I'd rather be in a FEMA trailer in New Orleans than in a penthouse anywhere else

I found the title quote by Gralen Banks;

"I'd rather be in a FEMA trailer in New Orleans than in a penthouse anywhere else,"

in this NPR story I hadn't seen before (or forgot about) reading another NPR Story about Treme.

Echoes of Lafcadio Hearn;

"Times are not good here. The city is crumbling into ashes. It has been buried under taxes and frauds and maladministraions so that it has become a study for archaeologists...but it is better to live here in sackcloth and ashes than to own the whole state of Ohio."

Odd that we now have a couple of from NOLA Blogger expats in Ohio.

The Trailer Two Step

Here we go again. There are still 350 trailers in New Orleans. I am not surprised you can see them scattered in neighborhoods all over the city. A few months ago I was in an unusual (for me) part of town and was surprised to see one. A shortly after that The Times-Picayune ran a story on the few trailers left in Jefferson.

I started this blog to chronicle my life in a FEMA trailer and as self therapy for the dislocation after the flood. I had one of the first trailers. I was lucky because I had power and water at my house, many people didn't. I lived in it for over 2 years.

I had monthly inspections I had to take off from work to meet the FEMA inspector. The trailer gnomes came and did stuff when you weren't around (mostly adding new warning stickers).

I sat through a formaldehyde test, which turned out not to be that bad, although I never was actually warned about formaldehyde. It took months of calling to get the report and I never did actually get the full report, only a summary letter.

There was a tremendous trailer industry. There were installation contracts, electrical contracts, maintenance contracts, inspection contracts. Virtually none of the people involved in these activities was local. I don't think that in the entire time I was in the trailer a single person who came out was local. The same person never came twice. It was a revolving door of government employees and contractors.

In all that time no one ever offered to help me get out of the trailer (except into the rental assistance program). No one offered to help with the road home applications. No one offered to help create a housing plan. No one offered any rebuilding assistance. No one offered help finding contractors. No one offered to coordinate volunteers. No one offered to help me find government programs I was qualified for. No one even left me a brochure in government speak of options I could pursue.

I live in a mostly white, affluent neighborhood, so I may have been profiled or they may have decided I was a low probability to accept help. But my neighborhood is also a neighborhood with lots of elderly residents who could have used help.

If we want to get people out of trailers and into houses, perhaps we need to spend less on contractors and enforcement and a little more on counseling and helping people manage their renovations. Perhaps we should move some of the CDBG money out of making millionaires out of DBEs and into helping actual people.

Institutionalizing Reform

New Orleans needs to Institutionalize reforms to prevent a relapse. Simply electing good people to a bad system is not enough. It might actually appear that the system is working.

Mexico has an Institutional Revolutionary Party originally formed to preserve and extend the ideals of the Mexican Revolution. It hasn't worked out that well. Eventually the party became fat, happy, arrogant and corrupt. Eventually they lost.

The NOPD is much in the news. The Chief is under fire and he may have pulled off an amazing feat of public relations. He may actually be less popular than the Mayor.

C. Ray Nagin and Chief Riley

People are looking back on Chief Pennington as some kind of golden age. Under Pennington, one-third of the corrupt or under-performing NOPD was replaced, firing people who can't pass truly independent investigations of complaints, random integrity checks, and professional standards.

But before firing everybody "who can't pass truly independent investigations of complaints, random integrity checks, and professional standards" You have to have a chain of command committed to those standards and the ability to conduct truly independent investigations of complaints, credible integrity checks and well communicated professional standards.

It seems to me you can't fire the entire police force all at once unless the Governor is willing to mobilize the National Guard for several years until a new force can be built. Maybe Obama could invade New Orleans and start over like Bush did in Iraq. Short of that you are necessarily going to rebuild the force with some of the same people. Progressive improvement and attrition will eventually replace all of the current officers. Pennington made a lot of improvements, had his successors built on that instead of dismantling what he did we would be much better off today. The long term key is a long term effort.

Mitch has started a national search for a new ploice chief as the first step. We need to Institutionalize these reforms so that the next Ray Nagin can't undo them. Every Police Chief needs to be selected with the same kind of process we routinely use for Superintendent of Schools, Aviation Director and Inspector General. It's too important to be left to the Mayor's crony. There is much more to do but it is an imperative first step to permanently solve the problem long term. The NOPD made a lot of progress under Pennington, but he didn't finish the job and quickly reverted as soon as he left town.

One way to help stop the reversion would be more effective power sharing between the City Council and the Mayor. As we have watched Nagin push the limits of Mayoral power and arrogance there was no effective counter weigh in city government. Often the Council was literally powerless to do anything. Pushing the decision out in the public (like the Inspector General selection for example) would insure at least some public scrutiny and a public record. While University Presidents may not be the ideal group, the prescribed process forces it to be more public. Adding some of this to the Charter would help. There is always danger that some faction will gain enough control to subvert the process.

I worry very much that Mitch will do a good job as Mayor but won't make the structural changes needed to prevent a recurrence of the problems we face.

I am concerned that he won't embrace radical change, but not because he wants to use the existing power. I just don't think he is an innovator. I think he will be competent but not bold.
I'm not sure Mitch was running for power as much as validation or personal and family legacy.

However if he is concerned about his legacy then he might want embrace historic change, like his father did by embracing integration.

Character Matters

I'm something of a dilettante when it come to American history. I've read some and thought some and developed a few of my own theories. One is that at pivotal times history often depends on a few people of extraordinary character. Not perfect people but people with extraordinary moral strength.
George Washington was many things, but the one thing everyone agreed on was his extraordinary character. His steadfast devotion to the cause likely was the critical factor in the success of our revolution. He was the unanimous choice of his peers to preside over the Constitutional Convention which produced the most remarkable document in political history, yet by all accounts he seldom participated actively, instead demonstrating his resolve and commitment. As first President of the United States he established many of the customs we adhere to to this day.


Robert E. Lee was in the tradition of Washington. He commanded the respect of everyone who knew of him. He was called the best officer in the United States Army before the Civil War. At the end of the Civil War when he called on the South to accept defeat, his moral force was enough to override the president of the Confederacy.


George C. Marshall was the only military man in the US who could promote Colonel Eisenhower over dozens of more senior officers. He was the only person who by strength of will could resist Churchill and the British General Staff. “The noblest Roman of them all" was how Winston Churchill once described him. FDR said he couldn't sleep if Marshall was not in Washington. After winning the war, he was given the Nobel Peace prize for winning the peace.


Martin Luther King Jr. was thrust to greatness. He was a young little known preacher when he was "nominated" to lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott. His strong conviction in the rightness of his cause, without recrimination and with universal reason strengthened his supporters and undermined his opponents. The moral force of his calm righteousness showed the country the way.

If only our local leaders could be just a little more like them. A little more concerned with good and a little less concerned with get.

The soft corruption of incompetence.

Anyone who has had any contract with the government of the City of New Orleans knows (or should know) that every office is dysfunctional, every process broken.

This dysfunction leads to monumental structural incompetence, which often shields favoritism, cronyism, discrimination and corruption. George W. Bush famously used the phrase "the soft bigotry of low expectations" the soft corruption of incompetence is no less pernicious.

There is useless red tape, and an expectation that citizens will pay the taxes, then provide any services for themselves. There is a punitive approach to government. Civil "Servants" view themselves as preventing citizens from taking advantage of government, while dispensing favorable treatment to their friends, relatives and others in the political caste.

As an example I have for months been trying to get a refund of overpaid property tax. The City basically refuses to share their records. The Finance Department web site shows taxes due, but not taxes overpaid. I got documentation of the overpayment by my mortgage company which the City refused to accept, even though they agree the tax was overpaid, because they require both sides of the canceled check, except in this case it was an Electronic Transfer, there is No Check!

In a similar situation the Finance Department has asserted that since the Assessor lost paperwork they are entitled to charge a taxpayer any tax they arbitrarily decide.

It has long been that way, fortunately in the past it was easy to bypass or simply ignore city government most of the time. Since the flood it has been impossible to ignore the city has reached it influence into every aspect of life.

The racial transformation of city government that took place beginning in 1970 with Moon Landrieu's term and was completed by the time Marc Morial became mayor in 1994 didn't really change anything. The processes have remained the same, only the players changed. The new boss is the same as the old boss.

The political caste today is made up of a tight knit sub culture, largely made up of creoles of color as they used to be known, now simply creoles. There has developed a power and social structure similar to and parallel to the old line white structure. Its striking to note how much of the current power structure is related by blood or marriage.

The city can no longer afford these insular, inefficient, divisive and corrupt practices. Everyone in the city belives that game is fixed and tha unless they participate in it, they have no chance.

A number of Mayoral candidates have spoken of Charter Reform. I agree with that, one thing that needs to change is the relationship of the Council and Mayor.

New Orleans has long had an extreme from of the "Strong Mayor" government. In fact the Mayor is close to a King, needing only occasional approval of the Council usually on his terms. Rey Ray I has proven how dangerous that can be. He has "Gone Rogue" almost as if he is trying to destroy the city that is ungrateful to him for "busting his butt" on our behalf. Through his petulant feckless disregard for anything or anyone but himself he has presented us with a generational opportunity to fix City Government.

My priority for Charter Reform would be to involve the Council more in the policy making aspects of government, to make them a legislative partner of the Mayor. It seems beyond obvious to me that that diverse city needs a diverse decision making body which represents all of the people and operates in public.Under previous Mayors the Council often retreated into making zoning variances their primary business.

The current City Council has shown considerable independence and has made some very positive initiatives. To some extent the tension between the Mayor and the Council is a positive development for the citizens, exposing the government to the people.

I suggest this Charter Amendment

(b) Contracts for professional services administered by the offices, departments, boards, and other agencies of the Executive Branch shall be awarded on the basis of a competitive selection process which shall be established by executive order of the Mayor.

(c) Contracts for professional services administered or by the Council, pursuant to its Charter functions, legislative authority and responsibilities, and regulatory authority and responsibilities, shall be awarded on the basis of a competitive selection process which shall be established by ordinance. rule of the Council. Such contracts shall be signed by the Council president upon authorization by Motion adopted by a majority of the entire membership of the Council, except that pursuant to Section 4-403(2), contracts to employ special counsel shall require a two-thirds vote of the Council's entire membership. The Council rule may except contracts executed solely to assist the office of an individual councilmember.

I'm not sure else what should be included but stronger budget requirements, confirmation of the Council on all contracts (something many cities including Atlanta do), requiring the Mayor to preside over Council Meetings as ex officio member of the Council or designating Council Member as a full time job with adequate compensation (75% of the Mayor's salary?) all seem like something that could be worthwhile.

I sure some will consider this a part of the vast white wing conspiracy to exclude blacks from government. If however in the next administration there is a white mayor it would seem that power sharing should be welcomed.

Catch 22

In contrast with previous precident here I'm quoting this article extensively since it's an old one, to allow public comment and to point out the absurdity of the Kafkaesque rules regarding "Help" FEMA offers and the compassion local governments extend. I decided to resurrect this from the crypt because the other evening I was driving down Vendome Place uptown for the first time in a probably two years and I was surprised to see there is still a FEMA trailer (or a good approximation of one) still in someone's driveway. There are a few others spotted around town.

FEMA trailer symbol of post-Katrina Catch-22 in Harvey

by Mark Waller, The Times-Picayune

Saturday September 05, 2009, 10:58 PM

Jefferson Parish wants to tear down his house, but a FEMA trailer is in the way. He wants to fix his house, but the parish's demolition order is in the way.

Susan Poag / The Times-Picayune

Charles Ayala of Harvey is one of the last FEMA trailer dwellers in Jefferson Parish. The parish has a demolition order against his Second Avenue home for blight, but Ayala says he wants to repair his home.

Charles Ayala's recovery from Hurricane Katrina has descended into one of the most confounding predicaments out of the thousands of people in Jefferson Parish who relied on FEMA trailers.

He is one of the last few residents lingering in a trailer long after Jefferson Parish began suing people, including him, to part with their units. He is fighting a court order to demolish his house because of blight. But the parish is blocked from tearing down the house -- because the federally issued trailer stands in the path of the bulldozers.

"Every beat of misfortune has not missed me since Aug. 29, 2005," Ayala said last week outside his house at 504 Second Avenue in Harvey, where a tree limb punched a hole in the roof during the hurricane and let rain inside. He said he also endured a bout with stomach cancer that forced him to stop working as a convenience-store manager, so he cannot afford to rent an apartment.

Ayala, who turns 49 on Monday, is caught in the waning days of Jefferson Parish's campaign to rid neighborhood streets of trailers, one of the most aggressive such efforts in the New Orleans area. About 10 units remain in unincorporated parts of the parish. More than 18,000 of them dotted Jefferson three years ago.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency itself has ended the trailer program. The cases that remain demonstrate some of the most tangled, intractable problems storm victims have faced.

Ayala said he believes the $67,000 in rebuilding money he received from the state's Road Home program is enough to fix his house. The demolition order, however, prevents him from securing building permits.

'It's not abandoned'

Jefferson Parish Attorney Tom Wilkinson said parish officials do not agree that Ayala's house is salvageable.

"The siding on the building is in disrepair and, in a number of places, the siding is missing, rotted and deteriorated, " says a 2008 petition against Ayala the parish filed in 24th Judicial District Court in Gretna. "There are parts of the structure which are missing the soffit and fascia. Parts of the roof are missing shingles. There are also holes in the roof causing the roof to be open to the weather. The exterior paint is chipping and peeling. The windows are not weather tight. The building also has termite damage and the floor joist is rotten."

Parish attorneys argue Ayala's house is a dangerous nuisance. Judge Steve Windhorst sided with the parish and issued a demolition order. The parish has a separate court order telling Ayala to remove the trailer, in accordance with parish codes against using travel trailers as dwellings in residential neighborhoods.

Ayala said he recently installed a new roof on the house, showing that he is trying make progress on repairing the house and leaving the trailer, which he says gives him nosebleeds because of the formaldehyde used in its construction.

His house last week still had a faded and peeling exterior. The front and rear yards were thick with vegetation, another code violation according to parish officials, but Ayala argued the plants are ornamental.

Susan Poag / The Times-PicayuneAyala says his home now has a new roof on it, but he says he cannot get a permit for more repairs because of the parish's demolition order.

"It's not abandoned, " Ayala said. "It's not neglected. You've got an owner here who cares about his home. You don't go put a brand new roof on your home if you don't care about it."

Matthew Friedman, an assistant parish attorney handling FEMA trailer cases, said Ayala's situation has the parish at a standstill.

"He probably couldn't fix the house with the trailer there, anyway," Friedman said.

Asked whether the parish might sue FEMA to remove its property, he said, "All legal avenues are open."

Legal tangle

A spokeswoman for FEMA referred questions about moving the last trailer residents to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, which now manages disaster housing cases. Neill Coleman, a HUD spokesman, said residents can apply for Section 8 housing vouchers to help them secure new accommodations.

Ayala said he previously spoke with FEMA officials about the rental assistance program that has since ended, but he felt he couldn't afford the portion of the rent he would have had to pay.

And, of course, they'll tear down his house if he leaves the trailer.

Alice Riener, an attorney with Southeast Louisiana Legal Services, is helping Ayala try to extract himself from this puzzle, primarily by petitioning the court to remove the demolition order so Ayala can get permits to renovate the house.

Riener argued the parish is placing Ayala in a difficult situation by declaring his house more than 50 percent damaged, requiring him to rebuild under higher codes with greater costs, such as elevating the structure. Noting that the house didn't suffer any flooding, Riener said it is not damaged to such an extent.

"It's a very serious thing to have a house demolished, " she said. "If it gets demolished, he won't have the money to rebuild."

Wilkinson said the parish continues to explore all options for resolving the impasse, but he said: "Our hands are basically tied."

Ayala said stress from the ordeal has caused him to suffer depression and lose weight.

"If all the parish did was get off my back, I could turn my life around, " using the Road Home money, Ayala said.

"They will ruin my life savings; they will ruin my financial future, " he said. "If they succeed, I will be converted into an indigent, homeless pauper."

Reform Now!

We need to reform our institutions, especially our public institutions to do what they are supposed to do. Government should deliver services to the people who use them, whether Public Transit, Building Inspections or Tax Collections (or refunds) or Garbage Collections. Schools should teach. Public officials should serve the public, and not themselves and their allies.

Possibly our colonial heritage caused the distinctly different view of governments role here than elsewhere. Perhaps the culture which values relationships over achievement. Politicians have built a cult of personality where doing their jobs has been promoted to the level of a personal favor.

What is needed is a new approach, we cannot bribe people to come here. We don't have the money and someone else will always have more. We need to make the city attractive for people to locate well paying permanent jobs here.

Life is a Bowl of Sugar

Is it a sign of the times or a sign of the future.



Sugar Bowl Ticket Sales are sagging They were advertising on the big screen on the side of the Arena yesterday.

With the Jan. 1 game against No. 4 Cincinnati (12-0) only two weeks away, No. 5 UF (12-1) is nowhere close to selling out the 17,500 tickets allotted to each school by the Sugar Bowl.

"We have about 5,000 to go (to sell out)," said Mark Gajda, UF's assistant athletic director of ticket operations.

Other BCS Bowl games were also having trouble.



Orange Bowl still had Tickets available at its website.
Fiesta Bowl Tickets were still available at their web site. Even though I sold some tickets for them. A friend of ours is a TCU alum. Earlier in the season it looked like TCU might end up in the Orange Bowl we invited them to join us for the game. He was incredulous that we could get tickets. Apparently we inspired him to go to the Fiesta Bowl and root for the Horny Toads.


The Rose Bowl has sold out.

There may be several reasons for this slump, first is the national economy but there are I believe other reasons. One is certainly the rise of ticket exchanges which make it possible for fans purchase legitimate tickets from other fans easily. Just a few years ago buying a ticket required that you "know somebody" or take a risk with a scalper of dubious antecedents. Another is moving the games out of the Holiday season making it more difficult for fans to travel. Finally game match ups are made according to political criteria. Does anyone except the alumni really believe that either TCU or Boise State are in the same league with Texas and Alabama? Would anyone in their right mind have invited Utah to New Orleans for a party?

In recent years the Sugar Bowl has suffered from the BCS arrangement that moved the game from its original New Years Day date and has also taken the SEC Champion out of the Sugar Bowl every year there has been a separate BSC Championship game. That is four years in a row, good for the SEC bad for the Sugar Bowl.

The Sugar Bowl game is in great shape due to the TV money. But I don't think the game is doing all it can to promote tourism in New Orleans, one of the original purposes of college bowl games.

Long time readers of my mutterings (thanks to both of you) might remember that each year we take a short vacation to south Florida and go to the Orange Bowl. We get our tickets through the Orange Bowl committee and we can renew them every year as long as we want to. We plan this trip well in advance and spent a good bit of money in the Miami / Fort Lauderdale Area.

I enjoy the spectacle and the enthusiasm of the fans. We meet people having a good time and since we know when the game is we can plan way ahead and not be rushed into making snap decisions. We know we will have good seats because we have the same seats every year.

The Fiesta Bowl has a similar policy. I don't know what the Rose Bowl does. On the other hand the Sugar Bowl goes out of its way to make it difficult. I have received several emails inviting me to buy tickets, but apparently purchasing tickets does not give you any assurance that you will be able to buy tickets next year. The website seems designed to randomly hand out the worst seats available.

The Sugar Bowl also does not seem to have done as much as the could to develop their relationship with the SEC. I don't understand why the SEC championship could not be held in New Orleans. I don't understand why the Superdome could not be the site of a pre-bowl. What are those games doing in Atlanta?

I'd like to suggest that since they are hosting the 2012 BCS Championship and since it has been past practice to require that people purchase Bowl Tickets to get BCS tickets that in the 2011 season the Sugar bowl initiate a 2 year package that includes a 2011 Sugar Bowl Tickets, 2012 Sugar Bowl and 2012 BCS Championship Tickets. Further that the Sugar Bowl initiate a series of public events in connection with these games including some kind of pregame party possibly a concert/fan party at Woldenberg Park and some kind of premium parking pass available to people attending the game. These packages would carry with them renewal and upgrade privileges, provided the tickets are renewed in July or something like that.

A lot of this is what the Orange Bowl does. They have what they call "Fan Fest" the day before in apark in Miami and a "Tailgate" party in the parking lot the day of the game. They attract corporate sponsors to underwrite the events and I think this allows them to keep demand and ticket prices up. A good idea is worth stealing.

If there were a consistent group well heeled of college football fans coming to New Orleans for the game and a vacation spending money in hotels and restaurants whether their team was in the game or not it would help the local economy. I imagine any number of Alabama, Georgia Auburn or Arkansas fans would purchase tickets on the chance that their team might make the game.

You Can Bullshit a Bullshitter.

A lot of local attention has been focused on the incoherent self serving ramblings of the former Recovery Czar.

One of the myths I often heard coming up was that "You can't bullshit a bullshitter". Over the years I've learned that it is the most wildly inaccurate conventional wisdom imaginable. In fact it must have been invented by bullshitters.I deal with sales droids all the time. They are generally focused on one thing, validation and reinforcement of their own egos. In sales that is a usually the commission check. The check represents validation and success.

They are convinced of their own invincibility, all rational evidence to the contrary. They are so sure of themselves they often fall for the other guy's line of bullshit. Even wildly successful salesmen who are truly talented are successively taken in by this same trap over and over again.

Nagin is a sales droid. He's been shinin' people on with a smile and a shoeshine his whole life. He has the banter and charisma.


Sales droids flock together like turkeys.


It's no wonder that Muffert fell into his influence well.


Like a piece of interstellar flotsam into a black hole.


Blakely represents a special case of bullshitter. A huckster who believes his own bullshit.


He reminds me of a combination of a demented game show host like Chuck Barris (former CIA assassin)
and Elmer Gantry.

I hope this clears up some of your confusion.

Beer and Blogging

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Creating Prosperity

New Orleans has been in relative economic decline for more than a century it has actually lost population since about 1970 and economic power since the the 1980's. Katrina and the Federal Flood merely moved us along the same trajectory at hyper speed.

Politicians talk of "jobs" but all too often they mean jobs for their supporters, often by taking them away from their political rivals. Giving a job to my brother in law, by taking it from someone else's.

Politicians talk of "Economic Development" usually giving money to some well connected developer for a project of dubious economic viability or utility. There are high density apartment developments around town nearing completion fueled not by demand for housing but by low interest government financing. All too often economic development has failed to have any meaningful impact often failing to even find takers.

Just to mention two failed projects, the Hotel at the Piazza d'Italia, which was supposed to take up one corner of the site and fund the maintenance of the Charles Moore designed Piazza. No takers.
The World Trade Center Hotel, for years the city have been looking for re-developers to take on re-purposing the 1960 Edward Durrell Stone tower, with no luck. Recently the city threw the remaining tenants out, resulting in the closure of more than one consulate in New Orleans. Great economic development move.



Yet over the same time a large number of new hotels have opened nearby including the Lowe's (on the other corner of the Piazza), the Ritz Carlton, the Astor Crowne Plaza, The Renaissance Arts' hotel, the Convention Center Hampton Inn, and Harrah's hotel to name a few.

All too often economic development in New Orleans has been worse than rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. It has been assuring the First Class Passengers have a seat in the life boat.

I recently became aware of a new acronym BANANA (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything). It accurately describes the Gauntlet people have to run to do anything here. There are outright obstructionists for any initiative, often proxies for local fixers, often well meaning people who like things the way they are, often simply inertia and bureaucratic bungling.

We need a new way of looking at the future. We need to stop being afraid of change, and start embracing it. By fearing change we have created negative change all around us.

Wayward Inspector General Report

I have been a strong supporter of the concept of the IG form the beginning. Unlike others who saw it as a tool for rooting out corruption, I thought there was an opportunity for making systemic change to what is obviously a broken government filled with people who have never experienced anything else.

The first draft report on City Government "Review of 2009 Budget Process of The City of New Orleans" has been completed. You can read it here. I got my copy from Gambit and I thank them for making it availible. E tells me he got his elsewhere.

Which leads me to wonder why it took so long to get it.That is typically convoluted New Orleans story. As soon as I heard about I started looking on line for a copy. But I was dilatory, I had football to watch and work to do, so I did what most New Orleanians do. I asked a few people who should know. Not response until this morning.

Searching the Internet the first mention I found of it was a September 16 article in CityBusiness that article merely states that the report was delivered April 30 and made public today (September 16). That seems incorrect. As far as I can tell the report was delivered to the Mayor and Council October 2 and almost immediately every news outlet in town had a copy, but the report itsself never surfaced on those outlets web sites.

Bruce Eggler of the Ttmes Picayune picked it up October 4.

WDSU did a story as well.

There may be others, I got tired of looking. What struck me as odd is that none of the new outlets posted the actual document. I even checked the Louisiana Justice Institue's Nola Public Records Site. It wasn't there yesterday, but it is now. They did have Leave Requests from the Inspector General's staff. Exactly what public interest that is I can't fathom.

I got a copy this morning. After quickly reading the report It pretty much says what you think it might. It's pretty much what we all knew all along.

There is no controls and lots of apparent duplication. We are spending money on administration not action.

The CAO controls lots of goodies for employees (Why is fleet management there and not in Public Works? Why is fleet managements main priority fuel availability?)

The parts about NOPD basically say they have plenty of money but no performance measures are in place. The same things Brian Denzer has been saying for years.

Oh and the Mayor makes up shit.

Why it took so long to get into public after floating around town for several days? I still can't figure that out.

One other thing is clear Len Odom oversaw much of this report and it is a solid piece of work. He deserves credit for that.

Rebuilding is Hard

Recently we observed the fourth anniversary of the Flood of New Orleans and Katrina's devastation of South Louisiana and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. A lot is still left to be done.

Freedom Tower

Today is the eighth anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

The Freedom Tower construction is continuing yesterday;

• Steel installation (two cranes on site)
• 24 jumbo steel columns are being installed to form the tower's base perimeter
• Both the south and north cores now above grade
• Final concrete installation on the sub-grade structure, including the surrounding plaza
• Utility installation and tie-ins
• Crews are coordinating substructure construction while maintaining PATH service

1 World Trade Center (formerly the Freedom Tower) is the center piece of the redevelopment of Ground Zero. It will include 2.6 million square feet of office space, retail space and a subway station. Scheduled for completion in by the end of 2013 work on the tower began April 27, 2006.

Remember

Graphic by Mark Folse

On the Fourth Anniversary of the Federal Flood New Orleans is still suffering from the unfulfilled commitments by our nation's leaders to put right the damage the government caused by defectively designed levees.

Congress authorized levees 16 feet high. The Federal Government built levees 14 feet high that wouldn't hold back 12 feet of water.

Avenue Pubbing

Rising Tide 4 kicks off this evening at 7:00 with a party at Avenue Pub on St. Charles Avenue.

If you can't register on line come on by and register in person, we'll be upstairs. They have 31 beers on tap, unfortunately I don't know if they have Schlitz.

The beer that made Milwaukee famous has lubricated Rising Tide this year. Unfortunately their local distributor Crescent Crown Distributing hasn't gotten the word and sent a truck to reward us for our loyalty.

Going Green For Green

I attended an Architect's convention last week and one of the sessions was on Solar Energy. Unlike most sessions of this type it actually provided practical, usable information. Like all similar information this should be taken with a grain of salt and tested against actual information on your particular situation.

The first and most astounding part is that the government will pay 80% of the cost of a solar installation, with a few caveats. The 80% is a combination of a 50% Louisiana Tax Credit and a 30% Federal Tax Credit. I am not a tax expert please check this out for yourself.


Louisiana Solar Tax credit is a 50% refundable tax credit it is limited to $25,000 per system but the number of systems is unlimited and you can apply for it every year. Since it's a Refundable Tax Credit you get a check for the difference between the tax you owe and the credit. I understand any check you get is taxable on your Federal Income Tax.

Federal Solar Tax Credit is a 30% one time tax credit for qualifying solar system. The Credit is not refundable but may be carried forward for up to 3 years.

Do the math.


Solar Water Heating. According to the information I got a passive solar water heater capable of supplying the average New Orleans home costs about $5,000 installed and would essentially eliminate the cost of heating water, except for occasional very cold very cloudy days. According to standard energy rating a typical gas water heater costs around $300/year to operate. With an 80% tax credit the out of pocket cost is $1,000. That would pay back in less than 5 years.


Photovoltaic Power Systems. It was estimated that a photo voltaic system would generate 1 watt per square foot and cost about $ 8.50 per square foot. Based on a $25,000 limit per system, a 3,000 KW system would fit under the limit (remember there is no limit to the number of systems). In our area system there are approximately 150 hours a month the system would operate at near peak efficiency, generating 450 KWh (KiloWatt hours) /per month. Louisiana also has a net metering law, meaning that if you have a grid tie in any electricity you generate in excess of you needs runs the meter backwards. That's an oversimplification but is more or less accurate. A 3,000 watt system will cost in the neighborhood of $25,000 and max out the system credit. With an 80% tax credit the out of pocket cost is $5,000.

The estimate is that such a system will pay itself off in 5 years or less, although that might be optimistic. If I understand it correctly Entergy New Orleans charges residential customers $0.06 /KWh, plus a fuel adjustment charge which is running around $0.045/KWh. That amounts to a total cost of $0.105/KWh. 450 KWhs equal a savings of $47.25/month or $567.00 per year. That amounts to about a nine year payback.

Check it out. You can pull out your own Entergy bill and see how much power you actually use, subtract 450 KWh from it and see what it would be.

Ain't that Sumthin' - A Little Late and a Dollar Bill Short

Anthony Jones

Anthony Jones was fired for among other things, taking a trip paid for by a city vendor.

In addition to findings that he took a trip on the dime of a city vendor, hid the spiraling cost of the city's much maligned crime-camera program and lied about his academic credentials, former New Orleans technology chief Anthony Jones was fired for allegedly fabricating a purchase order to buy nearly $120,000 in equipment from computer giant Dell Inc., city records show.

In most places any one of those would get you canned.

Why isn't the mayor held to the same standard? Hasn't he admitted pretty much the same things?$ Bill Jefferson

$ Bill Jefferson was also convicted on 11 of 16 counts against him. Interesting that one of the counts he was acquitted on was the famous cold cash. Seems the jury thought it wasn't illegal to promise to bribe a foreign official if you never actually did. Interesting moral position.

Cliff Says it well, as usual.

In some of the comments on the stories there is the usual racist NOLA.com comments. I'm ashamed to have that sewer associated with a city I love.

There were also few people defending Jefferson for the"good he has done". Based on my observation any good he has done is purely accidental or because he couldn't figure out how to steal the money.

The most disappointing thing to me is that much of his theft was at the expense of people who depended on Jefferson to help them. He stole money intended to help the community.

His excuse is sending his children to Harvard was expensive. Somehow Jefferson got a Harvard education without the help of a prominent, successful, well paid father.

Rising Tide SWAG

It's Rising Tide Time Again and we going have a great one there are lots of other posts about the panels and the Keynote Harry Shearer.


But I know the most important part is the Great T Shirt designed by Greg Peters. Hurry on over to the Rising Tide Web Site and Register and order your T shirt.

See you there!

Nayor Magin

I'm not a big fan of Ray but recently we're seeing a lot of piling on. I'm not defending his unconscionable secrecy which only fueled the fire. But, the Sharks smell blood in the water. They are feeding on the public's apparent distaste for his antics. When he was popular they wouldn't have dared.


I just read the article on WWL's analysis of Ray's schedule. I'd have to say his schedule is a lot more structured than mine. I'm sure Obama's is more tightly structured judging by the West Wing. If Ray is meeting 4 or 5 hours a day, when does he get to read all of the reports and analysis he needs to read to go to the meeting? When does he get to go observe what is really happening? I've been in corporate situations where the same group of people seems to go from meeting to meeting without pause. I wonder when they have time to tell their subordinates what to do. Usually they don't, I know I don't.

In that situation I tend to have different key people in each meeting so they can go off and do their work and I can try to keep the client in check. It doesn't always work. I can vividly recall situations where some significant time after our client made a decision it became apparent we hadn't followed up. Often it turned out that had had a meeting without us and neglected to inform us of the decision. Occasionally when called them on it they would all look at each other say "you remember the meeting at ... " slowly they realize we weren't at that meeting and no one told us what had happened.

In my world, I have meetings but my office door is open so I get a lot of phone calls and impromptu meetings. None of that is scheduled. I wonder what Dr. Hatfield's schedule or Blakeley's schedule showed? I'd imagine they would fill in some of the blanks, but maybe not if they had casual access and simply walked in when they needed to talk.

WWL's analysis also apparently uses some deceptive statistics. For example they cite 46% of his time spent on scheduled social functions, apparently including all meals, which may have been meetings where actual stuff discussed but excluding any time not recorded, like time spent in his office reading, talking on the phone or in walk in meetings.

Clancy DuBos said, "in all reality, what's on the schedule doesn't reveal everything Nagin does in any given day."

He's right, unfortunately it was at the very bottom of the online article.

In all Fairness

Clesus makes some good points about the Recent Six Flags Dust up. It's more complicated that it appears at first glance.

It's a little disappointing to have a local AP staffer fail to make any mention of the City's position in such an article. For once the Times Picayune seems to have done a better job of explaining the situation.

Even a blind squirrel occasionally finds an acorn. But, contrary to popular belief squirrels don't remember where they bury acorns, they just bury them. When winter rolls around they often dig up acorns other squirrels have buried. It sort of evens out in the end I guess.

It also seems Six Flags may have been overstating their losses on the insurance claim, at least their claim was defeated in court.