Dirty South Bureau

So, pardon the lack of communication for the last few weeks. Among other projects I’ve had to move shop. I’m still in the Bywater, but fighting the gross housing market down here right now. (see earlier post, Gentrification Gets Personal for the DSB)

The good news: the first demo of New Orleans AK (after Katrina) a weekly radio show on current events and social justice issues in the Crescent City, has come out, and was snatched up by radio station KPFT in Houston, where it will be playing tonight at 7 PM.

New Orleans AK is a collective creation of Public Digital Urban Broadcasters (P-DUB) members Krystal Muhammud, Mayaba Leibenthal, Mikkel Allen-Loper, Christian Roselund and Corlita Mahr. So far this is the first creation of P-DUB, a radical, largely african american (except yours truly) media group.

Contact me at c.roselund@gmail to com to obtain a 128 KBPS copy, or to rebroadcast on your local radio station. Enjoy.

New Orleans AK Part 1 2 3

This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

More information is available on publicdub.com

Much of the lower 9th ward got water on Monday, more than eight months after last fall’s levee breaches and just in time for the mayoral runoff election. Good to see that Nagin cares so much about his people. In March Nagin offered the disingenous excuse that a lawsuit forcing the city to actually notify residents before bulldozing their homes caused much of the delay.

Also, to counter a common misconception, much of the area that got water service restored Monday, such as the Holy Cross neighborhood, is above sea level.

On Tuesday I interviewed lower 9th property owner and advocate Cora Charles in her home on Alabo street, where she has tacked a photo of a picturesque house and neatly kept garden to the front of the partially sheet-rocked structure, the same house nine months later. Charles, who evacuated for Betsy with her young sons, talks about Hurricane Betsy in 1965, her home, and the lack of leadership in the city. The interview was interrupted by the visit of a neighbor who is now living in Minnesota and had only been back once time before this.

Cora Charles on the failure of the government

full interview 1 2

Unfortunately, I missed most of this week’s lower 9th homeowner’s meeting, but managed to get audio of it thanks to Lacy and Percy who work for LA state representative Charmaine Marchand, who runs the meetings.

This week had the Army Corps of Engineers doing yet another big glossy presentation on why we won’t have adequate protection this hurricane season (audio parts 1 and 2).

This is the beginning of an experiment with blogging. I am a reporter (radio, mostly) who lives in the downtown part of New Orleans (not to be confused with the Central Business District- explanation later). I file stories mostly for Free Speech Radio News, Pacifica Network and also manage content for New Orleans Indymedia as well as recording public meetings for ThinkNOLA. A big thanks to Alan Gutierrez of ThinkNOLA for setting me up with this blog.

This weekend was nuts. Lower 9th homeowners meeting, as usual, except that this time the guest speakers from the Sewerage and Water Board didn’t show up. Gee, I wonder why? Eight months and the Lower 9th still does not have potable water and thus no FEMA trailers can be hooked up. The city says that it is doing everything that it can. Money is always an issue in this city, but give me a break- we are the wealthiest country on earth. If this had happened in Connecticut power would have been back on in two weeks. The big oil companies take the oil from this area, the whole nation uses the port, and the Feds screw us. Lack of money is as usual is shorthand for lack of political will.

I digress. Also, Democracy Now! came to town. Any of you reading this can thank Mike Burke of DN! and Eric Klein of FSRN for suggesting this.

Also, the Jeremiah Group held a mayoral forum. Well, it wasn’t what I knew as a forum. It was more like, seven candidates had to sit still and listen to the agenda of the Jeremiah Group/Industrial Area Foundation Network of Katrina Survivors, and then they got fifteen seconds to answer yes or no to a list of demands (agenda items). It was great watching big politicos like Landrieu and Nagin squirming in their chairs, having to say Yes Or No and then having their decision put up on a scorecard. Interesting inversion of roles, if only temporarily. When candidates said no the large african-american man sitting behind me heckled them- “That’s right- That’s a NO for you!”.

This stuff never makes it into the news reports.

That’s really why I am starting this blog- for all the stuff that doesn’t make it into the neat little three minutes that I usually get to cram the complexity of an issue into.

Great to see Brod Bagert of the IAF at the forum, too, looking dapper as usual in a new blue suit. I hadn’t seen Brod since we fought the St. Thomas redevelopment three and a half years ago.

Oh- and today the day laborer’s run for justice came to New Orleans. Got to watch several dozen day laborers in a circle at the foot of the statue of General Robert E. Lee at Lee Circle taking part in a native american ceremony.

This is why I don’t return phone calls on time, or sleep much. When it rains, it pours, and I honestly could not make this stuff up if I tried.