americans who are unemployed, underemployed or no longer trying to get decent jobs, or who are close relatives of them.  The rise of the official unemployment rate in May, 2011 (the real level is twice as high) and a paltry new number of jobs just rubbed salt in the wound.  There simply is no basis for believing that many millions of new, good jobs will be created for many years.

Add the latest news that the housing market has turned even worse again, leading to the distressful conclusion that a double-dip recession has hit housing, which portends even wider economic pain.  Single family home prices dropped in March, 2011 to their lowest level since April 2009.  Millions of home foreclosures will be followed by even more.  Of all homes with mortgages 23 percent are worth less than what is owed. job losses, President Obama

And don’t forget that there are enormous numbers of Americans fighting hunger even though 68 percent of Americans are obese or overweight.  Forty four million Americans are getting food stamps.

Meanwhile higher prices for key necessities show that inflation is eating away at quality of life and living standards.  Gas prices climbed 52 percent over the past two years, according to the Department of Energy, and are only now decreasing a little as many Americans have cut back on their driving.  Food costs are also rising just like health care.

Nothing the government has done worked for ordinary Americans.  Many billions of dollars spent on reviving the economy have mainly helped the business sector and the rich.  Congress and President Obama have shown themselves to be utterly useless.  They mostly serve corporate interests.

Both the economic and climate futures look bleak, because they are bleak.

Pick your poison.  We are living in a time when natural and economic conditions are out of control and frightening.  But wait, there is some good news!

According to a new report by Boston Consulting Group, the number of millionaire households in the world grew by 12.2 percent in 2010, to 12.5 million. Here is how millionaires are defined: Those with $1 million or more in investible assets, excluding homes, luxury goods and ownership in one’s own company.  Can you relate?  Even better news: The US still leads the world in millionaires, with 5.2 million millionaire households.

An even bigger truth is this: The world’s millionaires represent just 0.9 percent of the global population but control 39 percent of the world’s wealth, up from 37 percent in 2009.  Even more truth about economic inequality: Those with $5 million or more, who represent only 0.1 percent of the population, control 22 percent of the world’s wealth, up from 20 percent in 2009.  The rich are really getting richer.

If you face reality, remember that Obama promised back in February 2009 that his $830 billion stimulus plan would unleash "a new wave of innovation, activity and construction" and "ignite spending by businesses and consumers."  Yet this did not happen.

And in June 2010, Obama announced that the recovery was "well under way" and that it "is getting stronger by the day." This is more poisonous propaganda.

A couple months later, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner wrote a New York Times op-ed headlined "Welcome to the Recovery."  More self-serving garbage is provided with this statement.

In reality, two years after the recession officially ended there are few places beyond the stock market and corporate profits that have shown improvement, but even now the stock market is hurting.  The rich and powerful have not suffered.  But over the past decade, real private-sector wage growth has been a terrible 4 percent, just below the 5 percent increase from 1929 to 1939 during the Great Depression.

The Republicans who grabbed so much power in the last midterm elections show no capacity whatsoever to fix anything.  That Sarah Palin just as Donald Trump can grab so much media attention demonstrates how decrepit our nation is.

What is to be learned?  No member of Congress or the President deserves to be reelected.  Neither does any other Republican or Democrat.  Like extreme weather calamities, economic evils will continue to poison our lives.  Those who deny climate change and economic injustice are either stupid or delusional.  Waiting for divine intervention makes as much sense as anything, except that all the awful stuff happening, if God’s will, suggests such hope is folly.  Pass the poison.  Or wait for a tornado, home loss, or financial ruin to hit.  More bad news is coming.  But have you ever seen pictures of tornadoes destroying McMansions?



[Contact Joel S. Hirschhorn through delusionaldemocracy.com.]

Energy challenged by currents events through the prism of climate change

[caption id="attachment_6558" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Windmills"][/caption]

GHN Editor - While all eyes are on Egypt and the weather problems, it also calls attention to the long-range effects of how energy can be interrupted to force some nations to continue activities that increase greenhouse gases, so here is welcome news that might bring news thoughts on these crises.

Federal agencies in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska walked their talk in 2010
and significantly reduced their carbon footprint. Through energy
efficiency, waste diversion, lighting retrofitting, and water saving
projects, federal agencies reduced
their combined footprint by 380 million pounds of CO2e. This is the
equivalent of taking 33,000 passenger vehicles off the road for a year.
These reductions also resulted in cost savings of more than $1 million
in 2010.

This week at the third annual Federal Green Challenge
Symposium in Portland, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will
announce the 2010 Champions of Environmental Leadership and Green
Government Awards.

The program recognizes individuals and initiatives in the federal
government that have gone beyond regulatory compliance and have reduced
their greenhouse gas emissions. These agencies have proven results
towards an overall goal of five percent or more reduction in GHG
emissions.

The 2010 Champions of Environmental Leadership and Green
Government Awards are part of the Federal Green Challenge, a
comprehensive federal program to reduce the federal GHG footprint.

The following agencies have been recognized for their outstanding green projects in 2010:

Overall Environmental Leadership Award: Bonneville Power
Administration, Energy Smart Federal Partnership – Since 2001, energy
efficiency projects have been completed with 21 federal agencies,
producing more than 170 million kWh per year of electricity savings, as
well as gas, steam, and water savings in the Pacific Northwest.

Waste Award: Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Waste
Diversion Program – JBLM achieved an 85 percent waste diversion rate
(with construction and demolition) in 2010. This is up from 77 percent
in 2009. This can be attributed to the comprehensive diversion program
which in 2010 alone was responsible for the diversion of almost 67,000
tons of waste and over $3 million in avoided costs.

Energy Award: Bonneville Power Administration, Grand Coulee Dam – The
lighting retrofit project at 20 hydro electric facilities, 20
transmission facilities, and 15 hatcheries has saved a megawatt of
electricity, allowing that megawatt to serve the electricity needs of
the Pacific Northwest. The new system provides more and better quality
light while saving about 50 percent of overall lighting energy usage.





Water Award: General Services Administration, Thomas A. Foley,
U.S. Courthouse, Spokane, WA. - In 2010, the Foley Courthouse Team
field tested touch-less/self-closing faucets in the public restrooms and
introduced new landscaping practices. The Courthouse saved a total of
385,220 gallons of water, a 12.32 percent reduction in 2010 by
implementing these projects.

Natchitoches Parish and Storm of the Century

[caption id="attachment_6561" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Storm of the century"][/caption]

According to national weather news
on the Internet, the "storm of the century" is poised to devastate a
region impacting millions of people in a swath of the country from
Colorado to New England, with the South poised for its share of problems
on its fringe.
While the middle of the country has been warned

to be especially wary about the upcoming storm, as the weather channels
are indicating severe conditions ahead, Louisiana and its southern
neighbors might not escape the wrath of this predicted storm. Weather
experts tell us it is likely to impact one-third of the United States.

So
far this weather has seen some winter storms, bringing high winds and
potential tornadoes to Louisiana, but a storm of the magnitude predicted
can have consequences into surrounding regions.

Natchitoches,
Louisiana is in the north central section of the state; and whereas it
is not in the bulls-eye of the storm range predicted, it has had
tornadoes in previous years that have wiped out homes in the town.
Problems are predominantly for the parish, where large areas of land and
trees can be hit hard during difficult weather conditions.

The
storm is scheduled to begin in earnest on Monday night and last through
Wednesday. Heavy rains and high winds, along with potential tornadoes,
are on tap for the region
involving Shreveport, Louisiana, as well north central areas that
include Natchitoches Parish all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.

Louisiana has its share of weather disasters, with high-profile problems emanating from tornadoes and high winds in recent years
. Three tornadoes touched down in the town of Alexandria, less than
an hour's drive from Natchitoches in December 2009. In January 2010 it
was reported at least one tornado touched down in Natchitoches Parish.

This
year the state has escaped the bulk of winter wrath so far, but the its
history of consequential weather in spin-offs from neighboring states
who get hit especially hard in winter, speaks to the need for
preparation and vigilance.

Weather experts tell us this storm is
expected to be particular strong and warn people to stay informed on the

progress of it as it begins its course on Monday.

References

Dangerous winter storm this week
http://www.weather.com/outlook/videos/dangerous-winter-storm-this-week-365
Weather.com

Shreveport, Louisiana
http://www.wunderground.com/US/LA/Shreveport.html
Wunderlund.com

Tornadoes Hit Louisiana and Mississippi
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/storms/tornadoes/2008-12-10-louisiana-mississippi-tornadoes_N.htm
USA Today

Part of Natchitoches Parish Sustains Storm Damage
http://www.ksla.com/Global/story.asp?S=11866097
KSLA News 12