If you have been downtown the past few days (possibly even the past few weeks) you probably noticed the news trucks parked up and down the street. The various major media outlets have staked out the city looking for the perfect human interest story in order to get the Katrina-versary story out with the 'human' face. CNN even rented office space down here for a semi-permanent studio devoted to all things Katrina. Why do you thing Anderson Cooper is down here every month. He's not slumming it and sending stories off to Atlanta (home of CNN, unlike New York or the home of FoxNews) for editing. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not offended. In fact the longer they stay the better the story. This way we can stay at least near the front page and the top of the hour for each media outlet. This helps New Orleans compete for federal recovery aid and can help us down the road. Just think about tomorrow. The president and the the rest of the country is going home. The fifth anniversary of 9/11 is coming and they will be saying New Orleans who, Gulf Coast what... but if we can just hold onto even a toe of the nation's media conscienceness then maybe on September 12th the country will remember their promise to us in Jackson Square last year and return to the coast for the rest of the recovery. What do you think, are they in the way or mostly welcome?

In case you're wondering, the pic in this post was taken in the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel downtown, it seems that ABCNEWS has gotten their own conference room for the week.

What's going on here? Why am I posting so much? Today, in honor of Katrina I am attempting a 24 hour 24 post blogathon.