Pothole pizzagate

$5,000 is going fix, like, what? Three potholes?  

Last week, the New Orleans City Council agreed to accept a "Paving for Pizza" grant from Domino's, according to WDSU-TV. The City Council is expected to vote on the $5,000 grant on Thursday (Aug. 9). If approved, the money will go to the city's Department of Public Works. 

Turns the streets into little Domino's billboards, though.  Gets the truck on the news, too.  All in all it's a pretty good ad buy for them.  The last time a corporation tried to spray graffiti ads all over New Orleans, people didn't take too well to that.  Seems like $5,000 is a pretty low price to sell out at now.

Dig a deeper hole and then you'll feel better

"That's alright. You guys in New York can't get a hole in the ground fixed and it's five years later. So let's be fair." - Ray Nagin

So a few weeks ago, we thought it might be cute if we framed this post about the Trade Mart redevelopment lawsuit with an interesting B story about an adjacent patch of real estate.   

NEW ORLEANS - Closures near the foot of Canal Street are unearthing a problem many residents didn’t even know existed.

It’s a 50-year-old problem in the making.

Underneath the street, a tunnel which stretches from Canal to Poydras Street is starting to buckle and has caused a shut down in the area.

The tunnel was built by the city in 1966 as part of a planned Riverfront Expressway that would have run along the edge of the French Quarter.

First of all, people knew the tunnel existed. It's one of many bits of local trivia anyone who lives here at most five years or so inevitably picks up. Please stop condescending to us, WWLTV.  But that's not the important part of that story. This is. 

“It was probably a temporary design made out of steel and they probably didn't paint it," says Levees.org engineer H.J. Bosworth. "Those unpainted structures under the City of New Orleans don't stand a chance."

Bosworth said the concern now is if the damage underneath will cause the street above ground to collapse. He said there are several layers of concrete that prevent major damage.

"The collapse wouldn't be catastrophic and things dropping like 20 feet or anything like that,” Bosworth explained. “Something like that collapses little by little."

Yeah, well, famous last words and all... 

A sinkhole that opened up at the foot of Canal Street Friday (April 29) will take up to six months and $5 million to repair, city officials said.

The collapse, which caved in a 30-foot-wide section of one of New Orleans busiest streets, happened just a few feet away from the spot where Mayor Mitch Landrieu and his infrastructure team had been standing hours earlier in a 50 year-old tunnel that runs underneath the road.

The team was on site to inspect one of the tunnel's walls, which had begun to buckle earlier this month, allowing water to spill in. A few hours after they left, the wall collapsed, taking the road along with it.

"This is nothing short of incredible," Landrieu said. "Unfortunately, it's not a surprise," given the city's creaking infrastructure and unstable soil, he said. "Still, I've never seen anything like it."

Mitch is right. New Orleans, like most American cities is desperately in need of massive infrastructure investment. Remember way back when President Obama was cowed into compromising on a much smaller stimulus package than we really needed?  The conservative argument at the time was that there just aren't enough "shovel-ready" projects to justify throwing money at.  This was never true, of course. The past week alone in New Orleans provides plenty of examples.

On Thursday afternoon, a water main burst on Constantinople Street opening up a massive hole that swallowed most of the road. It's the sort of thing liable to happen anywhere in town on any day. S&WB estimates the city loses 40 percent of its water supply to underground leakage.  On Friday morning, we read about a study showing unacceptable levels of lead in local drinking water. Rectifying these chronic problems seems like imminently "shovel-ready" projects already.   The Canal Street sinkhole is really just for fun.

And yes, we do mean that literally.  As is prone to happen with these little events, the sinkholes became the internet distraction of the week. The jokes came fast, furious, and mostly terrible. "Throw in a doubloon and make a wish" Zing! "Maybe we can get it to swallow the Liberty Monument" Heyyooo! "Put the sinkhole up on Airbnb" Natch. "A sinkhole is actually the geometrical manifestation of doing more with less." Huh?

And then there was this.

Local fascination with the city's first-ever Sinkhole de Mayo party on Canal Street spread so fast Tuesday (May 3) organizers were forced to move festivities to nearby Woldenberg Park. Now the news has gone national.

The Daily Beast writer Ben Collins talked to party co-organizer Chrissy Gross to get background on the viral event and understand why thousands of locals "might show up to a random sinkhole in the middle of a New Orleans road to celebrate Mexico beating the French in 1862."

It's going on right now as I type this. Look at 'em go.

Sinkhole de Mayo sounds funny at first. Hey let's make light of this thing that happened. Better that than yet another round of pouty #FixMyStreets harangues. But then skip a few beats and it gets tagged with the "That's so NOLA" bullshit that inevitably gets pasted on to everything that happens anymore. Next thing you know national media outlets are picking it up and it may as well be a NOTMC branded event. That gets it turned into a tourism ad, and suddenly we're stuck with even more of that dreaded "hipster" cred.  No one is allowed to react to anything like a human anymore without seeing that immediately captured and commodified. This is how joy dies.

Plus now it's a meme. Sinkholes are very popular. Everyone is on the lookout for the next big one. 

NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) - Another large chunk of roadway opened up in New Orleans today – the third one in less than a week.

Officials with the city’s Sewerage and Water Board said the latest sinkhole happened at 800 Taft Place in Mid-City. They said work to repair the hole will begin tomorrow if weather permits.

Sure, sure, Imma let y'all finish. But let's remind everyone which was the Greatest Sinkhole Of All Time. That one took five years to fix. This thing on Canal Street, they're gonna do in six months.

New Orleans' backbone is about to go under the knife.

An army of engineers, designers and builders will descend on the riverside end of Canal Street in the coming weeks to operate on a herniated reminder of the city's crumbling infrastructure: a 600-square-foot sinkhole that opened up across from Harrah's Casino.

The City Council voted 6-0 to give Mayor Mitch Landrieu's administration the emergency go-ahead Thursday (May 5) to hire the Metairie firm Hard Rock Construction for what could be a $5 million, 6-month job to repair the collapsed wall of an underground tunnel, backfill the fresh chasm and resurface Canal's lakebound lane. Councilwoman Nadine Ramsey was absent.

Oh it's an emergency. Well when you put it that way.

"Now get off your asses and let's do something, and let's fix the biggest goddamn crisis in the history of this country." -- Ray Nagin (again, of course)

*

Son of sinkhole

Yes, Virginia!



Just in time for Carnival season, too.  According to the 504 Not Found pothole app,  the thing to do with theses is stuff them with beads anyway.  Lord knows, people have tried everything else over the years.

In any case, you have to admire the precise placement of that Doritos bag.  If the pothole is big enough, the debris will find its way in.

The rent is too damn high

Getting higher too.

Orleans Parish ranks 13th among 500 counties for the chunk of income that renters will pay in 2015, according to a report by real estate data service RealtyTrac. The national average is 27 percent of a renter's income.

RealtyTrac analyzed fair market rent data for 2015 issued by the U.S. Housing and Urban Development. Read RealtyTrac's report here.

Meanwhile, Orleans is among the top 25 counties nationwide where the millenial population is growing. The share of millenials (defined as being born between 1977 and 1992) grew by 20 percent in New Orleans from 2007 to 2013. Other cities where younger people are flocking include Austin, Texas, Seattle, San Francisco, Denver, Washington, D.C., and Alexandria, Va. See that list here.

"These millenials will be driving strong demand for rents in the next few years," said RealtyTrac vice president Daren Blomquist in a video explaining the report.

Jesus, please stop blaming "the kids today."  The problem is not "millenials."  The problem is a series of deliberate urban policies meant to encourage luxury development and to push poor people out of the way. In New Orleans, in particular, there's the added scheme to allow the available housing in residential neighborhoods to be given over to the tourism industry.  This is starting to make life, not only more expensive, but also uncomfortable in more subtle ways. It injects a new kind of tension into the most mundane things. Consider this, for instance.

My car is in an.. interesting state these days.  It turned twenty years old this year and, while it runs great, it's coming apart in ways that are difficult to do anything about.  Most critical is a left rear "quarter glass" window that was shattered in what I think was probably a weed whacking accident about a year ago.  Every few weeks I make calls around to auto-glass guys and junkyards but no one can find the appropriate piece of glass to replace it. So, for now, the left side of the car is covered in a big patch woven out of duct tape.

It doesn't really bother me in the meantime.  In fact, I often take a silly kind of pride in its distinctiveness. I am either the living proof that the "broken windows" theory of crime and blight is bullshit ... or... it's 100 percent true and I am single-handedly holding back the total gentrification of my block.  Either way, it's pretty terrific. I have a standard to uphold.


I've been thinking, also, recently about the "Fix My Streets" movement created this year by some entitled Lakeview residents and how their "Pimp-My-Pothole" series of ironic protests differs from the fun we've had with our sinkhole over the past few years.  "Enraged and engaged" says Clancy DuBos's column about these brats. Can someone really be "enraged" about a hole in the ground?  Apparently, yes.

But when our sinkhole appeared, we weren't enraged at all.  We were amused. Here is something interesting that seems fairly harmless for now, we thought.  Of course, I hoped that it would be fixed eventually. At the same time, I knew that finding out just how long "eventually" ended up being would be interesting (four years, it turned out.) And as long as it wasn't an actual nuisance, it might also be kind of fun.

And it was.  It started out humbly enough.



Then it grew a bit.



Then people started throwing things into it.



Those things became more interesting.





Soon a mighty tree (well, a big bush) emerged.



Which was great because it meant that, during Halloween, we could do this.



And, of course, during Christmastime, we could do this.



What a great time all of that was!  No one was hurt, the city was not embarrassed.  Unlike our friends in Lakeview, we did not consider this experience any sort of drag on the city's recovery. It was a harmless and interesting thing that happened. And it was something that was resolved on a timeline fitting to its low position on the city's long list of priorities.

This year, the city finally fixed the sinkhole on our corner and, in doing so, ripped up the bush that was growing out of it. But, like I said, there are standards to uphold now. So we simply moved the holiday decorations down to the weeds growing out from under the side of the building.



Last week, I was walking to my car when  a pair of ladies came out of the illegal (for now) short term rental across the street it was parked in front of.  They didn't see me there as they stopped and examined the car for a moment before one of them kind of smirked and said to the other, "Poverty." Then they walked off to catch a streetcar. 

At this point, I am pretty much the source of all the "cultural authenticity" these people airbnb their way into New Orleans to gawk at. At least in this neighborhood, I am.  So I guess my question is, now that I'm a significant "culture bearer" is there some sort of grant I can apply for?  Because the rent is pretty damn high right now.

Pimp my not-pothole

Sure, Gambit, go ahead and run your "pimp my pothole" contest after ours is filled in.

Yes, that description dares to ask, "Where is New Orleans most iconic pothole?" I don't... I can't...

Look, never mind that right now. I'm not entirely sure our sinkhole is even disqualified.  Sure, it's been filled, technically speaking. But it hasn't exactly been fixed.  It's just a big break in the street filled in with dirt and bricks.

Oh and also some potting soil.  We put that there in order to plant sunflowers.  They're doing pretty well so far.











Still a ways to go, obviously. With any luck they'll begin to flower just as the city arrives to repair the curb and pave them over.

Those Christmas trees really do start to fall apart after Carnival begins

Celebration In the Sinkhole December 15 2013



Desolation of the Sinkhole January 10 2014



Maybe the recent freeze is to blame. But I'd never rule out foul play.  Has anyone seen Harvey Updyke lately?  It's difficult to see the fact that we began the week talking about TP in trees and ended it with a dead tree as some sort of coincidence.

Seasons change, I guess.

"Charlie Brown, you're the only person I know who can take a wonderful season like Christmas and turn it into a problem"

I'm not actually trying to pile on poor Charles Brown here. He was responsible for the moment in Sunday's game where even the more level headed Saints fans began to lose hope.

Brown in the second quarter negated an 8-yard TD catch by Lance Moore with an illegal-use-of-hands penalty. Kicker Garrett Hartley subsequently tried a 36-yard field goal, but it was blocked by defensive tackle Michael Brockers with 2 seconds left in the half, giving St. Louis a 24-3 halftime lead.

But it's silly to pin that stinker performance on Brown alone.  Besides, Sean Payton has done enough picking on him already.

"I saw enough, period," Payton said. "It was enough penalties, pressures, sacks. It was enough. At some point you can’t just keep watching it."

Good grief.

Saints fans should have seen this coming when they opened up their morning internet devices and pointed them at Jeff Duncan's column.  Duncan was arguing (some say backhandedly)  in favor of Coach Of The Year consideration for Payton partially because of his work with telling Charles Brown not to hold people.

This attention to detail manifests itself in an accountability that was noticeably missing a year ago. Remember that 12 men on the field infraction Patrick Robinson drew last season when he failed to hustle to the sideline? There's no mental slippage this season with the hyper-intense Payton stalking the sidelines at practice and games.

When Charles Brown was called for six holding penalties in the Saints' first eight games Payton addressed it. Brown hasn't had a holding call since.

Guess that whole losing Patrick Robinson for the year to injury is a bonus stroke of coaching genius, right?  But, as long as Brown is suiting up each week, these little issues can still pop up. 

Anyway, it took a while for the press to catch up with Brown. He wasn't in the mood to talk in the locker room, but he did have this to say later while in the course of holiday preparations.



Rats.

The good news is there will still be more football.  It would be ungrateful for Saints fans to fail to recognize 10 wins with a chance for much better as anything other than a blessing... not exactly a Christmas miracle or anything, but it's important not to take these seasons for granted. These are still the good times.  

The Saints have one more opportunity to lay this increasingly vexing "can't win on the road" trope to rest and claim the division in the process.  And even if they don't there will be plenty to talk about with a difficult trip to the playoffs ahead of them.

Meanwhile, there's the matter of improving on Charles Brown's Christmas display.

In that spirit, we present Celebration In The Sinkhole 2013. This year's theme: "Dreaming Of A Safety Orange Christmas"



Like the Saints, in 2013, this sinkhole isn't always pretty. But it's still a pretty neat thing to look at.

Linus Van Pelt: I never thought it was such a bad little tree. It's not bad at all, really. Maybe it just needs a little love.

Happy Halloween

Still not sure what to do about Ye Olde Spooky Sinkhole. Maybe if the bush growing out of it were shaped like a C or an I they'd send someone out to hack it away. Meanwhile it continues to ensnare lost souls. We captured this on video a couple of weeks ago. Here it is again just because.

They call that a sinkhole?

French Quarter sinkhole frustrates neighbors. Action Report 6pm. pic.twitter.com/MplsgAAT1y
— Bill Capo (@BillCapo) October 17, 2013

I don't think they know what they're talking about. This is a sinkhole.



And actually that photo is from last year. Tomorrow afternoon I need to get out and update the set.

Apparently there's money in the capital budget for street repairs so I'm thinking every moment with our three-year old neighborhood crater is precious. That reminds me. The Holidays are coming.  Time to start working on a new display.



Meanwhile... "Sinkhole Frustrates Neighbors"

BAYOU CORNE, LA (WAFB) - Life in the community of Bayou Corne has been anything but normal since a giant sinkhole opened up. One official says the surface of the sinkhole could double in size. Right now, it is at 26 acres.

Sinkhole envy

Well sure, I guess, just because yours is technically bigger they'll all come out and take pictures of it. 

NEW ORLEANS —A sinkhole that started out small has grown to about 10 feet in diameter -- and several feet deep. That's according to some who work in the 4000 block of Michoud Blvd., near Gentilly Road, where the once pothole-sized crevasse has expanded dramatically over a 3-month span.

Maybe size matters to WDSU, but I've always been told the important thing was what you do with it.  Our sinkhole has not only been around nearly 3 years instead of 3 months (so stamina counts for something), but it's also been put to a variety of creative uses as the slideshow here indicates.

Of course, the One True Sinkhole will always put the imitators to shame.

The sinkhole in northern Assumption Parish got a little larger on Tuesday.

Parish officials reported roughly 5,000 square feet of land sloughed off into the sinkhole Tuesday morning and that by Tuesday afternoon, the land-loss had grown to an estimated 7,500 square feet, said John Boudreaux, director of the Assumption Parish Office of Homeland Security.

Boudreaux said he hadn’t remeasured the sinkhole, which was last determined to be 8.6 acres at its surface, but it possibly could cover as many as 9 acres after the 75-foot-by-100-foot parcel of land crumbled and fell into the slurry hole on Tuesday.

It's probably best not to compare, for the sake of everyone's confidence. 

Celebration In The Sinkhole

We were in a festive mood this afternoon so we decorated the bush that's been growing out the two and half year old pothole on the corner.



Of course now that it looks nice, I'm sure the city will be out to fill the thing in ASAP.


Update: One day later we awoke to discover that half the ornaments including the star have already been removed.  This has to have happened between the hours of 2:00 and 8:00 AM.  We choose to believe that someone really really needed holiday decorations at that time.

The Good Governance Inquisition

Mostly because of their friendly-sounding name and also because of their longevity, the so-called Alliance for Good Government's endorsement is always a highly sought-after prize during election season. Tonight the "Alliance" is applying its renowned candidate vetting interrogation to District B City Council hopefuls  and Uptown Messenger is there to witness the revered Good Governance examination in progress. Let's look in now via the "live blog."

(Note: The "Alliance" is also choosing candidates in other municipal races but Uptown Messenger is concentrating on the... well... the Uptown race in District B)

Shhh. Please don't disturb the candidates' concentration in this mentally taxing matter.

First question: If someone calls your office with a pothole growing and growing, what do you do?

Now we know the candidates may be tempted to answer, "Evacuate the area immediately!" But, keep in mind, this is a hole "growing and growing" in Orleans District B not in Assumption Parish. Still, not many people understand just how tricky this question can be. See, in District B, a pothole can, yes, grow and grow. But also, it can present itself in a stunning array of fashions. Prospective councilors may be confronted with a hole dressed in an orange cone,



Or two



Or three with a little police tape



Or one again but with more tape and an abandoned futon



Or a big barricade on top and filled with bricks



Or none of that stuff and a single grocery cart instead.



So suddenly the problem seems a bit more complicated than at first glance. What the successful candidate will know, though, is that this is a trick question. The answer, as it happens, is the same in any of these cases because 1) It's all just the same hole. And 2) If you just wait around and do nothing for.. say.. 2 years, eventually an attractive shrubbery grows in and the problem takes care of itself.



So tread carefully, candidates. Seriously, tread carefully. There are holes in the road. Also here's the next question.

Next question: What would you do about the Inspector General's office?

Wait. There's an Inspector General's office? Think carefully before you answer.

Fradella thought he was part of a $650 million project restoring the hulking former Entergy power plant on Market Street and turning it into a riverfront tourism and shopping attraction. One explosive email came out in the bankruptcy case of the project’s developer, Market EntStreet Properties.

A person involved in the project, Stuart “Neil” Fisher, sent an email to a business partner in May 2010 encouraging him to finalize a deal to sell the property to Chinese investors. Fisher’s wife, Tamara “T.J.” Fisher, owned half of Market Street Properties.

Neil Fisher’s email notes that another team of developers who controlled the other half of the property was “putting pressure on former Mayor Ray Nagin to talk to (Fisher) about structuring a deal with their company.”

Then the kicker:

“Nagin, of course, would get a piece,” Fisher wrote.

Oh dear.  Okay well, maybe we'll come back to that question later.  We've only got so much time, you know.  Next question.

Next question: What will you do to repair roads?

Wait. Didn't we just do this one? How is this different from the pothole question? If you can pretend you know, the Good Governance Seal Of Approval is yours.  Probably.

I mean, those were apparently the only three questions so that's got to be the trick. Unless this is all just a farce by which an old club of establishment business mucks make everybody come kiss their asses for a while before they just go ahead and pick one of their own anyway. But that can't be it because, then, why would anyone give a shit, right?

Allance for Good Government endorses Strachan and Badon for council, Fleming-Davilier and Bonin for judge
— Robert Morris (@UptownMessenger) September 19, 2012

Oh I see.  Well, thanks for playing anyway.

Update:  Following along on the "live blog" I missed the fourth question in this inquisition.  Uptown Messenger relays it here in its write-up of the evening.

The final question, about the budget process, also drew differing answers. Cantrell said she would begin the process sooner with her own meeting for District B residents, not just the one led by the mayor. Horton said that, coming from outside the process, he would analyze it and listen to his constituents. Strachan proposed a searchable, electronic budget document for the public, and also said the budget is an example of an issue on which he would try to promote more camaraderie and less strife among the council members. Kaplan suggested better comprehensive planning on issues such as criminal justice, and also described a proposal for innovative programs and new models.

 I'm partial to Latoya Cantrell's idea about holding more public meetings.  Those things are terrific entertainment.

I would like my Kickstarter money now, please

Inspired by this "awareness raising" house razing Marigny Ball Pit project, I've decided to apply for my own grant. Behold the Uptown Brick Pit




The best thing about it is the work is already done. The hole is already in place since 2010. It's already full of bricks and other crap.  Much like the Marigny Ball Pit, this project also "raises awareness" of blight or potholes or something.

About that awkward moment: It came toward the end of our conversation when I asked if there was a larger point to building a ball pit in a blighted house. "Raising awareness," he said.
Of what? "Blight."

And, see, I told him, that's the problem, that's what sometimes sets people's teeth on edge — you don't think people in New Orleans are aware of blight, and have been aware of blight long before you came here?

He said he saw the point, and added that he was constructing his ball pit "for the community," and that he welcomed suggestions or drop-bys from anyone who wanted to help or contribute ideas. So there's your invitation.

Note that the Uptown Brick Pit is also "for the community"  At one point, I even turned it into a fun game for people trying to toss litter into it from passing cars.


 

All I need now is my grant money.

Coming up on one whole year

We first photographed the corner sinkhole in mid-July last year.



Since then, it has developed more fully.



And, as you can see from the above photo, it has become an attractive receptacle for neighborhood refuse.

Also discarded furniture.



And sometimes other stuff.



Yesterday afternoon I had a few minutes and some sidewalk chalk. I figure if passing vehicles are going to toss trash into the hole as they round the corner, they might as well be given a chance to score points in the process. Made goals from behind wider arcs bring higher scores.

Monday

• We first noted the sinkhole on the corner of Carondelet and Third streets back in July. At the time, I jokingly told Menckles that it will make a fine parade trash and bead receptacle when it's still there come Carnival time. And so here we are less than a month away from parade season and the hole is still waiting a ready.
  
  
  
  It's even got a little starter trash going which will doubtlessly make it a more inviting refuse bin for passers by.
  
  
  
  Right now I'd say it's even money that somebody pees in it.



• On Saturday Night we attended the Pussyfooters' Blush Ball at the Howlin Wolf. The space there much smaller than the old Mardi Gras World location and this definitely makes the room feel more cramped. At one point I was standing about three feet away from Steve Zahn, and yet, somehow didn't jab a plastic fork in his neck. Must have been in a good mood.
  
  
  
  The good news, though, is that the crowd can spill out into the side bar and also the street. All in all it makes for better milling about and socializing than the old set up. At the same time, this also enables one of the worst hazards of events like this. It's gotten to where I can't go out to anything anymore without having to fight through four or five volleys of "Hey you're our librarian". It's only marginally an exaggeration to say that, next to the show Treme, the frequency of these assaults is slowly stifling what remains of my ability to enjoy New Orleans the way I used to.
  
  To begin with, I'm technically not a librarian. There was a time when I, my family, and my co-workers expected that I would eventually go ahead and get the degree but I'm not so sure that's in the cards anymore. As jobs go, this has been by far the most tolerable I've ever had. But after several starts and stops, I'm starting to see that I'm never really going to be able to suffer through the belittling tedium of grad school. Besides that the idea of belonging to a particular club or profession always seems so... I don't know... limiting, in a way that makes me too sad to contemplate. I don't mind doing my job. It's the idea of being my job that implies failed personhood, I think. Plus whenever someone accuses me of being a librarian, it's an implicit insult to the actual degreed librarians I work with or near and who take the title very seriously. This always makes me uncomfortable. It's not fair that people's perception of me should reflect badly on others.
  
  But what I really hate about being recognized at parties by Uptown Mommies is I know what they're doing. They're meticulously counting the "respectable" people and professions they encounter at such events. Sure they're there to wear silly costumes and drink and all, but they're going to make damn sure they're doing these things with the right sort of crowd. From time to time you'll hear such persons remarking to one another about how it was their family's doctor or their neighbor's boss they saw drunk off his ass and dressed as a penis and that's what makes it okay.
  
  Myself, I'm not very big on costumes and not much in need of the pretense of an organized pseudo sorority party to facilitate or validate my idle drinking. But there was a time when I didn't mind showing up at these things anonymously if only to bear further witness to their odiousness. But now, as "our librarian" I'm feeling a little too much like a prop. In a few more months the weekly festivals will start popping up all over town. I get to fewer and fewer of these each year for pretty much the same reason.



• This weekend, there were two second line parades in the neighborhood. I was feeling pretty cranky already (see above) so I didn't see either one of them. I did hear what sounded like six gunshots go off a few short blocks away from the parade, however, and went outside to investigate. According to neighbors and passers by, there was indeed a shooting on Baronne Street. The police came and blocked off the corner of Baronne and Fourth for a while.
  
  
  
  I couldn't find anything about this in the news anywhere. Anyone else see or hear it?
  
  On Sunday, the mayhem continued as a man crashed his motorcycle just outside the apartment on a slick Carondelet Street. He walked... limped away okay but the bike didn't look like it took things so well. At least nobody fell in the sinkhole.



• Finally, this morning's episode of Beer in the Bookdrop was brought to us by Abita Strawberry Harvest Lager. Much to everyone's chagrin, I'm sure, I didn't get a photo. Instead, enjoy this photo of several cases of Abita Strawberry I spotted recently at Breaux Mart.
  
  
  
  By the way, isn't January a bit early for "Stawberry Harvest" lager? I thought strawberries were harvested during the springtime.