Well, I let you know about the sad news of our site's retirement last week I said I'd tell you more about the future and then... well I dropped off the face of the planet. Before I tell you about the future one last story... Tuesday afternoon(September 11th, ugh) the a rain the dusted the city was the final staw for the roof of the building my apartment is in and water started to pour (and I do me pour) into my bedroom. My poor extremely pregnant better half was home and managed to move the last of our future offspring's future out of the room before the ceiling started to come down around her. So now I'm in a bad situation with an apartment that needs to be emptied and a new one that needs to be found (and now you know why the podcast was late). I have some options and the help of our families is going to help a lot, but I had to cut off my blogging for the week and only just now could get to you... so on to the future... I think my future includes a break for blogging. I loved being able to post my thoughts on the state of the city in this space, but I think I need to take a step back. The tracking of some of the underbelly of the recovery can be really upsetting and I am finding the stress of the country looking at us as the ugly step-sisters of the nation extremely hard. Sometimes you just want to be a techwriter who fauns over the latest websites instead of dealing with hard realities of the recovery.
Maybe I'm just a little tired (as are many in the city). Maybe I'm just a little to angry. Maybe I just need a break.
Wow, that was a little depressing. On a high note, we must end. Thanks for reading my rants. Thanks for commenting on my podcasts. Thanks for sending in your ideas. Thanks for saying hey. Thanks for everything.
I loved covering Jazz Fest for you. I loved getting to know my city again for you. I loved getting politically angry for you. I loved posting for you.
It's time for the last Blogging New Orleans podcast. Each week I record a podcast about all things New Orleans on Tuesday evening and upload it for all of you to listen to on Wednesday afternoon. Comments, questions, concerns? Comment on this post or contact us via the tips link on the site. This week I give my podcast good byes and interview the most important expert I know, my dad. Mark Schleifstein is the co-author of Path of Destruction: The Devastation of New Orleans & the Coming Age of Superstorms (note: I am the current webmaster of the official book site and Mark is my dad) and a reporter for the Times Picayune who covers environmental issues and hurricanes (and more).
Welcome
Good byes and the reasons for the delay
the interview with my dad
The future of New Orleans
The Levees
Lakeview, Gentilly and the Ninth Ward
Katrina and Rita's effect on the Ninth Ward
Politics
Sports
A bright future with new engineering projects and lots of jobs
Thanks
Thanks for listening to the last 35 episodes of this podcast. Its been great telling you my thoughts every week and talking about the city.
Update: there was an error in the filename of the podcast, fixed now.
SUBSCRIBE to the Blogging New Orleans podcast in iTunes LISTEN to the podcast now ADD the Blogging New Orleans podcast feed to your RSS aggregator
So its very possible I will be unable to make it to the polls on election day this fall (due to a new arrival) and my wife and I have decided to vote absentee. Why not just not vote you ask, well if you don't vote you can't complain. Voting is a right in this country that to few decide to use. To many out there think the system is broken and think not voting with change it. Little do those idiots (yes they are total morons) realize that their voter apathy is what is killing our political system. By not voting you are helping re-elect corrupt politicians and helping pre-picked bad choices make it into office when they have neither the experience nor the good of their state in mind. You are the reason why so many morons get elected and so many bad people control our system. Heck Tom Delay (supposed Bobby Jindal contributer) is a product of voter apathy and the general public's dis-interest in their country.
Well, Matt let the sad news slip a little early and I don't want to leave you hanging (that's really unfair to all of our loyal readers), so let me start to explain and tell you about the next week. Very soon, your beloved Blogging New Orleans will be entering retirement. Each blogger here will be posting a final goodbye on September 14, 2007 (so stick around, we still have lots to say). We will continue to post normally in the coming days. We will continue to discuss with you our thoughts on happenings around the city until then. We will continue to tell you about politics and football and recovery over the next week (you could say this is a site fade of sorts).
Unfortunately AOL and Weblogs, Inc have decided to go in a new direction and are leaving the local blog market (you may remember the retirement a while back of our sister site Blogging Ohio). They will be leaving the site up after the retirement and after we finish posting next week. All of us at Blogging New Orleans would like to thank AOL and Weblogs, Inc for starting the site before the 2006 Jazz Fest and for helping it grow and develop into a full New Orleans site filled with locals who truly love and care for our Crescent City. Many of us will be scattering to other sites around the Weblogs, Inc network (be sure to check back for full details in each member of the Blogging New Orleans team's goodbye post) and will continue to blog about all sorts of stuff. Thanks again to all of you for reading our posts and commenting on our thoughts. You have made this all worth while.
Dammit... Saints sucking harecore against Indy (though they were expected to lose anyway, so a guess its ok). So angry so annoyed so frustrated... At least its not here. At least I'm not in the dome watching this junk playout in person... At least I'm not in Indy.
Argh!
So I'm watching the end of the game in HD-OTA on NBC and the only thing they could fix (other than the Saints) is the annoying double sounds on some of the commercials... It got to me so much (possibly because we were playing so badly) I yelled at the TV while trying to find the remote to mute it.
It's time for the thirty-fourth Blogging New Orleans podcast. Each week I record a podcast about all things New Orleans on Tuesday evening and upload it for all of you to listen to on Wednesday afternoon. Comments, questions, concerns? Comment on this post or contact us via the tips link on the site. This week we'll talk about a Saint getting his locks of love trimmed, Bobby Jindal's hypocracy about Sens Vitter and Craig, UNO and more.
This podcast is almost a 'betacast' and should be treated as such. We don't have theme music yet, but in the future we hope to have that and interviews with movers and shakers from around our fair city. If you would like to be interviewed on the podcast feel free to contact us via the tips page or the comments below.
SUBSCRIBE to the Blogging New Orleans podcast in iTunes LISTEN to the podcast now ADD the Blogging New Orleans podcast feed to your RSS aggregator
ABC26 WGNO recently flipped their news broadcasts to mostly HD and widescreen. I say mostly because some of the pre-recorded stories aren't filmed in HD (I don't think they have enough cameras yet). But the sets are new and the main part of the broadcast take up an entire 16:9 screen. I say more local news in HD, because WGNO isn't the first New Orleans station to take their news high definition. FOX8-WVUE has a widescreen broadcast as well. NBC6-WDSU only recently got their HD antenna up so I guess they aren't their yet and CBS4-WWL hasn't gotten on the HD bandwagon. Either way this is really good for the state of local tv and says a lot about our recovery and how far New Orleans has come into the 21st century or we are just really lucky. Now if only we could get CW38 to upgrade their feed to something above 480i.
Thanks for reading my posts all day. This blogathon helped me write out some of the emotions I've been dealing with over the past year. If you have the means, I'd really recommend it. In the mean time, how about a round up of all my posts from the last day:
The post title is probably obvious, but I think it bears repeating in this post Katrina New Orleans. At Rising Tide 2 this weekend I was struck by the keynote speaker's mentioning of a lack of after school and summer sports programs in major cities. But what about NORD, I wondered. Aren't they a major well-established city run after school and summer sports program for kids? Apparently NORD has been going strong all summer with arts programs, sports programs and a whole lot more. Anyone can sign their kids up. All ages are welcome. No kid should have to be on the street this summer or after school. And yes I'm sure these programs aren't easy to get into, but nothing is stopping you from helping out. We need to show are support for NORD and to encourage its development so this program that has been around since I was a kid will be around for the foreseeable future.
What's going on here? Why am I posting so much? Today, in honor of Katrina I am attempting another 24 hour 24 post blogathon.
Today's Chris Rose column in the Times Picayune featured everyone's favorite columnist talking about a possible Oprah appearance. It seems that the big O wanted Rose to appear on her program as an example of local depression and surviving the effects of Katrina. She refused to allow him to pimp his book (though that makes no sense to me since the reason people will know about him is the columns contained in the book) and wanted to force him to sign away his rights to write about the experience. Needless to say he refused and we got a very entertaining feature on his experience (and what could be seen as an extended ad, if most of us didn't already own the book). Unfortunately for Rose, he wrote the column before the show was finalized and he doesn't realize that Oprah's website not only mentions the book, it links to it as an official 'Books seen on Oprah' book. I wonder if the column went to O's people before publication? Enjoy the sales Rose, careful about the apology in next week's installment.
What's going on here? Why am I posting so much? Today, in honor of Katrina I am attempting another 24 hour 24 post blogathon.
Earlier this year I wrote up the outstanding webcomic A.D. (New Orleans After the Deluge). I wanted to give them another ping and say how great their story and their format is. You should definitely read the entire thing when you get the chance. The creators of the comic wrote up their Katrina-nniversary remembrance today and offered thanks to all who agreed to have their story told in this format. Just so you know, the story is not over yet and you can definitely get back into it via RSS and more. The comic also features some semi regular audio postings with interviews of the main characters and news about the current state of the recovery.
What's going on here? Why am I posting so much? Today, in honor of Katrina I am attempting another 24 hour 24 post blogathon.
Following this past weekend's local blogger conference, Rising Tide 2, many in the New Orleans Blogosphere went home with a need to post what they are thinking out the state of the recovery. I gathered a number of the memorial posts here in a linkdump. Please read each and pass around the links to your friends and relatives.
The Chicory has an open letter to the world asking everyone to remember us and continue to help First Draft has a remembrance of 2 years ago with pictures of the devastation of the city and a plea to never forget. B.Rox speaks of a lack of government and the current level of violence in the city of a still displaced population. Metroblogging gives his simple reasons why we are still here. New Orleans Habitat for Humanity has a run down of all the housing projects in the area and a reminder that we are still recovering. Shelley Midura posts to the DailyKos an extended version of her open letter to the President. Your Right Hand Thief has a round up his remembrances. N'awlins has a photo dump of the state of housing projects in New Orleans. Humid Haney wants to know where you were two years ago. About-neworleansla.com has a story of sadness for what looks to be a now former home. Daily Kingfish wants all the suffering to not be in vain and to force our governor's race to include our rebuilding. Squandered Heritage has a reminder of the TP's front page and a call to action. Suspect Device has an image of the state of recovery and a number of songs about Katrina. The Katrinacrat has a reminder of the failures of the federal government and a day long blogathon of their own.
What's going on here? Why am I posting so much? Today, in honor of Katrina I am attempting another 24 hour 24 post blogathon.
You read Shelley Midura's open letter to the President this morning and felt the power of a councilmember ripping the 'leader' of the free world a new one. Now you need to read the Times Picayune's Editorial that basically does the same thing. the paper does an accurate job of comparing the aid giving to Louisiana and the aid given to Mississippi. It doesn't say 'hey they got to much' but 'hey why didn't we get treated equally'. The number one quote in the Editorial is:
The people of Louisiana are no less deserving of disaster aid because their representatives are newer to Congress or because some of the people we trusted to lead us turned out to be scoundrels.
Yes, the TP is saying what we have been thinking since the first jeer about Jefferson came out of the mouth of a congressman from anywhere else who wanted to make us pay for his mistakes. We do deserve to be treated like the good citizens we are and not punished for our politicians choices. If you give money with checks and balances and realize that one guy isn't going to get it all (hopefully) then you help the recovery. If you hold back and make a blanket accusation of an entire region of the country you only alienate us and show exactly the type of person you are. Of course empty promises by members of the executive branch don't help either.
Over the past year, many of us in the New Orleans area have finally gotten to a relatively settled place. We have decided what we are going to do during the recovery. We have chosen our new home or our remodeled one. We have gotten new jobs and resettled across Louisiana and the rest of the Gulf South. And now... well I think it is officially time for the first safe Katrina baby boom to start. I know of a number of new families and growing ones that will be adding bundles of joy over the next few months. All of them (myself included) realized after the first anniversary of Katrina last year that... we are finally in an ok place. No everything isn't perfect (far from it), but the city is lurching forward now. The country is at least partially behind us. The hospital system is up and running. The street lights are on and most of the infrustructure appears to getting back in order. The levee system repair plan is coming along. Sure nothing is the way we would want to have it in a perfect world, but we have gotten used to a post-k N'awlins.
What do you think? Did the post-k boom start this past month? Are we ready to move forward (even in the current state)?
I feel more comfortable bringing a new addition in now than a year ago (on a community level as well as on a personal one) do you?
Mike Theiss of Ulitmate Chase was in Biloxi, MS for the landfall of Katrina two years ago and he recorded his experience in still images and on video. His amazing account includes images from inside a beach front hotel as the storm surge started to eat into the first floor. He took his life in his own hands while scambling up a stairwell backwards with a video camera being chased by raging Gulf Coast waters and the storm. (Apparently idiots take the best shots) The account from this storm chaser includes a first hand account of Katrina's Florida landfall as well.
Well, I let you know about the sad news of our site's retirement last week I said I'd tell you more about the future and then... well I dropped off the face of the planet. Before I tell you about the future one last story... Tuesday afternoon(September 11th, ugh) the a rain the dusted the city was the final staw for the roof of the building my apartment is in and water started to pour (and I do me pour) into my bedroom. My poor extremely pregnant better half was home and managed to move the last of our future offspring's future out of the room before the ceiling started to come down around her. So now I'm in a bad situation with an apartment that needs to be emptied and a new one that needs to be found (and now you know why the podcast was late). I have some options and the help of our families is going to help a lot, but I had to cut off my blogging for the week and only just now could get to you... so on to the future... I think my future includes a break for blogging. I loved being able to post my thoughts on the state of the city in this space, but I think I need to take a step back. The tracking of some of the underbelly of the recovery can be really upsetting and I am finding the stress of the country looking at us as the ugly step-sisters of the nation extremely hard. Sometimes you just want to be a techwriter who fauns over the latest websites instead of dealing with hard realities of the recovery. 
It's time for the last Blogging New Orleans 
ARGH sooo angry... MIKE SMASH!!! SAINTS LOSE BIG!
It's time for the thirty-fourth Blogging New Orleans 
Thanks for reading my posts all day. This blogathon helped me write out some of the emotions I've been dealing with over the past year. If you have the means, I'd really recommend it. In the mean time, how about a round up of all my posts from the last day:
The post title is probably obvious, but I think it bears repeating in this post Katrina New Orleans. At Rising Tide 2 this weekend I was struck by the keynote speaker's mentioning of a lack of after school and summer sports programs in major cities. But what about 
Today's 
Earlier this year I 
You read 
Over the past year, many of us in the New Orleans area have finally gotten to a relatively settled place. We have decided what we are going to do during the recovery. We have chosen our new home or our remodeled one. We have gotten new jobs and resettled across Louisiana and the rest of the Gulf South. And now... well I think it is officially time for the first safe Katrina baby boom to start. I know of a number of new families and growing ones that will be adding bundles of joy over the next few months. All of them (myself included) realized after the first anniversary of Katrina last year that... we are finally in an ok place. No everything isn't perfect (far from it), but the city is lurching forward now. The country is at least partially behind us. The hospital system is up and running. The street lights are on and most of the infrustructure appears to getting back in order. The levee system repair plan is coming along. Sure nothing is the way we would want to have it in a perfect world, but we have gotten used to a post-k N'awlins. 
