Route diversity

Carnival is best when it's in as many places as possible. I hope they let Athena move. 

I think we score this as a double play

As in, the Zephyrs' new owner just hit into one.

"Our goal is to make the New Orleans Zephyrs one of the top franchises in all of Minor League Baseball. With the great South Louisiana fans, the love of sports here and our hard work, we have every reason to believe that we will succeed," Schwechheimer said.

"New Orleans will be in the top tier of attendance, because this is a great town. This is a resilient town. This is a magical town. ... I can promise you this ballpark will come alive. We will provide first class family entertainment where families can come out with their kids, where grandparents can bring their grandkids to their first game, where young couples can go on their first date. It'll be a family place. We only ask the fans in New Orleans one thing: just come once. Let us earn your trust one time and I promise you'll be back."

Managed to get in a "magical" and a "resilient" the first day on the job.  Not bad for a dude from Massachusetts or wherever. (What is the deal with these itinerant minor league baseball owners, anyway?)

I'll admit one really does need to muster a fair amount of resilience to drive all the way out to one of those games in the Airline Highway traffic.  And the mosquitoes during the summertime out there can seem preternatural even if "magical" isn't exactly the word for them. Not so sure about anybody's grandkids showing up, though. It is baseball, after all.

Whoops!

As the rent gets too damn high in the suddenly fashionable city, we're eventually gonna have to all go live in the burbs. But first we have to figure out which burb is best for you. So everybody stand by to be sorted.

A Metairie landlord accused of discriminating against African American renters and using racial slurs to describe them was ordered Thursday (Nov. 5) to pay more than $172,000 in damages. One of the firm's operators also agreed, as part of a settlement to end litigation, never again to work in the real estate industry.

It's going to keep happening.  Not every landlord is dumb enough to leave a paper trail. 

Four months later, Denise Thornton received at her workplace an anonymous letter that contained Brion Ebey's list of prospective renters. The list contained the names of the Thorntons as well as many of the Fair Housing Center's undercover testers. Next to the names of the African American people, including the Thorntons, Ebey wrote racial slurs and "puta," the Spanish word for "whore."

The Shrinking Metairie Carnival

The new Jefferson Parish parade permitting rules do seem kind of ridiculous.

In a statement issued Wednesday (July 15), the deadline to apply for a permit, Zeus' captain apologized to Jefferson residents for not submitting the paperwork and not delivering a parade next year. "The Krewe of Zeus regrets to inform the citizens of Jefferson Parish that a tradition in Metairie which has lasted longer than most of its current citizens' lifetimes will not continue in 2016," the statement says.

"We all have faith that time, as it is inclined to do, will heal all wounds, even those besetting Jefferson Parish Carnival," the statement says, "To that end, the Men of Zeus remain hopeful that one day — or more accurately, night — they will once again parade in Metairie under the Zeus banner."

The clash between Carnival regulators and the krewe's leadership erupted in 2014 when parish officials found too few members in one of Zeus' marching bands -- 30 musicians are required -- and too few floats. Zeus leaders appealed the citations and gained some relief, as a judge agreed the krewe had a sufficient number of floats under what was a described as a vaguely written rule. However, the krewe was still found to have violated the band rule, and as a result it was suspended it from parading in Jefferson in 2015.

And yet every year we hear about how the Uptown route in Orleans Parish is overcrowded.  One strategy for keeping it from getting that way would be to encourage more events of varying sizes spread out over different neighborhoods throughout the city and region. Recent successful models might include non-standard parades like tit-Rex and Chewbacchus which have thrived in New Orleans.  Next year, the Krewe of Loup Garou is planning a small-scale parade through the Irish Channel. 

Granted those events happen in the more heavily touristed parts of Orleans Parish but there are a million ways to celebrate Carnival season. Not everything needs to be Endymion. Maybe Jefferson could do with a little more flexibility.  

Great, when can we see it?

Newell is bogarting the good footage.

METAIRIE, La. – An agitated Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand lashed out at a teenager whose family filed suit against the department after he was punched by a deputy during an arrest – an incident that was captured on video and shared on YouTube.

Brady Becker suffered visible injuries from the punches and his case has been a cause célèbre in the news as Becker's family and his attorney held press conferences to denounce the physical arrest.

"I'm mystified by his asking for my deputy's job. He caused this. I expect an apology" from Becker, Normand said.

Wednesday, almost three weeks after the incident, Normand fired back, saying that Becker started the incident and is fully to blame for everything that occurred.

"We didn't start this, Becker did," the sheriff said.

Normand said a longer version of the video than the one that had been released to the public was shot and showed much more of the incident.

Also, "He started it!" is pretty funny, although WWL picked up on that too. 

Shrug

Weird times for Jefferson Parish Carnival

For the second year in a row, the Krewe of Atlas has fallen off the Metairie Mardi Gras season parade schedule. Initially planned to roll on the final day of the Family Gras festival, the krewe backed out in 2014, citing a lack of revenue. This year, the krewe is not able to assemble a top-notch parade, Atlas President Daniel Murray said in a letter released Thursday by the Jefferson Parish government administration.

It was not too very long ago when we used to worry about all the Orleans Parish parades folding up shop while all the action moved out to the 'burbs. That isn't happening anymore. 

Beautification

Everything Jefferson Parish has tried over the course of its quest to make Veterans Boulevard look less like.. Veterans Boulevard has only succeeded in making it look even more like Veterans Boulevard. Only in an even more tacky way than before.

This scheme is certainly no exception.

To Giorgio, who poured money into decorating his own property there with Roman columns and waving palms, the static canal between Tolmas Drive and Causeway Boulevard was, if not an eyesore, at least a wasted opportunity. Think of what developers do in Las Vegas, where water features are a bauble rather than a blemish. Couldn't Jefferson install similar fountains here?

"I have been to Vegas, and they have the Bellagio. And how beautiful is that?" Giorgio said.

Metairie will find out soon. In late August, contractors will break ground -- or, water -- to install Giorgio's vision: six illuminated fountains that can change color in the Veterans canal, surrounded by landscaped canal banks.

Nobody likes this fetid drainage water we've got running down the middle of the street.  I know! Let's fire it at them through a cannon!

Roman columns, waving palms, and "Vegas" style fountains.  They just... could not be any more Metairie if they wanted to.

Send them some parkettes

We keep hearing about the magic revitalizing "vibrancy" that comes with artificially imposed arts districts or high rise condo developments. But that's all stuff you see happening in places the wealthy are already interested in.  Why is no one trying to "revitalize" neighborhoods that are actually in decline?

This is not an indictment of Cobb County in particular. Rather, what’s happening in Cobb is a microcosm of the dilemma facing suburbs nationwide: a rapid spike in the number of poor people in what once were the sprawling beacons of American prosperity. Think of it as the flip side of the national urban boom: The poverty rate across all U.S. suburbs doubled in the first decade of the millennium—even as America’s cities are transforming in the other direction, toward rising affluence and hipster reinvention. If the old story of poverty in America was crumbling inner cities and drug-addled housing projects, the new story is increasingly one of downscale strip malls and long bus rides in search of ever-scarcer jobs. We can’t understand what’s working in America’s cities unless we also look at what’s not working in the vast suburbs that surround them.

Atlas shrugging

If you're over, say, 30 years old, this probably looks really weird to you.

Murray said he wanted to knock down rumors that Atlas’ decision was a ridership issue, saying the organization still has 300 members, but he conceded that number has been as high as 400 since Hurricane Katrina and is a far cry from the 600 members the krewe had 25 years ago.

The parade, he said, would have had 15 floats this year and was scheduled to roll on a Sunday, rather than its traditional Friday slot.

Murray joined the list of Mardi Gras watchers noting that Jefferson’s offerings are suffering in comparison with those of New Orleans.

“I personally think it’s because of New Orleans,” he said. “When you talk Mardi Gras, you talk New Orleans. I’m not saying it’s all the press, but they build up Mardi Gras in New Orleans more than Jefferson Parish.”

Hardy said that while the reasons for the decline in Jefferson parades aren’t entirely clear, “certainly Veterans Boulevard is not as attractive (to riders) as St. Charles Avenue. Everyone wants to parade on St. Charles Avenue.”

When I was growing up, an article like this would read exactly the opposite. Everyone was going to the Metairie parades while the old folks would worry about the future of parades in Orleans Parish.  It wasn't that anyone thought the main event parades were in trouble since there would always be plenty of tourists to play to. But these concerns about ridership and the appeal of Veterans vs. St. Charles Avenue for the membership of smaller krewes were 180 degrees the other way.

I'm, of course, an Orleans partisan, but I don't think it bodes particularly well for Carnival in general that only one parish's (and really, one route in particular) attracts enough interest to sustain parading organizations.  Seeing the main events of a regional celebration confined to such a narrowly defined space is probably not a healthy sign.


It probably also says something about the relative wealth and "vitality" of the city vs its suburbs which, itself, would surprise the hell out of anyone old enough to remember the heyday of Metairie parades as well.

Are we really that close to Carnival season?

I thought it was a late one this year.  Also is the guy who played House really enough of a has been D-lister yet to be Bacchus?

Hugh Laurie, who was announced as the super krewe's celebrity king, proclaimed his excitement on Twitter on Thursday.

"I am shirt-bustingly proud to announce that I have been offered the Throne of Bacchus in the next Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Be there!!" he posted to the social media site.

"My reign will be firm but benevolent. Peace and harmony will be upon the land, and the crops will thrive. Please don't get up," he said.

Bonus item: Two more Jefferson Parish parades cancel for 2014. The krewes blame new parade quality regulations but, as we've mentioned before, there's also the anti-suburbanization trend to consider.

The challenge for Thor was that its members tended to drift to New Orleans, Cantrell said. "It just got harder and harder to keep the membership interested in riding in a Metairie krewe," Cantrell said. "You can start a parade in New Orleans and the next year get 600 or 700 members who want the atmosphere of St. Charles" Avenue."

Indeed, the allure of the Uptown parade route was cited by the krewes of Alla and Choctaw for their moves from the West Bank to St. Charles Avenue.

What's being lost here, though, is the idea that a parade is a neighborhood event.  We've already decided to just jam all the Orleans Parish parades down St. Charles Avenue. Now we're even doing that with the suburban krewes.

The proponents of Jefferson's new ordinance say they're opting for "quality over quantity" in their now reduced parade schedule.  If I were Hugh Laurie-esque benevolent ruler of all Carnival, my decree would be that we aim for just the opposite.  Not every happening during the season needs to be a super-krewe.

What if, instead, there were more varied events; 'tit-Rexes and Chewbacchuses and the like in different parts of the city?  Better to have many smaller parades that roll through and enliven various neighborhoods than a limited number of standardized and marginally distinguishable parades along one heavily touristed route.

Update: Multiple routes might come in pretty handy over the next few years anyway.

The crape myrtle trees were the first to go. The king of Carnival could be next.

As part of a plan to improve drainage in Uptown New Orleans, workers this week began cutting down more than two dozen trees along a 10-block stretch of the Napoleon Avenue neutral ground.

The three-year construction project also may result in the rerouting of several Carnival parades in 2015 and 2016, a Police Department spokesman said Thursday.

The Romans had em. And they didn't do too bad, right?

Marble freaking columns.

Al Copeland's survivors are negotiating with Jefferson Parish officials to erect a statue of the late fried chicken king in Lafreniere Park. The Parish Council is scheduled Wednesday to vote on an agreement letting the family pay to build a performance stage in the Metairie park, along with an "arched entryway" and "a paved and brick walkway leading to the Al Copeland Memorial Statue," according to public records.

The idea evolved from an overture that the Copeland family made in February to the Lafreniere Park Advisory Board, board Chairman Ginger Crawford said Tuesday. The initial proposal was for pedestal supporting a life-sized statue of the flamboyant businessman holding a box of Popeye's fried chicken and a checkered racing flag, a speedboat at his feet, all set amid columns.

There is a sketch of the proposed statue at the top of that article which you really must see.  According to follow-up statements from JP Councilman Ben Zahn and from the Copeland family, the design is still very much open to discussion.  I think someone today suggested they find a way to incorporate some Christmas lights.

In any case, I really do hope they keep the columns. There really is nothing that could be more exactly Al Copeland than that.

Gentrifying the parade route

Interesting phenomenon going on in Jefferson Parish.   Suburban parading organizations have become unhappy with the "traditional" Veterans Boulevard route. But they don't all agree on the best way to change thing up. Some krewes want to change only the direction of the parade down Vets while eliminating the Bonnabel Boulevard portion.  Others are looking to forsake "Downtown Metaire" altogether for a route that features Metairie Road instead.

Argus is one of several krewes seeking Metairie Road as an alternative to the usual Veterans Memorial Boulevard route, which has a loop on Severn Avenue through Fat City and one on Bonnabel, for Metairie Carnival parades. Among other concerns, some say Bonnabel has lost its luster.

"Over recent years, our riders have expressed their displeasure with their ride experience and the lack of interest from spectators in catching throws, especially in the Severn and Fat City area," Argus co-captain Rob DeViney said Tuesday.

"Unlike some krewes’ opinions on Bonnabel, Argus riders love the family atmosphere of the Bonnabel loop. While I realize that there is bigger participation on Bonnabel because we are (on) Mardi Gras Day, giving our members that experience excites them about potentially riding down oak-lined Metairie Road. They compare it to 'riding down the avenue' in New Orleans."

The idea of there being an "Uptown" and a "Downtown" Metairie route is appealing on an aesthetic level.  But there's more going on here than just that.

Jefferson Parish Carnival is having an identity crisis. It is less popular and less sure of itself that it has been in decades and this is a direct reflection of the decline of the suburban ideal writ large. Twenty to thirty years ago, conventional wisdom held that Veterans Boulevard was the future of Carnival. Every parade in Jefferson Parish had consolidated along the standard route and that route was always full with spectators.   

A generation of post-"white flight" kids were taught to favor Metairie parades. Carnival in the city was seen as a deteriorating relic corrupted by "crime" and "adult themes" and whatever other euphemisms you can think of for something racist. 

In recent years, we've started to see a slow reversal of this trend. New Orleans, like many metro regions across the country, is beginning to undergo a process of de-suburbanization. Due, at least in part, to Katrina-related out-migration, Orleans Parish hasn't caught up to Jefferson in terms of straight population numbers yet. But it's difficult to deny the center of gravity is shifting back toward the city.  

Such a shift is potentially a welcome development.  We are told that denser, more compact urban environments will foster more sustainable, greener, and economically equitable  communities in the future.  Personally, I've always preferred city living but I'm reserving judgment on the rest of that.  I suspect that un-sprawling a metro region is rather like putting the toothpaste back in the tube.  It doesn't go back in quite the way it came out.  

Already we're starting to wrestle with some of the negative effects of this process. See, for example, the continuing arguments over the effects of "gentrification" on New Orleans neighborhoods. C.W. Cannon has added the latest in a string of essays on the topic in this Lens op-ed. I'm going to save comment on that one today since I've got a separate post in the works about it. Suffice to say, I don't think we're handling this very well.. or even thinking about it the right way. 

Anyway, it's helpful to think of Jefferson's angst over parade attendance in the context of this trend.  A generation ago there was no way you could convince (the majority.. obviously not all) Jeffersonians that there was ever any reason to go into the city for anything. Especially at night. Especially for parades.  But as suburbanites start to acknowledge that there aren't comparable events to Endymion and Bacchus in Metairie, they start showing up along the Orleans parade routes in greater numbers. And since they're coming from so far away, they're more likely to bring their sofas and ladders and camping equipment with them.  

In a way, you can say they've gentrified the parade route.  And as they've done so, they've brought with them a whole new set of issues from those they took with them when they first abandoned it.   And, if this plan is any indication, those issues are going to get worse before they get better. 

Argus backs the idea of doubling up parades earlier in Carnival, DeViney said.

"Jefferson Parish loses the battle to New Orleans on the weekend before Mardi Gras. Councilwoman Lee-Sheng’s idea of conceding that weekend to New Orleans, and stacking krewes on the weekend before in Metairie, seems like a good one," DeViney said. "It would certainly lengthen the show spectators come to see, and those krewes would not be competing with the superkrewes in New Orleans."

There goes the neutral ground neighborhood.

Literally, "Fat Family"

In all the other Superbowl related build up, I didn't even think about the implications of Jefferson Parish pushing its "Family Gras" event on visitors. 

METAIRIE, La. - On Tuesday morning, Jefferson Parish leaders announced the talent lineup for their annual Family Gras celebration near Lakeside Mall in Metairie to be held on February 1 and 2.

This year's festival coincides with Super Bowl festivities and will be a two-day extravaganza of carnival and concerts. Family Gras will give visitors in town for the NFL's premier event a unique opportunity to experience Carnival parades since New Orleans parades are suspended for that weekend.

The line-up includes Amanda Shaw, who we've noticed will play anywhere anytime, along with several  acts I could have sworn had already died in one or another plane crash at some point.  So if you're in town to see the Superbowl halftime show, this event will set the tone quite well.

As always, though, our objection to the term "Family Gras" is the implication built into it that Carnival itself is somehow a non-"family" event which demands this artificial alternative. Anyone who has spent even five minutes near an Uptown parade route understands that "family" is central to the entire concept.











Local business and political leaders have spent a great deal of time emphasizing the unique opportunity this SuperBowl presents to showcase New Orleans to the world.

"The city is going to look spectacular," Landrieu says. "I know it's been inconvenient. ... (The Super Bowl) is a great opportunity to show what the city looks like (after) its resurrection, redemption, resilience — (and) it will not be the last one we get."

 Why would we want to include the negative stereotype that our signature annual event is somehow anti-family in that showcase?

Most depressing advice ever

Kenner Mayor Mike Yenni on his city's latest development and PR strategy:

In addition, the city can revamp its main thoroughfares to make them more attractive and modern. Those changes address quality of life concerns raised as crucial during meetings with the business community, the mayor said. Yenni would like to transform Kenner from a bedroom community of New Orleans into a self-contained metropolis.

“You don’t really have to leave Kenner. The city has a lot to offer,” Yenni said. He and Quigley are pushing the motto of “Kenner: A Community of Choice” to drive home that point.

Also "A Community of Choice" is a pretty bold statement on social issues for a conservative-leaning bedroom community during an election year so congratulations, there.

What? That's not what they meant? Oh well no worries.  Those people get bored with their mottoes faster than LSU fans do with their quarterbacks. They'll come back with a new one in no time.  Meanwhile most of us will continue to call it what we want.

Maybe someone will propose tearing it down

Interstate 10 noise louder despite sound walls, some Metairie residents complain

The story they are actually going with

Rocky and Carlo's restaurant fire in Chalmette caused by spontaneous combustion Not saying it can't happen but... what kind of oil are they using in that kitchen?

Is this all about getting Heebe?

Clancy seems to think so. I'm not so sure Broussard isn't a big enough fish all on his own, though.

Thunk Tanked

So I think this story about Garland Robinette's $250,000 bribe from River Birch Landfill owner Fred Heebe gets really interesting right about here.

At one point, Robinette visited the newspaper to warn editors of the environmental dangers the landfills posed. Robinette met with editors Jim Amoss and Peter Kovacs and told them he was passing along his concerns because the newspaper employs reporters while he, as a radio talk show host, did not have the wherewithal to practice investigative journalism. Amoss and Kovacs said they found it unusual for a representative of one news organization to pass on a tip to a competitor. Both said they did not act on Robinette's visit because The Times-Picayune's reporters were already covering the landfill issues.

The Times-Picayune reporter covering the dispute, Gordon Russell, said he regularly received tips and information about the landfills from Heebe and Rick Michaels, an environmental consultant for Heebe. At one point, Russell said, he and a photographer flew over the landfills with Michaels in a helicopter River Birch's owners chartered. Russell told Michaels to bill the newspaper for its share of the helicopter ride, but the newspaper's records do not indicate that an invoice was ever issued. Russell also visited Heebe's home to pick up documents, and when Heebe asked him to stay for lunch, he accepted.

Russell, now the newspaper's city editor, said federal investigators told him that his name was on the list of River Birch lobbyists seized in the raid. Ciolono confirmed Robinette was on the list as well, but he said the talk show host had never been a lobbyist for the company.

It seems pretty clear that Heebe intended to buy people through these transactions. Just going by the facts presented in this story I can't say Russell did anything inappropriate. Garland, on the other hand.. well he would be dumb enough.

Anyway all of this begs the question of who else Heebe bought. And, well, that's where we take off down the rabbit hole. Right now it's late and I'm about to turn in but if you're looking for where this is going, a good place to start is here where we learn about Heebe's contributions, bribes, and helicopter rides given out to environmental advocates, state administrators, various lawmakers and lobbyists... well pretty much everybody, in other words.

Fred Heebe and Ward engaged heavy hitters in the lobbying industry as River Birch sought tax incentives for its methane gas collection business and hunted for ways to navigate the federal bureaucracy after President George W. Bush declared Katrina's aftermath a major disaster, records show. The company counted former U.S. Rep. Bob Livingston, R-Metairie, and Joe Allbaugh, the former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency during the Bush administration, among its consultants.

Livingston's shop, The Livingston Group, signed on in 2005 primarily to focus on landfill gas collection legislation, a firm representative said. After paying the firm $820,000, River Birch ended the arrangement in 2010, records show.

The Allbaugh Co., came aboard in 2006 after David Dewhurst, the Texas lieutenant governor, introduced Allbaugh and Heebe, Allbaugh said. His firm helped River Birch deal with the various federal agencies involved in Katrina clean-up.

"Because if they were just shooting in the dark, then they weren't navigating the federal bureaucracy so well," Allbaugh said.

For its work, which ended in January 2008, the Allbaugh Co. was paid $160,000 records show.

I like that Allbaugh didn't pull down as much money as Garland somehow. And then there are the political contributions which also seem to touch everybody in sight.

Beyond hiring consultants, Heebe and Ward have long been involved in state and federal politics. Heebe sent $438,013 to candidates from 1999 to 2010. His wife, former Jefferson Parish Council member Jennifer Sneed, donated $159,716 to others' campaigns, plus $186,000 to pay debts from her own political career.

Donations to state and parish campaigns also were made through River Birch as well as Willow Inc. and Shadowlake Management Co., companies associated with Ward and Heebe, to the tune of $83,350 since 1999, records show.

As major donors in GOP circles, Heebe and Sneed gave a total of $125,000 between 2008 and 2009 to the Republican Party of Louisiana.

"They really didn't ask for anything special," state GOP Chairman Roger Villere said. "Just really supportive of our efforts."

In contrast, Ward and Heebe's sister, Adrea, tended to favor Democratic candidates and causes, records show. Ward donated $3,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee between 2006 and 2010, and another $12,400 to the Democratic National Committee between 2004 and 2010, records show. Adrea Heebe contributed $12,000 between 2006 and 2009 to the March for Progress, a political action committee associated with the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.

Heebe, Ward and their wives, along with Heebe's sister, all donated to U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., who took an active role in trying to close the Old Gentilly Landfill after Katrina and was one of the 17 senators targeted by Mouton's letter-writing campaign against the dump. They contributed $27,800 to Vitter's campaigns between 2000 and 2010, records show, and Vitter argued publicly against reopening Old Gentilly.

Are you starting to see how big this is? Oh and those of you who don't like to read the NOLA.com comments, you'd be surprised at the stuff you can miss that way. Here's comment number 2 under that article.

Jennifer Sneed's sister Emily Sneed is Mayor Mitch Landrieu's Deputy Mayor, Mike Foster's chief of staff Andy Kopplin is Mitch Landrieu's CAO chief of staff, Mitch Landrieu hired two additional people who spoke out against the Old Gentilly Landfill (Nannette Jolivette and Ann Duplessis), and Mitch Landrieu also received tons of campaign money from Ward, Heebe and River Birch related relatives and entities . Somewhere, somehow it would be good to see the TP do a final tally on just how much.

And oh yeah: the ONE sanitation contract out of four NOT renegotiated by the Landrieu administration? River Birch.

All this money going to lobbyists, bureaucrats, politicians at all levels, political activists, and at least two major media outlets. I'd say maybe somebody should pay some attention to Fred Heebe. Well you'll be happy to know that our friends at Slabbed actually have been doing just that for some time now. I'm going to link you over to there now so you can do some browsing.

Refreshing honesty

One thing Chalmette has that our New Orleans elites lack.

Here's hoping we can all agree that "racist" is the only appropriate label for the person who spray painted "NO NIGGERS" at a Chalmette construction site for affordable apartments. Ditto for the man who called Provident Realty Advisors' Dallas headquarters and left a voice mail begging the developer to reconsider its plan to "build a nigger project in St. Bernard Parish."

Jarvis goes on to describe the disingenuous alternative approach to opposing the apartments which he implies is the more mainstream tack in the Parish although I'm not so sure about that.

Whenever I've engaged with such people, I've found myself wondering if they've invested as much time and energy opposing the racists they say live among them as they have opposing the construction of these apartments. Or is it that they are more comfortable living among racists than they would be living near apartments for the working poor?

This "I'm not racist but.." hostility to affordable housing is the more common flavor over in Orleans where we're all a bit more sophisticated if not quite so honest.

The visionary spirit of Jefferson Parish

Ahead of the curve on missing the boat... or the truck as the case may be.

In some cities, including food truck hotbeds like New York and Los Angeles, vendors have faced increased regulatory pressure and criticism from restaurateurs who view their lower overhead as unfair competition. Wendy Waren, spokeswoman for the Louisiana Restaurant Association, hasn't heard any such complaints from the group's New Orleans-area members, and she suggests that's because the local food truck scene is still so small.

  But street food has been controversial in Jefferson Parish. In 2007, the Jefferson Parish Council effectively prohibited food trucks, enacting an ordinance barring mobile vendors from major streets and requiring them to provide restroom facilities. As a result, the Latino-run taco trucks that had appeared around the parish after Hurricane Katrina quickly moved on.

I don't remember too much discussion of "unfair competition" coming from the JP advocates of the ban at the time. Seems like they were more worried about the threat to "public health" and "returning to normalcy". All of which is to say they're about as honest as they are rational over there.