Funny bounce

Spotted this Nike ad on the Le Meridien hotel as we were on our way to Krewe Du Vieux Saturday.  You may have noticed, as the city gets ready to host the NBA All Star Game, that brands are taking over all of the available scenery.

If you need a reminder that the NBA All-Star Game is coming to New Orleans this weekend, look skyward.

Adorning Benson Tower on Poydras Street is a 250-foot image of New Orleans Pelicans forward Anthony Davis. Farther down the street is an enormous visage of Golden State Warriors star Kevin Durant, plastered on Le Meridien's wall.

And then there is a Nike campaign, also splashed across the sides of downtown buildings, with the message, "The Ball Should Bounce the Same for Everyone."

As we know, the reason NBA is here making a mess out of the first weekend of parade season in the first place is because North Carolina's hateful bathroom law shamed them out of Charlotte. Nike's PR is happy to capitalize on that. The ads it's plastering onto Benson Tower and some of our high end hotels convey a feel good smarmy message about "Equality"  in order to drive the point home to anyone who asks that their brand is one of the good guys.

Company officials said in a statement that the campaign evolved out of conversations that have been ongoing within the company for more than a year.

“We believe it’s important to speak up on issues that are important to our athletes, consumers, employees and communities,” the statement said. It said the “Equality" campaign "raises Nike’s voice and uses the power of sport to stand up for the value of equality. We have a long history of promoting equality on issues of race, gender and sexual orientation.”

Of course that is less than exactly true of this particular company.  They do have a long history of cynically claiming to care about these issues.  But that isn't the same thing.

Although they may be unfamiliar with Nike’s global campaign, the goal of the women I spoke with sounds a lot like the Girl Effect—to raise themselves and their families out of poverty. Each of the 18 women, however, reported pay so low they could not even meet the basic needs of their families, let alone save money or contribute to their communities. (Four had been laid off less than three months before we met, after their factory building burnt down; they spoke only about their wages and child care, cautious of giving critiques that might jeopardize their chances of getting hired back.) They told me that they would need to earn between three to four times their current salaries to offer their families a basic level of economic security. The average monthly wage for manufacturing in Vietnam was $200 in 2015. Their stories highlighted something the Girl Effect campaign is silent about: the importance of a living wage.

I also found evidence that Nike’s contract factories breach basic Girl Effect tenets of freedom from exploitation and harassment, security, safety, and Nike’s own Code of Conduct, put in place to prohibit, among other things, harassment, abuse, and nonconsensual overtime. Women who worked in different factories told remarkably similar stories of being subjected to arbitrary punishments—such as financial penalties and threats of dismissal for making manufacturing mistakes, not working quickly enough, or coming in late, along with intimidation and ongoing humiliation by managers.

Finally, although the Girl Effect champions the importance of women protecting and empowering their own children, the women in Vietnam explained to me why their low wages make it impossible for them to ensure their children’s safety. The 10 mothers with young children whom I spoke with either send their children to unlicensed child care services they consider underqualified or dangerous or they leave them with family in home villages they are able to visit only once or twice a year.

Unsurprisingly, the Advocate's glowing feature on the wraparound ads doesn't ask questions about this. Less surprisingly, even, people all over New Orleans are sharing these corporate slogans on social media and gloating about how proud they are that our "blue" city is #woke enough to have been blessed with them.  

Thus propaganda and fake news feed off one another to further benefit the oligarchs. Same story every day.

A party the city throws for itself

Happy Lombardi Gras, everybody! On this day way back in 2010, Garrett Hartley broke the Muses shoe.  A few weeks later, at the height of the Saturnalia, the conquering general was given his triumph.

These were good times. We may not see their like again.

On the other hand, it is Carnival time again so the world has not been drained entirely of mirth... yet. I know it must be Carnival now because I find that I have purchased the Arthur Hardy Mardi Gras Guide yet again.  You know the one. It's a big glossy magazine.




Only $5.00 this year. Print really must be dying after all. That's a shame... not only in general.. but because people really should read the Arthur Hardy guide.  Every year its Q&A section features the first and most critical point one should learn about Mardi Gras in New Orleans.  Because you probably don't have five bucks on you right now, I have gone ahead and digitized this content for you.





The city actually does spend quite a bit of money promoting and supporting Mardi Gras stuff, but you get the point here. Carnival is an organic celebration. Its forms, institutions and cultural vernacular all change with the times. It is influenced and pressured by political, cultural, and commercial interests. But, as long as people still actually live here (a tenuous prospect, I know) the event belongs to us. This is the basis from which any and all public policy regarding Carnival should begin.  Sometimes we lose sight of that... or at least, our tourism obsessed political class does.

For example, they've already conspired to jam up the traditionally "local friendly" first weekend of parades with the corporate crap festival that comes with hosting the NBA All-Star Game.



They tell us everything should be fine but I don't think any of the "tourism leaders" the press talks to about this is very concerned with the typical local's Carnival experience. It will be something to keep an eye on next week.

Something else to watch will be the progress of road work along the Uptown parade route.  Earlier this month, crews began shutting down lanes and busting up concrete along St. Charles Avenue.

According to the mayor's office, the St. Charles Avenue project is divided into six phases, beginning in January and scheduled for completion by spring 2018. Phase one is slated to wrap up just before Mardi Gras and "will not affect any Mardi Gras parade routes or viewing areas," an overview document on the project states.

The official word there is that rules governing the use of state funds for the project dictated that the work begin now and not after parade season a few weeks from now. OK, fine. They also say they'll have this first phase done once the parades start to roll. We'll see about that.

The SELA work on Napoleon Avenue appears to be wrapping up just under the gun.  In fact, a ribbon cutting was scheduled for that this week (postponed due to the tornadoes.)

While landscaping, road striping and other aspects of the project have yet to be finished, traffic is back to flowing normally, cross streets that were blocked have been reopened and the neutral ground will be open for Mardi Gras parades.

As of today, there is still only one lane of traffic open in each direction, the traffic signal at Magazine Street is not yet installed, and there's a big trailer and heavy equipment sitting in the middle of the neutral ground at Laurel Street.  Still, it does look like they'll have it ready to go on time.  And the finished portion looks great.



Look at all that green space! Come and get it, Krewe Of Chad. Speaking of which, yeah, they've been at it all month.

Krewe of Endymion fans were busy over the weekend marking their territory for this year's roll (which still is almost three weeks away). The claiming of the turf began last week — a new early record — but went into high gear this weekend, when spray paint was used to delineate vast swaths of neutral ground grass on Orleans Avenue.

The Uptown Chad-ing can't really begin until Boh Brothers clears all the way out. We'll keep you posted on that. The crowding of the neutral ground by territorial squatters and ladders has been a longstanding hobby horse of ours. Our favored solution is not even on the radar of policymakers, unfortunately.  We'll let Arthur Hardy have the last word on that.

If we could restore one "lost" Carnival tradition... https://t.co/3n80z5AVTc pic.twitter.com/U1Fwdiy2C4

— skooks (@skooks) February 3, 2017

Meanwhile, signs of the season are everywhere. Here are a few quick items.

I can't even keep up with the sprawling elaboration of king cake themes each year anymore.  Here's one from the Audubon Institute with crickets on it.

The market for king cake vodka seems to have narrowed. The only brand I've spotted so far this year has been the bargain-level Taaka. Only $8.19 at Rouses.



The reviewing stands are going up at Gallier Hall.  I thought about roping off the mayor's podium Krewe of Chad style when I was down there last week but the work crews were giving me the stinkeye.



The krewe flags are starting to come out Uptown.  Here a few I've spotted recently.

Hermes



Thoth



Iris



Iris also has these banners up on St. Charles Avenue celebrating their (supposed) 100 year anniversary.



This is a technically dubious claim. According to.. again.. this year's Arthur Hardy guide, Iris' founding date isn't clear. Its first ball was held in 1922 but it didn't stage a parade for many years after that because its founding members, "felt that a ball only club was a 'prestige' club to belong to."  This is what these Uptown Ladies are like, y'all.

In order to have their cake and eat it too, they created a second club called Venus during the 1940s which did stage a parade off and on until 1959 when they finally decided they were okay with just being Iris. So technically speaking, 2017 would be the 58th (maybe fewer.. I don't know when or if they've rained out) Iris parade even though the flags all celebrate 100 years.

But that won't happen for a few more weeks.  This Saturday, is Krewe Du Vieux.  I read all about it in the Fake News.



Reading between the lines to pick up on what our favorite sub-krewes have planned, it looks like Mama Roux is doing a French Revolution theme. Probably because they are Jacobin readers.  And SPANK sounds like they are going after Jazzfest. Gambit has a preview here.  If ever a year was ripe for raunchy political satire it is now.  This should be a layup for KDV. But then... the election was supposed to be a layup for Hillary and look what happened.

In the meantime, we've got a few more days to get our supplies together.  I usually kick off parade season by picking up a new pair of waterproof hiking boots and a poncho or two.  I think I might be ready for a new bike as well.  It's probably time to start restocking liquor too but we'll get to that.  For now let's just get out and get this thing started.  I can't think of a time I was more anxious to do so.

So much for that manpower shortage

Mitch on his failed police millage: "Just Kidding"

Meanwhile, Cicero and the GNOSF were coordinating with police at the state and local levels to make sure there would be enough crowd-control presence to manage Mardi Gras parades and a weekend of NBA festivities.

“There was never a hesitation,” Cicero said. “(They said), ‘Absolutely we can do that. We have the manpower and we want this.’”

The mayor’s office was closely involved — Ryan Berni, the deputy mayor for external affairs, was in regular contact with the NBA about the league’s needs from the city — as was the governor’s office, until recent days when flooding in Louisiana became Edwards’ priority.

About that whole flood being the priority thing.  Do they know people are going to desperate for housing?

As Freeman and his team opened the venue, Perry and the CVB worked with local hotels and their customers to free as much lodging space as possible for the weekend.

In addition to fans, the city needed to create space at high-end properties for players, owners and international visitors, Perry said. The NBA needs blocks of rooms for media, who also require workspace and a large ballroom for player interviews on the first day of the event.

Does the city need to "create space" for evacuees? It seems like it might.  As of yesterday there were 4000 people staying in shelters making them eligible for subsidized hotel rooms. Add to that the unknown number of people staying in cars or hotels currently.  FEMA has only contracted for 2700 hotel rooms so far so they're specifically asking people to stay with friends and family instead wherever possible.  

The governor said that the Federal Emergency Management Agency will pay for hotel rooms on a rolling, 30-day basis. Storm victims who are staying in cars, hotels, shelters, or their workplace are eligible, but not those staying with friends and family.

At this point we don't have a precise number of displaced available. But we do know from experience that the process of undisplacing them takes a very long time and long term planning is needed to meet their needs.  The NBA corporate crapfest is only six months away.  After Katrina, the need for continuing hotel vouchers extended beyond that.  FEMA is offering to pay $160 per night during All Star Weekend. Probably the NBA is offering better.

The good news is, once the short term rental plan is approved, nobody will actually lives in New Orleans anymore so there should be plenty of leftover "Airspace" if it comes to that.

great

We're turning over the first weekend of Carnival next year to the NBA's corporate crapfest.

The NBA has decided to play its 2017 All-Star game in New Orleans, the league announced Friday.

The news comes a few weeks after the league took the game from Charlotte over a controversial law that some have criticized as discriminatory against the LGBT community.

The game is scheduled for the first big weekend of Mardi Gras parades in New Orleans. There is no immediate word on if the parade schedule and routes will be adjusted, however, Carnival activities are expected to play a part in the event.

"The combination of NBA All-Star with the first weekend of Mardi Gras will provide our residents, visitors and NBA fans an even more special experience," said Mayor Mitch Landrieu.

Previously, when this event has been staged in New Orleans, not everyone thought it was such a "special experience."

In an unusual private takeover of New Orleans' pre-eminent public gathering place, Jackson Square will shut down tonight to host a private party for 2,500 people drawn from the ranks of pro basketball stars, politicians and other invited guests in town for Sunday's NBA All-Star Game.

The reception, featuring 20 food vendors, live music on three stages and a second-line parade, will honor volunteers, including NBA players, who are scheduled to participate today in 10 rebuilding projects across the city. The NBA has paid $5,000, plus a $2,500 deposit to cover damage and litter pickup, to rent the square and a pair of alleys next to St. Louis Cathedral, a mayoral spokesman said.

As part of a four-day basketball showcase expected to produce major economic benefits for the city, the "2008 Celebration of Contribution" party is expected to draw a cadre of famous customers to merchants' shops along Jackson Square. But musicians, artists and tarot card readers who peddle their services on the square's slate-lined streets are crying foul, saying the party is leaving them on the sidelines during a potentially huge payday.

I wonder how the street artists and musicians will feel about being pushed out during the first weekend of parades this time. We're supposed to be happy for the "tourism leaders" who made this event happen. It's hard to do that when those leaders freeze everyone else out of the money.  We're also supposed to be proud of the symbolic social justice victory in this move.  But, again, this thing where we all have to move out of the way for the benefit of the NBA's PR department makes that difficult as well. 

Sports owners say the darndest things

Donald Sterling seems nice.

For the uninitiated,  here's a look at just how nice.

Donald Sterling is, without question, the worst human being who owns a major sports franchise, and that is absolutely saying something, because they are a whole lot of jackwagon sports owners out there.

He's been this way for many decades now with no repercussions to speak of. Why should we expect there to be any now?

Aaaand... of course

In case anyone needed a reminder that the NBA is run by criminals and mobsters.

New Jersey Nets owner to challenge Putin for Russian presidency

No word on whether David Stern would nullify the election results.

Michael Jordan is the 1%

What a dick.

Now that NBA superstars have decided to fully engage in the lockout negotiations and threaten union decertification, David Stern and ownership have decided to unleash their token minority owner from the house to play hardball. According to The New York Times, Michael Jeffrey Jordan, the greatest player of all time, is the owner most determined to bury the union financially. Jordan allegedly wants current players to take a 10- to 20-point basketball-related-income pay cut.

Sellout.

This is the ultimate betrayal. A league filled mostly with African-American young men who grew up wanting to be like Mike is finally getting to see just who Michael Jordan is. He’s a cheap, stingy, mean-spirited, cut-throat, greedy, uncaring, disloyal slave to his own bottom line.

Nike’s “Air Jordan” marketing strategy was based on getting black inner-city kids to worship Jordan and his shoes. Allen Iverson, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Paul Pierce, the Fab Five, etc., made Michael Jordan a billionaire. The NBA Players Association fought like crazy so the Bulls could make $30 million balloon payments to Jordan in each of his final two seasons in Chicago.

And now Jordan, as the owner of the Charlotte Bobcats, wants to be the face of ownership greed and vindictiveness.

Sellout.

#Occupied by Hollywood South?

While relating the events that led to her arrest this week, Naomi Wolf provides the following fact about NYC permitting as it relates to use of public space.

On our exit, I saw that the protesters had been cordoned off by a now-massive phalanx of NYPD cops and pinned against the far side of the street – far away from the event they sought to address.

I went up and asked them why. They replied that they had been informed that the Huffington Post event had a permit that forbade them to use the sidewalk. I knew from my investigative reporting on NYC permits that this was impossible: a private entity cannot lease the public sidewalks; even film crews must allow pedestrian traffic. I asked the police for clarification – no response.

Wolf writes extensively about the abuses of the First Amendment freedom of assembly and speech and the subtle ways in which municipal permitting presumes to limit these essential rights. But apparently in New York, even big money events such as film productions aren't allowed to block public access to sidewalks as that would constitute a First Amendment violation.

So my question is, given that New Orleans is also technically part of the United States, shouldn't the same be true here? Film productions regularly cordon off public streets and sidewalks to the great annoyance of nearby residents, business owners, or just people trying to pass through. A few years ago, the NBA All Star Game was allowed to assume the entirety of Jackson Square for what was quite likely an illegally private party.

New Orleans is scheduled to host a number of high profile sports events in the next few years which may desire the same special treatment granted the NBA. We've just had our Superdome sold out from under us. Will the rest of our publicly owned assets... our very streets, in fact... be far behind?