Mitch, there's still time

Eric Swalwell and his head of perfect Lego hair is dropping out, already.

Rep. Eric Swalwell will drop out of the 2020 presidential race after struggling to break out in a jammed Democratic primary field, according to multiple reports.

The fourth-term congressman from California will instead run for reelection to the House, the Los Angeles Times first reported Monday. Swalwell is set to hold a news conference later Monday. He will become the first presidential candidate to make the first debate cut to leave the race.

He's passing the torch, Mitch.  You know you want it. Are you sure we have to wait for Joe Biden to finish cancelling himself?

The right to move around

Here's a report from the uptown RTA charrette. This might be triggering for those of us who went through the post-Katrina public input planning process.

The series of planning events are open-house style; people can drop in to participate throughout the event. The activities and information session are meant to take about 20-30 minutes to complete.

At the meeting, attendees were each given a packet of materials with a set of stickers for them to use in interactive displays about changing the transit system. Using the stickers, participants can vote on what they want to see most in the redesign, such as more frequent streetcar and bus stops versus more express lines, where they travel to most within the city, and which options are most important to them: more reliable service, more frequent service, faster service, more weekend service, more late-night service or better regional connections.

According to Jennifer Brady, who conducts outreach for the RTA, the RTA is surveying people at bus stops, including Elk Place and Canal Street, the largest transfer point in the city, so that people who cannot attend the meetings are able to provide feedback for the redesign.

The survey asks about how frequently people ride the bus and streetcar, what other transit options they use, as well as what they would most like to see change within the current transit system.

Well at least it only takes 20 or 30 minutes to go play the game with the stickers. I have no idea if it's worth participating.  The purpose of these events is to have some sort of "outreach" on the record in order to insulate decision makers from criticism when the actual policies are made.  That doesn't necessarily mean they'll do a bad job. But it does mean they are definitely going to be condescending about it one way or the other.

Anyway the goal is to create a transit system people can use to navigate the city with as much convenience as a car owner might.  That means allowing for actual freedom of movement at all hours and in all directions. But for the most part, the pros and consultants are focused on getting grunts to work and back "efficiently." That isn't good enough. And they're going to use your pile of stickers to justify whatever they want to do either way.

But if you want to play the game, here is the schedule. There is one tonight in Mid-City.

NIMBY Nation

This Huff-Po article about the increasingly reactionary nature of urban land use politics in major US cities got a fair amount of attention this weekend. I don't know exactly why the author insists on defining the backlash as a generational thing. I know "Boomer" is lately the shorthand for middle-class, middle aged conservatives.  But it confuses the issue for too many people. What we're really trying to describe here is the tipping point in urban politics that naturally follows years of policies specifically designed to fill the cities with nice things for rich people while everyone else is left to fend for themselves.  If only rich people can live in the city, eventually the city's politics will reflect the rich people's interests.

"We have mountains of data showing that cities need more housing and better transit and shelters for homeless people,” said Matthew Lewis, the director of communications for California YIMBY, a pro-housing nonprofit. And yet cities often give in to neighborhood groups opposing this much-needed infrastructure. The proposed homeless shelter booed by Salt Lake City residents in 2017 was canceled the next day. Schwartz’s lawsuit has succeeded in delaying the bus lane on 14th Street. The tantrum-throwing Seattleites eventually won the repeal of the tax they were shouting about.

“It’s frustrating,” Lewis said. “The people with the most privilege pack the meetings, shout over everybody else and get their way.”

These organized opposition groups could also, in the longer term, form a conservative coalition in cities and pull them to the right. This is already happening in cities with high rates of homelessness, where nominally progressive residents have formed interest groups that echo conservative talking points on personal responsibility and cracking down on drug users.

“This is not an anti-homeless march,” Barry Vince, an attorney, told reporters from the local television station as he participated in an “anti-crime march” in Long Beach, California. “We’re here to march against criminals, and we want the bad guys taken down.

Lewis said he’s seen similar rhetoric begin to appear in public hearings over housing and transportation.

“It’s a pretty short leap from ‘We don’t want homeless people living here’ to ‘We don’t want refugees’ or ‘We don’t want immigrants,’” Lewis said. “I’ve seen lifelong hippies who drive electric vehicles stand up at these meetings and say, ‘There’s too many people here already.’ It’s like you’re at a Trump rally.”

Maybe it's that thing about "lifelong hippies" that prompts the "Boomer" framing in the article.  But the critical dividing line isn't based in culture or age cohort so much as class. Didn't we already know hippies grow up to be yuppies the minute they get a hold of the slightest semblance of wealth?  The article alludes to that as well but quickly takes it in the wrong direction.

Cities can also redesign community outreach to encourage input from groups that have traditionally been excluded. According to a 2017 study, older male homeowners are more likely to participate in town hall meetings and other public participation processes than other demographic groups. Another, published this month, found that becoming a property owner motivated individuals to participate in politics and to express their views on housing, traffic and development to elected leaders more often.

This is followed by a consideration of whether or not cities should limit or deflect public feedback at government meetings.  But that's just more of the anti-democratic neoliberal impulse that got us here in the first place. The issue isn't really about process. It is about political power. And right now rich people have too much of it. That's not a new problem. Nor is it a generational problem the way the article wants you to think it might be. It's just the timeless process of wealth accumulating and then defending itself.

A proper analysis of this goes beyond simple questions of YIMBY vs NIMBY.  You can't describe the politics of who is allowed to live where by whom solely in terms of cold hard "supply and demand." There are real live power relationships to consider. In New Orleans, for example, big decisions are heavily influenced by real estate developers, of course. But also there are neighborhood organizations (dominated by property owners) and historic preservationists (property owners with the kind of money that gets you onto the "philanthropy" circuit) who have stifled equitable housing and transportation policies for ages. More often than not they operate with some sort of progressive sounding rationalization.

Under the pretense of "quality of life promotion," neighborhood associations hire private police with public funds,  shut down bars and music venues, shoo the homeless away,  and ensure that bus stations doesn't have too many public restrooms. When the City Council voted to demolish the Big Four housing projects after Katrina, we were told by NIMBY liberals the cause was humanitarian. 

“We need affordable housing in this city,” said Shelley Stephenson Midura, a Council member who proposed the resolution that was adopted. But, she added, “public housing ought not to be the warehouse for the poor.”

New Orleans's most prominent beneficiary of those demolitions was mega-developer Pres Kabacoff. Here is an article by Roberta Gratz who, even in an article critical of the displacement for which Pres is hugely responsible, can't help but give him props as a preservationist.

Ironically, Kabacoff and his company, Historic Restoration Inc., are responsible for some of the best of the preservation projects that have helped downtown retain its traditional feel.

There's nothing "ironic" about it, though.  Preservation and gentrification often align with the same policy agenda. Which is often carried, we were reminded again today, by high powered liberal politicians.

Warren will meet “with activists, influencers and community leaders,” a campaign spokeswoman said, but didn’t provide specifics.

One of her leading supporters in the state is Pres Kabacoff, a New Orleans real estate developer who said he reached out to Warren because of her support for well-regulated capitalism.

But most of the time these are battles fought out block by block and one planning meeting at a time. Recently this mixed use development faced a gauntlet of intense neighborhood opposition in Bywater. And the Touro-Bouligny association is currently stalling a HANO project Uptown aided, we should note, by the addition of the building in question to a list of "Endangered Landmarks" maintained by a local preservationist society.

Interestingly the mayor rarely weighs in on any of this.  Over the course of her first year in office she's been more focused on the tourism grand bargain, police affairs, the traffic camera controversy, and the Sewerage and Water Board follies than zoning and housing questions. That might change at any moment. The STR wars are moving toward a conclusion... of the current phase anyway.  We may see the mayor get involved in that at some point.  But whenever she does decide to put a thumb on the scale of one of these land use matters, surely the fact that she got her start in politics as a neighborhood association president will have at least some bearing on which way that scale might tip. Just something to watch for, anyway.

The public-private model is never going to fix this

Gill asks us to imagine what might happen if we had some way of researching and combating our most pressing environmental threats without also trying to make a buck.  I wonder if we'll ever know.

Meselhe and Hu are set for trial in August. A memorandum filed by Meselhe's attorney, however, points out that the Basin Wide Model was ”entirely funded with public money through a Cooperative Endeavor Agreement with the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority.”

What the institute claims as a trade secret, in fact, belongs to the state of Louisiana, according to the memorandum, which also notes that computer codes invented by the Dutch company Deltares were incorporated into the model on the understanding that they would be common property. Deltares on its website declares, “We believe in openness and transparency, as is evident from the free availability of our software and models. Open source works is our firm conviction.”

If that admirable sentiment were universally shared, we would have a better chance of saving the coastal region.

LOL of course we won't, though.  Climate change may be an existential disaster when we see it collectively. But seeing problems collectively isn't the way we do things.  Our political economy isn't a rational process of  determining the best and most equitable outcomes.  It's a conflict among classes and individuals with oppositional interests. We're not organized to avert or mitigate something like climate change. We can only determine who bears the greatest costs vs who can make an extra buck or two in the meantime. In other words, we are never going to fix this.

So, then what was the source of it?

You would think a story where we learn about a Powerpoint that tells us about what "may be the source of this radiation" would tell us what that is.  It doesn't, though. In fact, it's just a bunch of blurbs about communications between the city and EPA that raise more disturbing questions than they answer.

The Powerpoint presentation was presented to city leaders by the Group CHP. The presentation talked about the history of the area and what they believe may be the source of this radiation.

On May 20, 2019, the city’s community outreach manager told leaders that they canvassed the area and found six people home. They said they attached flyers to each house, letting people know they’d be working in the area.

Also what is "the Group CHP"? The story doesn't really tell us that either.

About a month ago this Advocate report told us the most complete and coherent story about the history of the site. It's intriguing but it still doesn't tell us exactly why there was radioactive material buried there.

The Thompson-Hayward factory, which opened in 1941, produced a variety of pesticides and herbicides, including one of the main components in Agent Orange, before being converted to a chemical warehouse in the late 1970s.

Even after the plant closed, those in nearby areas complained of noxious odors, and by the late 1980s, Harcos Chemicals, which had purchased the site at the beginning of the decade, was ordered to remediate chemicals on the site and in the nearby sewer system. That contamination eventually led to a nearly $51.6 million settlement with residents of the neighborhood.

However, news articles about that suit did not mention radioactive contamination on the site, and it was not immediately clear why radium would have been used at the factory. Radium has been used for a number of products, including luminescent dials and watch hands, but the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission does not list pesticides or other chemicals as one of its common uses.

Channel 4 says something called "Group CHP" has some ideas that it presented to the city in a Powerpoint.  What were they?

Yesterday the city put out a press release assuring us the remediation work is now complete.  However, this being a Cantrell Administration document it is more defensive than it is informative. The main point it wants to get across is the Cantrell people definitely just learned about the hazard. The second thing it wants us to know is that they only dug it up out of "an abundance of caution" and we probably shouldn't worry about it anyway.

Today, the City announced that the final four of six total containers with underground material from the work site in the Lowerline and Coolidge area have been removed for transport to Anders, Texas. In May 2018, the Cantrell Administration learned about the presence of underground material producing radiation below the road surface at the intersection of Lowerline Street and Coolidge Court. While the origin of the material is unknown, it was removed out of an abundance of caution.
 
“I have been clear about how my administration would approach this issue from the time we learned about it,” said Mayor LaToya Cantrell. “Our goal is always to protect the health and safety of residents. Throughout the process, my team has been in constant communication with our federal and state partners who have been monitoring the removal process and have not reported any increased risk to the public.” 

But as WVUE and WWL have reported, that "constant communication" between the city, state, and EPA has been a confusing mess with little agreement as to the severity of the threat or the best means of removing it.  The mayor's press release says that in May, "the City’s Health Department and the Department of Public Works canvassed within a two block radius of the location to talk with residents and distribute information about the existing hazards and what to expect during the removal process." But since there doesn't seem to have been much agreement about the nature of those hazards, well that does cause one to wonder what the fliers they distributed actually said. 


The mayor also says the city still doesn't know where the Gert Town glow goo came from.  But they apparently did see a Powerpoint that at least had some ideas, right?  Why can't we know what those are?  Also, what happened between the time in 2013 when the Landrieu Administration was apparently informed of the issue, and late 2018 when the Cantrell people claim they first learned about it?  There's a lot of stuff here that still doesn't make sense.

"Second Katrina"

Well that's a pleasant way of putting it.

The number of people being forced out of their homes due to rising costs is now causing displacement on a level almost comparable to a “second Katrina,” said Patrick Egan, executive vice president at Latter & Blum, who has been working with a team at the firm to come up with ways to spur more affordable housing development.

Williams' office is putting the final touches on the property assessments for the coming year. That starts with figuring out the average sales price in the city's various neighborhoods over the previous four years.

Oh good. Assessment season is always fun.  The lines at Erroll Williams's will probably be longer than ever this year. And of course the process always favors those who can afford to down there and deal with it.

Anyway, as many of us broken records have been saying for years, this is precisely what every policy choice since Katrina was deliberately intended to do. But oh well, they'll just write about those decisions as though they inscrutable "trends" because of course.

In many cases, the increases reflect trends that began during the recovery from Hurricane Katrina. In the years after the flood, younger residents from across the country have flocked to the city, particularly to neighborhoods in the historic core, said Egan.

That, combined with other factors — including low interest rates that have given buyers the ability to afford higher-priced homes and the proliferation of short-term rentals — put significant pressure on the market, he said.

All those factors have come at a time when there has been a huge loss of cheap housing, thanks to the storm — and yet relatively little new affordable stock created. A report in April by the affordable-housing group HousingNOLA found that while there’s a need for nearly 33,600 additional affordable homes in the city, only about 414 units had been made available between September 2018 and March. Even those making a decent living are now unable to afford many neighborhoods.

We really can't even start to talk about "second Katrina" when we're still sitting here in the middle of the first one. 

Mitch knew

I'm chuckling a little remembering all the ridiculous prep Mitch's people did just to host a Superbowl. They moved the Mardi Gras parade schedule around. They spent a bunch of money they didn't have to rushing the new streetcar into service.   There was a "clean zone" and a city mission command center. You would have thought they were trying to send someone to the moon.

Mitch Landrieu took all of  it extremely seriously. His entire term in office was built around setting artificial deadlines so he could rush through a bunch of projects and patronage ahead of  Katrina 10 or the Superbowl or the Tricentennial and make it all sound like some sort of emergency requiring everyone to definitely not complain or ask too many questions.   He even gave us all a lecture about being nice to Roger Goodell. That's why, after all of this hysteria, the power failure the night of the game was such a deliciously fun moment. We couldn't have asked for a more appropriate send-up of Mitch's arrogance. 

Of course, as usual, the joke was on us. As it turned out, the seemingly absurd "anti-terrorism" preparations in the weeks leading up to the game did yield some important information. Naturally, Mitch chose not to share that information with the public.

NEW ORLEANS — The attorneys representing residents in Gert Town claim the City of New Orleans not only knew about radioactive material in the area, but also knew the risk that it posed to the public and tried to keep it out of the public eye.

In 2013, when the city hosted Super Bowl XLVII, the federal government discovered radioactive material two miles away from the Mercedes-Benz Superdome while conducting sweeps of the area for the event.

But then they didn't tell anyone.

It's not clear exactly what took so long after that for anyone to get started with the remediation but it looks like that didn't begin until after the new mayor took over. And at that point, it doesn't look like there was a solid consensus among state, local, and federal officials as to how to proceed safely.

In May, Dr. Jennifer Avegno -- the city’s health department director -- emailed Tulane toxicology consultant, Dr. Luann White, asking her opinion on possible dust or particle containment during excavation. In her email, Avengo pointed out a particular recommendation to spray water on the site, stating it did not “seem adequate,” to her. She also said she was not comfortable with the information provided if homes in the area should be evacuated or if there were any possible risks to pregnant women.

White’s responded with:

“Misting water can control dust. They have to be careful to get enough to keep dust down, but not so much as to have waste water runoff they need to contain.”

White went on to say the following:

"Radiation seems to be only in the immediate vicinity of the source and does not extend as far away as homes or the sidewalk. The goal is to keep it that way during the remediation. This can be done as they describe, but they need to take care to contain the radiation.”

State epidemiologist Raoult Ratard also weighed in with his opinion during another correspondence this past May. When asked if residents need to evacuate their homes during the work, Ratard said no, so long as the dust was appropriately controlled.

Ratard was also asked if special instructions need to be given to pregnant women, women of child bearing age or children.

“None if they stay away from the site and dust is controlled," he replied.

And, to the question of: “How would the EPA best characterize the level of risk for individuals who have lived on the block and received cumulative exposure?”

Ratard said he did not know

Apparently what they ended up doing was digging into the ground, removing the radioactive goop or whatever while neighbors stood nearby and watched, before throwing it into some dumpsters which remained on site for several weeks.  It doesn't say in that report whether or not anybody misted the dust.

Anyway, according to one of the lawyers handling the residents' lawsuit, the Cantrell administration wanted all of this handled "discreetly." And maybe that's a step better than just never having told anyone at all. But there sure are a lot of questions left to answer now.

Is Joe Biden cancelled yet?

Seems like it's all happening so fast.

In the latest poll, Biden's support among black Democratic voters shrunk to 31 percent from 48 percent in the June poll. Harris, on the other hand, saw her support among black Democratic voters grow to 27 percent, from 11 percent in the June poll. The June poll numbers on African American voters were provided to NBC by Quinnipiac.

What even is Joe Biden's constituency?  Right now it's just a bunch of Democratic Party functionaries waiting for the signal that it's okay to go support somebody else.

So far behind we're ahead or vice versa

Congratulations to New Orleans on becoming the first city in the US to have zero public education anymore.

July 1 is important for the school district. It’s the day charter school contracts begin and also marks the start of the fiscal year. One year ago, the city’s RSD charters all transferred back to the local school district’s oversight. That nearly doubled the size of the district. 

Last year, the district was on track to have only one traditional school: McDonogh 35. But it ended up taking over two struggling elementary charter schools and running them directly instead.

So remember back in 2016 when we were talking about how important the OPSB election would be that year specifically because the RSD hand over and the selection of a new superintendent would be  a major pivot point in the direction of the school system?  And remember also how nobody gave enough of a shit to run for hardly any of those seats besides pro-charter grifters?

Well, here is what happened. Nobody could have predicted it.

And as usual New Orleans is well behind the curve. We've gone all in on the privatization model at precisely the time the political winds have finally begun to blow in the other direction. With some notable exceptions, the Democratic Presidential candidates this year, led by Bernie Sanders, have taken on a decidedly more anti-charter stance this year than in their recent past. 

But this is a hard-headed city in a lot of ways and there are few better examples of its hard-headedness is its commitment to segregated schools via any means possible. And make no mistake about it charter schools are segregated schools.  If it seemed to the rest of the country that our city lay for a time at the cutting edge of "school reform," it is only because our hard-headedness happened to align with the fad for a while.  

Anyway there is another OPSB election coming next year.  Will New Orleans take that opportunity to shift direction away from its long standing tradition just because the national politics have changed a bit? Don't bet on it.

"Black slushie stuff"

Is it just me or is it weird that this story feels like such a niche thing this week? 

Initially, the city said they consulted scientists who told them the material was not harmful. We later learned that the hazardous material was Radium 226.

According to the Center for Disease Control, long-term exposure to Radium 226 can cause a number of health problems such as cancer, amenia, fractured bones and cataracts.

Since that information has come out, around 1,000 neighbors living in the area have filed a federal lawsuit against the city. The lawsuit claims the city knew about the radiation problem for years and should have relocated nearby neighbors while they worked to remove the material.

Instead, residents tell me they let neighbors sit out and watch, unprotected, while crews dressed in hazmat suits removed the radioactive.

"If you see the stuff they bringing out of that ground, it just didn’t seem real,” Clyde Williams, who lives in the neighborhood, said. “It looked like black slushie stuff. And the thing to me – what I felt so bad about – they allowed us to walk to the fence where they were digging, but the people that were digging it up had on hazmat suits like spacemen. So why didn’t you run us away from this fence? Tell us it may be hazardous to our health?”

Residents say that since crews began the removal, the area has flooded. They’re worried about radiation traveling to other parts of the neighborhood through the water.

Yeah I'd be more worried about that last bit if I thought there was any chance of Sewerage and Water Board actually pumping flood waters out of Gert Town with any sort of efficiency.  Certainly they don't have the "full capacity" necessary to move any "black slushie stuff."

In any case nobody is paying attention because what with the disappearing coast, the high river, the dolphin-killing algae, and the 15 year oil spill,  thick black radioactive material is like the third or fourth biggest environmental story in the news at any given time.

LaToya Levels at peak

This is really more in the category of what happens when you ask a stupid question than anything else.  In this interview, Essence Magazine asked the mayor about the recently finalized infrastructure "deal" with the tourism cabal. As we know, this refers to a series of bills passed out of the legislature this year which does the following.

1) Allows the the Convention Center to build a publicly subsidized hotel.

2) Legitimizes the Convention Center's previously legally questionable and still morally indefensible publicly subsidized slush fund.

3) Creates a new tax on hotel rooms based on the formerly "lost penny" which the city only gets three fourths of in order to pay for Sewerage and Water Board improvements. This is supposed to be the "fair share" tax despite the fact that the tourism cabal still gets an unearned piece of it AND gets to keep all of its prior revenue streams.

4) Creates a new tax on Short Term Rentals which the city can dedicate its portion of toward infrastructure... although, yes, we still have to "fair share" part of that with the cabal too for some reason. Also, apparently we are married to the proliferation of STRs now.

5) Folds the technically public New Orleans Tourism Marketing Company into the less public New Orleans and Company in such a way that shields their meetings from public records even though both entities continue to receive public funds.

Anyway the deal sucks. But Essence Magazine could have asked  the mayor about any of the above problems. Instead they asked her, "In what ways do you feel the deal will aid in further diversifying the corporate and entrepreneurial workforce in New Orleans to increase the presence of women of color in leadership roles?" Which.. what?

A diverse workforce with plenty of opportunities for women of color sounds like a terrific goal. But how or why would this infrastructure deal have anything to do with that? I can't answer that. And neither can LaToya but boy does she give it a try.

“Fair Share” ensures that improvements to our infrastructure affects everyone in this city – for everyone who is trying to make their way up and forward, and that includes a corporate and entrepreneurial workforce that looks more like this city. “Fair Share” doesn’t single out any particular entity or industry. None of our many thriving industries would be successful if not for the hard-working men and women of this city. In that vein, “Fair Share” ensures inclusivity and intentionality for everyone who puts skin in the game. It’s about meeting people where they are and giving them a real way to level up and that’s what’s been missing in our city.

Whether they're moving forward or making their way up, we're gonna meet them where they are and level up their skin in the game. We will do this intentionally.   Got it?  Okay.

Nice things for rich people

The Louisiana Children's Museum is leaving the Warehouse District. This is excellent news for land speculators since the market in that area is "sizzling." 

The 45,000-square-foot property was bought at the end of 2017 by developer Joe Jaeger’s MCC Real Estate Group for $3.6 million, which at $80 per square foot now seems like an amazing deal for the sizzling Warehouse District market.

The newer developments in the area — mostly condominium complexes with some restaurants and shops on the ground floor — are being sold for anything from $350 to $1,000 per square foot for the condo units, while the retail leasing is among the priciest in the city at around $35 to $40 per square foot a year, according to real estate experts.

The condominium complex at 425 Notre Dame St. recently sold out its units at an average of about $600 per square foot, said Michael Siegel, president of Corporate Realty, a New Orleans-based commercial real estate agency.

"There are some projects getting $700 to $800 a square foot, like The Standard, or the River Place, over $1,000," said Siegel. Some of the older projects are holding up well, too, he said, ranging between $350 and $500 per square foot.

Nobody actually lives in these condos of course. It's a market driven by pied-a-terres and short term rentals, but who cares. Assets are appreciating.  Which is another reason it's funny that this article describes the property as a "gamble" for Joe Jaeger, of all people. He's well positioned to bide his time.

MCC is one of the largest developers in the city and has held onto sites for years before deciding what to do with them. It only recently decided to move ahead with a new elder care facility in the derelict Lindy Boggs Medical Center site in Mid-City which it has co-owned since 2010.

It has also sat on the property housing the old Market Street Power Plant it has owned for the past four years. Aamodt said there was some investor interest in that site at a Council of Shopping Centers conference in Las Vegas last month but no firm plans yet.

So don't worry about him. Worry more about the fact that, even in the middle of a severe housing crunch, our system allows so much property to sit vacant for as long as it takes to turn a nice profit... as more nice things for rich people.

One possible conversion for the Children's Museum site would be a condominium or apartment-and-retail renovation, judging from the projects that dominate the surrounding area.

All dead

Not mostly dead. All dead.

NEW ORLEANS, La. (WVUE) - Oyster fishermen are saying 100 percent of what they dredge up is coming up dead, which is not only a serious hit to their livelihoods but could have lasting impacts for years to come.

Fishermen will tell you part of the draw of the job is just being out on the water, but the waters near the Biloxi marsh are a little too quiet.

“North, east, west, there’s usually someone harvesting someone trawling you don’t see nothing, there’s not one person out here,” said oyster fisherman, Gregory Perez.

Gregory Perez says he's worked for years building and tending to these acres of water, or his private oyster leases. This year was supposed to be the most lucrative for him until the oysters started dying.

Perez blames this swirling blue-green algae blooms he’s seen intensify in the area. He says it’s killed off all the oysters he was planning to harvest, including the young oysters that would be ready years from now.

“Twenty-five square miles of blue-green algae in this area, and everybody's oyster farm in this area they’re 100 percent completely dead,” said Perez.

I noticed this week Rouses was running a sale on shucked gulf oysters.  The price was still high because Rouses but it does make me wonder where they were getting them from. Might have to be wondering that for a while, it turns out. 

A spokesperson with the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries says as the oysters die, and the flood continues, the crisis is just beginning for those in the oyster industry.

“We’re also going to see the aftermath of the flood in terms of additional algal blooms… they’re not going to be able to recover quickly,” said Fisheries Administrator, Harry Blanchet.

“We have more damage now. This is worse than B.P. this is worse because we don’t have any reproduction,” said Perez.

Cops give the worst advice

This is one hundred percent wrong. Please do not do this. You will definitely regret it.

Over the past few months, Eyewitness News has told you about a series of car break-ins in both Orleans and Jefferson Parish. In the last four weeks along, crimemapping.com shows over 500 reports of vehicle break-ins and theft in New Orleans.

It’s the reason why District D Councilmember Jared Brossett has a stack of “Lock it or Lose  It” signs in city hall.  “My office has received a lot of complaints from concerned citizens regarding break-ins throughout the city and throughout my district,” Councilmember Brossett said.  Brossett said he’s partnering with Crimestopper GNO for their “Lock it or Lose it” campaign.

"Most of the car break-ins we've got statistics from Crimestoppers say that 70 percent of them have been from unlocked vehicles," he said.

Locking your car at night is a great idea if your objective is to wake up to a smashed window the next day. I learned that the hard way a couple of times. I don't think I've locked a car door in at least ten years now.  I'd leave the windows rolled down too if a person could ever trust the weather around here.

Sure some mornings I walk out to discover evidence of an overnight visit.  But as long as I remember not to leave anything valuable in there, it's no harm to anyone. It's a strategy these people may like to consider.

Darlene Cusanza with Crimestoppers GNO said the suspects are not just stealing cash. Last year, Cusanza said more than 700 guns were stolen from unlocked vehicles throughout the Greater New Orleans area.

What is even going on out there? I thought gun owners were all about defending their "castle" from invasion.  How does leaving the gun in the car help with that? 

What if, for example, you are lying in bed at a reasonable hour (say 11:30 pm on a Friday night) just reading your book peacefully, and someone just walks into your apartment thinking it is his Airbnb?  Wouldn't you feel silly then?  I certainly did last night when this exact thing happened to me. I don't mean I felt silly not to have a gun. I don't own one. I mean it was awkward for all of us, the guy, his wife, my cat and their chihuahua to stand around with me in my boxers trying to figure out what was going on.  

It turns out what was going on is one of the neighbors is running Airbnb out of her apartment. She gets pretty good reviews. The consensus among her customers is the place is a little bit noisy and "dingy" but the location is super convenient to all of your favorite "NOLA" sights.  I can't argue with any of that.  And I should know I've lived in the building for almost 20 years now.  But I guess actually living in your home isn't what people do here anymore unless you are "fair sharing" your personal space with tourists. 

In this case, though, it was my space that almost got shared. Still not exactly sure how that happened but from what we were able to gather last night the guests just tried the wrong door. And that wouldn't have been too bad except for the fact that the key she had left for them happened to be a master somehow. So this means, not only has the neighbor had a key to my apartment since the day she moved in, she has also been lending it out to random strangers on the internet for the better part of two years now.  Anyway, the "sharing economy" is very good. 

I guess if I had heard about something like this happening to somebody else I'd be upset. But since it's me, it's just another awkward and funny thing to put on the pile.  Or at least it would be that if not for the fact that Menckles lives in my home too. I'm very glad she was sitting out on the back porch at the time so it could be me instead of her who got walked in on. This is the only reason something unfortunate did not happen to the poor confused visitor regardless of whether there was a gun in the house or not. 

It's also the only reason somebody got up extra early this morning to run out and buy a new lock for the front door. In fact she had already installed it by the time I left for work.  If I lived alone I can easily imagine myself letting the situation go on as is for months just to see how many more times something like this might happen. Because she is there, it feels like a violation. If it's just me, it's just a funny bit. 

Either way, at least nobody has to bother the police over something as trivial as whether or not a door is locked.  Sounds like they've got their hands full enough as it is trying to track down all those guns.

Why is John Bel soft on vouchers?

Good news! John Bel says he's finally ready to do something about Bobby Jindal's disastrous school voucher scheme.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said he will call for an overhaul of the state’s scholarship voucher program, saying the structure that uses public money to pay for private school tuition for nearly 6,900 underprivileged students was poorly conceived.

In an interview just weeks after an in-depth examination by a consortium of local and national news organizations highlighted flaws, Edwards said he will call on state leaders to reform the $40-million-a-year Louisiana Scholarship Program. The governor did not specify what changes he will seek, but said the goal should be for schools in the program to perform better.

He doesn't say what he's going to do.  But he definitely is not interested in abolishing the voucher program.  Which raises the question from us, why on Earth not?

Last month, WVUE, WWNO, Reveal, and what's left of NOLAdotcom collaborated on a damning series of reports confirming what most of us already knew about the voucher scheme. The plan was always more about siphoning money away from public education regardless of whether Louisiana students realized any benefit, which, of course, they did not.

Seven years later, however, the $40-million-a-year Louisiana Scholarship Program has failed to live up to its billing. The nearly 6,900 students who’ve left public schools have instead been placed into a system with numerous failing private schools that receive little oversight, a months-long examination by a coalition of local and national media organizations has found.

And this was always at least part of the intent. We've known pretty much since the beginning that the voucher scheme was a direct attack on the concept of public education, an avenue for Bobby Jindal's cheap pandering to science denying evolutionists, and an obvious opportunity for the sort of corruption described in these reports.

 It's even worse than you might think, though. As the Bayou Brief points out, the vouchers aren't merely a means of diverting public money into unaccountable private hands. They're also a vehicle for ultra-wealthy individuals like Eddie Rispone, for example, to set up very large tax loopholes for themselves.

In December of 2014, he donated $1 million to ACE Scholarships Louisiana, a Student Tuition Organization, and according to an audit of ACE, 100% of his donation was rebate eligible.

While we do not know Rispone’s income or how much of his donation was used toward scholarships, it’s possible to estimate how much Rispone could have profited off his $1 million donation.

If Rispone’s entire donation was used for scholarships in 2015, assuming Rispone did not donate more than 50% of his annual gross income and that he was in the highest income bracket (36.9% marginal tax rate), Rispone’s donation qualified him for up to a $950,000 rebate from the State of Louisiana and a federal tax savings of $369,000.

Therefore, his $1 million donation had a potential return of $1,319,000 ($950,000 + $369,000) for a profit of $319,000.

So, given all of this, since we know the voucher program is a disaster for Louisiana education,  and since we know criminally wealthy oligarchs like Rispone are benefiting from it. Why does John Bel say we should merely "reform" (he doesn't specify how) rather than abolish it?  Rispone is even applying a significant portion of his ill-gotten and protected wealth to challenge John Bel in this year's election.  Why would he let him get away with that?

Literal election rigging

Elena Kagan is obviously correct. 

She went into the details of the two cases in front of the court — challenges to a Democratic-drawn map in Maryland and GOP-drawn map in North Carolina — and how the legislatures were able to draw districts that ensure that their respective received a number seats disproportionate to the state wide vote.

“Is that how American democracy is supposed to work?” Kagan said. “I have yet to meet the person who thinks so.”

“Free and fair and periodic elections are the key” to the framers’ vision of democracy, Kagan said.
“And partisan gerrymandering can make [elections] meaningless,” Kagan said. “At its most extreme — as in North Carolina and Maryland — the practice amounts to ‘rigging elections.'”

Not sure it's any kind of earth shattering observation or anything but it is the correct one.  Also not sure what to do about it.  Anyway, so what now?  If we operate from the premise that elections are rigged and pointless, then the way to proceed must involve pursuing power by means other than the pointless and rigged elections, right?  So then where are we?

Ah the NIMBYs look like they've won one

Kinda thought they might be able to stop this. The further uptown you get, the better the neighborhood association people are at shutting down affordable housing projects. 

Update: That article was just at stem when I posted this but now that it's been fleshed out it's... yeah well it is what I thought.

Still, Wheeler said a lawsuit by the Touro Bouligny Neighborhood Association and a recent swell of opposition to the swap gave her pause.

In its May suit, the neighborhood group argued that the land ought to remain a school and criticized the OPSB for not giving other charter school operators more time to decide if they want McDonogh No. 7 before offering it to HANO.

Wheeler also highlighted a swell of neighborhood opposition to HANO’s separate plan to redevelop vacant land as affordable housing in Bywater, another neighborhood with high property values.

“The people in Bywater and in Uptown... are not going to sit idly by, when they say they don’t want to (see something turned into affordable) housing,” Wheeler said. “I would rather see us have housing that’s not necessarily Uptown, but still have housing.”

Oh no these rich people might get mad at us if we don't respect their redlined and segregated neighborhoods.  Probably should just give them whatever they want, I guess. 

QOTD

Jason Williams:

Councilman Jason Williams, who chairs the Criminal Justice Committee, said in a statement announcing Wednesday’s meeting that there has been “an increasing amount of reactionary comments and decisions based upon a belief that juvenile crime is on the rise.” Police data doesn’t back the perceived trend, he said, and more information and discussion is needed ahead of “crafting new policies or clinging to old ones.”

“The premise of juvenile intervention must not be based on a single bad news cycle,” Williams said.

He's talking here a little bit about LaToya Cantrell's "reactionary" curfew enforcement policy. He could just as well extend that to her administration's embrace of invasive surveillance and predictive policing.  Or he could talk about her punitive.. almost vengeful.. approach to traffic enforcement. And for that matter he could comment on his colleagues' imposition of absurd fines for parking violations and minor breaches of bicycle etiquette.  Generally speaking, this supposedly "progressive" mayor and council have been remarkable in their enthusiasm for aggressive "reactionary" police practices.

None of them have been quite as boorish as Leon Cannizzaro, of course.

Orleans District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro, who declared juvenile crime “out of control” in April, has participated in recent summits with city leaders to arrive at solutions. In a statement Tuesday, he commended Cantrell, the council and court officials for their efforts yet called for holistic efforts as well as “meaningful consequences” for violent youth criminals and parents who don’t supervise them.

“While some continue to advocate for coddling juvenile offenders at all costs, others are recognizing the very real trauma their violent acts are inflicting upon our community and are realistic about the need to restore accountability into our juvenile justice system,” Cannizzaro said in a statement.

The children will not be "coddled."

Anyway, Leon is up for reelection next year. Williams is one expected challenger but, as we've seen this week, there are better models out there to emulate. City Council is holding a hearing this afternoon about juvenile criminal justice policy.  Maybe they'll have something new to say there. 

Fiscal administrators

I wonder how many people know this is even a practice in Louisiana.

This year the state took the first step towards taking over the administration of more financially troubled towns than ever before.

But Louisiana’s own money troubles kept state government from taking the second step – asking the courts to appoint a fiscal administrator – leaving those towns in financial crisis for months without a fixer.

This is happening at time when Legislative Auditor Daryl Purpera doesn’t know many more towns – his office recently counted 15 – are also on the brink of needing to replace elected local officials with a single administrator who has the power to unilaterally raise fees, fire workers and otherwise make the tough decisions that stave off financial ruin.

Small town life in Louisiana is getting tougher. Back in March we read that 25 local governments derive over half their revenue from fines and fees.. in other words, they send cops out to collect bounties from people. 

And 194 of the state’s 304 incorporated cities, towns and villages raise more in fines and forfeitures than they do in property taxes, according to latest financial audits.

The reason is less Barney Fife passionately holding scofflaws to account for minor infractions and more small-town officers strictly enforcing traffic laws — issuing tickets costing $80 to $200 or more — that has the added benefit of bringing more money to municipalities with few other revenue-raising options.

“That’s the symbol of a broken system when you have to depend on preying on people to pay your bills,” said Robert Scott, head of the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana. PAR is a nonprofit Baton Rouge-based government policy analyst. “If you’re protecting people, that’s OK, but if you’re protecting services, you need to re-examine.”

In New Orleans we already have a version of this problem as city leaders have spent much of the past year playing gotcha with residents over traffic tickets and water bills and the like.  At least they're still accountable to voters, though, which means we can go yell at them and they might even listen.  A Fiscal Administrator doesn't have to put up with any of your crap. 

"Caretaker of incredible assets"

That's really great. Good one, Gayle.

For now, Benson said she will stick with the status quo, though as someone who sees herself less an “owner” and more “a caretaker of incredible assets”, she plans to address the issue at the league’s upcoming summer meetings in order to be as inclusive as possible.

“As with any word, phrase or expression, interpretations can be perceived differently,” she said in a statement. “That is in many ways why diversity, inclusion and openness is so important to companies and society. As with any expression, my intention and the intentions of the organization I am responsible for is never to be insensitive or insulting.

The "insulting" thing is that we are asked to maintain billionaires through massive public investments in subsidies and infrastructure creating profits that accrue to them. Brand them however you like.

Do do do do do do

And the latest bit in the Metal Shark saga is......

No, the boats aren't ready yet.

Two new ferries built for the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority have again failed inspections, yet another setback for a project that has been delayed for over a year.

The inspections, outlined in a June 3 report by an RTA consultant, have kept the boats out of service well after one RTA official's prediction a few months ago that the boats would be in operation by the time of the 2019 Jazz Fest at the end of April.

Oh well. Maybe they'll be ready in time for Gretna Fest instead.  Better make sure the gator-proofing is up to standard, though.

GRETNA, La. — The City of Gretna has a warning about large gators. The warning comes after several gators were spotted along the riverfront.

Mayor Belinda Constant ordered the posting of signs that say "Caution! Alligators have been sighted in the river in this area."

Constant is nervous that a child or pet could be snatched up.

"We received another picture of the alligator actually sunning himself on the concrete part of the levee," Constant said. "The most important thing for us is just having people aware that there is an alligator close by."

 Anyway it's good to see there's another looking at the boats now.  That should.. help?

Shipbuilder Metal Shark did fix some issues with the boats within 45 days of receiving roughly $959,000 from the RTA, as was agreed to in a March deal between the two parties, RTA attorney Sundiata Haley said.

But Greenwood Marine Management of Morgan City found the company still had not addressed other problems, including issues with the boats’ rescue equipment and fuel tanks.

I don't know who Greenwood Marine Management is. But it looks like they are different from The Shearer Group who RTA had hired to review the Metal Shark work just back in December.  No idea if this is getting the boats on the water any faster but, hey, it's a living.

Maybe someone can explain all of this better at one of these public input meetings.

Public meetings to redesign the public transportation network across Orleans, Jefferson, and St. Bernard Parishes kick off Monday evening in New Orleans. Where people live and work in the New Orleans area changes over time, so the public transit authorities need to periodically update their transit systems in order to efficiently move people around the region.

Under a yearlong program called New Links, transportation planners are studying existing transit lines and holding public meetings to get input from riders. Information gleaned from that process will be used to propose an entirely redesigned transportation network for Jefferson, Orleans, and St. Bernard Parishes, according to information on the New Links website.

Or maybe they can't. Either way, it means more consultants get paid which I am beginning to think might be the actual point. Still, if you think it's worth your time, most of these meetings are in July. Here is the schedule.

Time to start finding candidates for DA

I think we have our first contender.

District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro said Crawford has "falsely" portrayed herself as a licensed lawyer, and Chief District Defender Derwyn Bunton said he has sidelined her while his office looks into whether she should have been handling cases.

“We're gathering information and working to resolve it. Until we get more information, she is not authorized to appear on our behalf or on any client's behalf in court,” Bunton said.

Attempts to contact Crawford were not immediately successful.

I'm not even really joking.  I mean, since when has Cannizzaro cared about what's real and what's fake, anyway? Besides, look, a bunch of people might get their convictions overturned now.

Defendants who entered guilty pleas with Crawford at their side could challenge their conviction. Loyola University law professor Dane Ciolino said those cases would have to be considered on an individual basis, if it's confirmed that Crawford was ineligible.

"Each case is still going to be looked at on a case-by-case basis to see whether she provided substandard legal advice and whether that advice caused prejudice to a client," Ciolino said. "It doesn’t turn into an automatic get out of jail free card."

An excellent start, as the saying goes. 

What is the reason a person might run for President?

1) The person might genuinely be interested in pushing the boundaries of the discussion about what is possible so as to bring that more closely in line with what is moral.

Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced his most sweeping plan yet to tackle the increasing cost of a higher education, introducing a bill Monday that would make public colleges and trade schools tuition free and cancel outstanding student loan debt for everyone, a proposal that goes beyond one introduced earlier this year by one of his chief presidential campaign rivals, Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

2) ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

(CNN)In an already-crowded primary field, former Pennsylvania Rep. Joe Sestak became the latest Democratic candidate to wade into the race for the presidency, announcing his candidacy in a video posted to his website Sunday morning.

Sestak, who mounted unsuccessful bids for US Senate in 2010 and 2016 touted his "commitment to service," citing his career in the US Navy, where he rose to the rank of 3-star Admiral.  

Is Mitch Landrieu still thinking about it?  I know he said he would defer to Biden but we all expect Biden is going to cancel himself any day now. 

Year of enforcement

The pleasure seekers are out there tonight...

NEW ORLEANS – The NOPD’s Traffic Division will conduct an upcoming sobriety checkpoint at a location within Orleans Parish.

The checkpoint will be in effect beginning at 9:00 p.m. on Friday, June 21, 2019 and concluding at 5:00 a.m. on Saturday, June 22, 2019.

Stay safe

Impersonating an... officer?

Is that what you'd call this?  What is going on here?

The officers noticed two surveillance cameras mounted to a public light pole on the block. They looked very much like hundreds of crime cameras that have been installed across New Orleans since 2017. Those are owned and controlled by the city, all transmitting video to the Real-Time Crime Monitoring Center on North Rampart Street.

In addition to being attached to city-controlled property, the cameras on the Lakeview light pole bore the New Orleans Police Department’s logo.

The problem: They weren’t city-owned cameras. The officers didn’t know who owned them.

“The camera mounted at 6119 Vicksburg is not a City-owned camera, is not integrated to the Real-Time Crime Center, and is unauthorized to be on the light pole,” said Laura Mellem, the public engagement manager at the New Orleans Office of Homeland Security, which oversees the city’s surveillance system.

Nor was it owned by the Lakeview Crime Prevention District, a security district that maintains cameras in the neighborhood, LCPD President Brian Anderson told The Lens in an interview.

“That is without a doubt not one of ours,” Anderson said.

The victim of the alleged car burglary told the police that the cameras belonged to Jeff Burkhardt, according to the police report.

Burkhardt, whose wife owns a house on the block, is the vice president and chief operations officer for Active Solutions, LLC, a crime camera supplier and installation contractor for the city. The camera on the block bears a resemblance to Active Solutions’ Neighborhood WatchCam model. The Neighborhood WatchCam draws its power from streetlights, according to the company’s website.

Burkhardt tells The Lens he doesn't know nothing about no cameras. Also he tells them they are "fake news."  But, see, the thing is he's got it pointed at his ex-wife's house. And he has NOPD logos on it. And he is the contractor who makes and installs these things.  And this is all very normal.

Return of the varmits

The infamous Uptown Coyote(s) is(are) back in action.

"It has to be millions"

Looks like we're trying something novel in this capital projects bond issue that will appear on your November ballot. The city hasn't done one of these in a while. The Mitch people were more about planning this stuff year over year out of the regular operating budget. Nagin got a $260 million package passed back in 2004 which, because the next year was 2005 when certain things happened, kind of got subsumed into disaster recovery efforts.... haphazardly... and not entirely.  But, at the time, it was one of Ray Nagin's genuine achievements as mayor.

This new one says $500 million.  It doesn't yet say specifically how that money will be divided up just yet.  The CAO Gilbert Montaño says that's for "maximum flexibility," which we know is a thing voters always find reassuring. The really intriguing element, though, is part of it is designated for "affordable housing." I don't think I remember the city doing that before.  It sounds good but there are questions.

Most immediately, we'd like to know more about the scope of such an endeavor. But that would mean knowing more about how the money is going to be allocated and, well, it's "flexible."

The use of city bonds to build affordable housing that would be owned by the city is a new approach for New Orleans. The city’s bond attorneys have said that it would be the only municipality in Louisiana to fund such projects that way, Montaño said.

Asked how much could potentially be put into that effort, he said, “Millions. It has to be millions.”

"It has to be millions," says the guy who will decide how much it will actually be.  That's.. positive? He could have said tens.

Update: Anyway, we hope it's a lot. It won't be enough. But I hope it's a lot.

Despite efforts by housing advocates, New Orleans’ housing affordability remains virtually unchanged from last year, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s 2019 “Out of Reach” report.

The report found that in order to afford a “modest” two-bedroom rental in the New Orleans-Metairie area without spending more than 30 percent of income on housing costs, a person would have to make $19.38 an hour, up slightly from a housing wage of $19.15 in 2018.

By these estimates, minimum wage workers in the city would currently have to work 108 hours a week to afford a two-bedroom rental in the city.

What could possibly go wrong?

The John Bel administration is about to enter into a big contract for privatizing energy systems servicing state buildings. The deal is with a company called LA Energy Partners.  Who are they?

The agreement would see LA Energy Partners take over the chiller systems at the Shaw Center for the Arts in downtown Baton Rouge, as well as make a host of energy upgrades at 31 state buildings.

If approved, the deal would set the state for any state entity to “opt in” to a similar agreement with the company, which is a joint venture between Bernhard Energy Solutions and Johnson Controls Inc.

Bernhard sounds familiar to you probably.  Here is why.

Bernhard Energy is controlled by Bernhard Capital Partners, a private equity firm founded by Jim Bernhard, who co-founded and ran the energy services giant Shaw Group before its $3 billion sale to CB&I in 2013. Bernhard, a former Democratic party official, was floated as a possible candidate for governor this year before he ruled it out.

Oh boy oh boy. Sure, Bernhard has been a big wheel in the State Democratic Party but his Shaw group was always happy to contribute to whichever Democrat or Republican was in a position to help it make money.  It was at least in part through Republican channels that Shaw made a ton of money "dewatering" New Orleans after Katrina.

Last week FEMA gave out hundreds of millions of dollars worth of contracts to engineering and construction firms to build an estimated 300,000 temporary housing units. Those contracts were awarded without competition under rules that allow agencies to bypass normal procedures during an emergency. Several went to companies that have been major financial supporters of the Bush administration. One firm, Shaw Group Inc., of Baton Rouge, is on the client list of lobbyist and former FEMA director Joe M. Allbaugh, though he has said he does not get involved with contracts.

Shaw also was picked last week by the corps for a $100 million contract, with one of its first tasks to pump floodwater out of New Orleans. The agency contacted two other companies to generate competition for the work, a corps contracting official said yesterday, but only Shaw responded.

Later, Shaw greatly benefited from Bobby Jindal's Hazard Mitigation grant program which came under scrutiny in 2011 from the Legislative Auditor.

The findings seem to fit in with years of complaints from applicants and HMGP staffers alike, who said the program is plagued by miscommunication, convoluted verification procedures and ever-changing policies. The policy changes were mostly intended to speed up a program that took almost three years to pay significant dividends for homeowners but was "front-loaded" to pay program management fees to a prominent state contractor, the Shaw Group.

At one point late last year, one of every four dollars paid out by the program had gone to Shaw for administrative fees.

Despite these criticisms, Shaw's role in the program was continued and expanded. This was in addition to the scratch they picked up building Jindal's sand berms to nowhere following the 2010 BP oil spill. They must have just happened to be in the right place at the right time again.

The berm project has been a boon to Louisiana industry: although many of the dredging companies working on the project have out-of-state headquarters, all have a major presence in Louisiana. The Shaw Group, the lead contractor on the project, is based in Baton Rouge and has been one of Mr. Jindal’s leading campaign contributors over the years.

Anyway, so, according to the Advocate today, Jim Bernhard was thinking about running for Governor this year. This will be the second time he's almost gotten in John Bel's way but was convinced to step aside somehow.  Surely this new LA Energy Partners contract coming when it does is just a coincidence.

Meanwhile, back to today's story, look who else is here.

Bernhard Energy Solutions partnered with the HVAC firm Johnson Controls at the behest of the Edwards administration after both companies submitted proposals to land the state energy deal.

Ooohkaayy. So what we have here is a big expansive contract to do energy efficiency in government buildings involving one high profile political operator AND Johnson Controls.  Never seen anything like that before. What could possibly go wrong?

Why are they making them work with no a/c?

S&WB loves to take out their mismanagement problems on ratepayers and line employees. What else is new?

Is Joe Biden cancelled yet?

It's only a matter of time.

Former Vice President Joe Biden assured rich donors at a ritzy New York fundraiser that “nothing would fundamentally change” if he is elected.

Biden told donors at an event at the Carlyle Hotel in Manhattan on Tuesday evening that he would not “demonize” the rich and promised that “no one’s standard of living will change, nothing would fundamentally change,” Bloomberg News reported.

Biden’s assurance to donors in New York came shortly after his appearance at the Poor People’s Campaign Presidential Forum in Washington on Monday.

Well, okay, maybe that's not going to be enough to get it done.  Usually, cozying up to wealthy donors is good for a candidate's staying power.  We could pick at this as an example of the "saying the quiet part loud" faux-pas but that's not typically a campaign killer either.



 Maybe this will be, though.

Speaking at a New York fundraiser Tuesday evening (June 18), he pointed to long-dead segregationist senators James Eastland of Mississippi and Herman Talmadge of Georgia to argue that Washington functioned more smoothly a generation ago than under today’s “broken” hyperpartisanship.

"We didn't agree on much of anything," Biden said of the two men, who were prominent senators when Biden was elected in 1972. Biden described Talmadge as "one of the meanest guys I ever knew" and said Eastland called him "son," though not "boy," a reference to the racist way many whites addressed black men at the time.

Yet even in that Senate, Biden said, "At least there was some civility. We got things done."

That's no guarantee either, of course.  Certainly nothing is more impressive to the political press than a politician who is willing to put aside "principles" like say a commitment to racial justice in order to
"get things done" like say cutting Social Security. And it has long been understood that the party leaders themselves are willing  to "get more racist" or, at least, adjust their branding in order to appeal more to racist voters.

But it looks like at least some of the other Democratic candidates this year are willing to hang on tot their principles for once see if they can score some quick points lighting up Joe. 

Sen. Cory Booker, one of two major black candidates seeking the Democratic nomination, said Biden's "relationships with proud segregationists are not the model for how we make America a safer and more inclusive place for black people and for everyone," and he called for the Biden to apologize.

"I have to tell Vice President Biden, as someone I respect, that he is wrong for using his relationships with Eastland and Talmadge as examples of how to bring our country together," the New Jersey Democrat said in a statement that was especially notable coming from a candidate who entered the 2020 primary with a sunny message, vowing to highlight "the best of who we are and not the worst."

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, a fellow Democratic presidential candidate and a white man who is married to a black woman, also offered a sharp retort. "It's 2019 & @JoeBiden is longing for the good old days of 'civility' typified by James Eastland," de Blasio tweeted Wednesday, along with a picture of his family. "Eastland thought my multiracial family should be illegal."

The mayor added that "it's past time for apologies or evolution" from Biden, whom de Blasio cast as "out of step with the values of the modern Democratic Party."

Not Cedric Richmond, though.  He's already on board as a Biden campaign spokesperson and isn't ready to jump ship just yet. 

Cedric Richmond, Biden's campaign co-chairman and former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, pushed back, saying Biden's opponents are deliberately ignoring the full context of his argument for a more functional government.

"Maybe there's a better way to say it, but we have to work with people, and that's a fact," Richmond said, noting he recently dealt with President Donald Trump to pass a long-sought criminal justice overhaul. "I question his racial sensitivity, a whole bunch of things about his character ... but we worked together."

But give it time.  Biden sounds almost like he's trying to fail early. He's not. This is just who he is. Which is why it is extremely difficult to imagine he's going to make it all the way to the nomination this year. At some point he's going to cancel himself... if he hasn't already.

Don't worry about Cedric, though.  He's got plenty of options available for later.

Ralph is doing the hot take wrong

I'm fine with the "Pelicans become more popular than Saints" article in theory.  I don't buy it. But I get why you might build an argument for it at this point in time.  The Pelicans are about to draft Michael Hecht and "validate the business community" or something. And, as we all know, 2019 will probably be the Final Football Season In History.  But the thing that really moves the argument that basketball could overtake football in popularity from TAEK to plausible would be the phrase "traumatic brain injury."

When was the last time LaToya Cantrell actually commented on the short term rental issue?

It's not easy to pin her down on the question. We've all been trying to for years. And since she's become mayor, Cantrell has become even more quiet on the subject. Which is weird given her penchant for rambling on extemporaneously in just about any circumstance. Here she is last month delivering a commencement address at Bard College that relays insights into the utility of organic deodorant.  But in New Orleans, even as the process of revising the city's approach to regulating short term rentals has steadily made headlines, we've barely gotten a whiff as to what the mayor's inclination might be.

Historically, she's pretty slippery. I believe the first time I heard her say anything about it one way or the other was in 2015 at this Tulane Hillel forum on gentrification.  There was an audience question from someone who had been personally displaced to make room for an Airbnb. Cantrell appeared to empathize but would only say she was interested in a "balanced" approach. She also spoke about that balance in terms of the potential to increase revenue in light of the fact that  New Orleans is, in her words, a "destination city."

In December of 2016 City Council passed Mitch Landrieu's disastrous legalization scheme which we are now trying to undo. Cantrell voted with the 5-2 majority that day.  This was shortly after it had come to light that her father-in-law, Judge Harry Cantrell, was found to have been operating an STR out of his law office in violation of the zoning rules at the time.

Judge Cantrell has also been a focus of local efforts at bail reform. It was only this week  and under a federal consent order that he finally agreed to curtail his routine habit of setting unreasonably high bail for defendants least able to pay. Cantrell's bail practices have been described as enabling a de-facto "debtor's prison" in New Orleans.

But this isn't a post about Mayor Cantrell's affinity for and connection to oppressive over-policing policies that hurt poor people. It's about her apparent sympathy for housing policies that do the same. At least, she has been sympathetic to specific individuals who profit from it.  As a council person she was often amenable to spot zone requests from landlords.

This one in particular caught our eye because it, at least, gave the appearance that LaToya was taking a more conservative position than Stacy Head on a housing question.

Head said she supported the legalization of short-term rentals in commercial areas, but did not intend to convert residential neighborhoods to commercial zoning to allow them to proliferate.

“This seems to be in conflict with your cry for more affordable housing,” Head said to Cantrell. She explained later, “I do not believe we should allow the creeping into neighborhoods that are otherwise residential by changing the zoning to commercial.”

The short-term rental issue should not be blamed for the city’s lack of affordable housing, Cantrell shot back. That, she said, was the result of intentional efforts by city leaders after Hurricane Katrina.

“Affordability and the crisis that we’re in in the city of New Orleans is not because of short-term rentals,” Cantrell replied. “It’s because the issue of housing was not a priority in the post-Katrina environment. Resources allocated for the city of New Orleans, millions in fact, were reallocated because there was sentiment coming from policymakers in this city that New Orleans was on the path of having too many affordable units.”

It's a little bit tricky because, yes, of course short term rentals aren't the sole or even the main driver of the housing crisis. And it's also germane for Cantrell to point that out to Head who, many will remember, actually blew kisses at public housing residents from the council dais when she voted to demolish the Big Four projects. But this line from Cantrell is also a misleading talking point frequently deployed by the pro-STR lobby.  The proliferation of short term rentals might not be the thing that got us here, but 1) it greatly exacerbates the problem and 2) we don't have to allow it if we don't want to.

For some reason, LaToya Cantrell often wants to. Last February we counted at least four spot zoning requests approved by Councilmember Cantrell that would have allowed for short term rental usage under the (hopefully) outgoing rules. Since she became mayor, she hasn't had to make any decisions like these.  But she also hasn't had much to say about the debate over where all this is headed.  A mayor's thumb on the scale can make a big difference in a matter like this.  Even at the end of what has been a very long process.

Today The Lens published an infuriating story about one New Orleans resident's attempts to get the #CityOfYes to enforce the rules against an STR operator running multiple whole home rentals with expired or inappropriate permits.

The Massachusetts-based company that operates the four short-term rentals on Phleger’s block is called Heirloom, also known as Stayloom. It manages more than 100 homes in New Orleans, Boston, New York, and “other destinations,” according to its website, and caters to large groups looking for luxury accommodations.

“They’re all kind of branded almost as Instagram Airbnbs, for lack of a better word,” Phleger said.

The company manages houses owned by other people. But The Lens also identified several Heirloom-managed properties owned by the company’s co-founders, Frank Glaser and Dan Glaser.

As of last week, the company had 67 listings in New Orleans on its website, including a “Cosmopolitan Designer Home with Pool” for $2,250 on average per night, the “Trendy Creole Luxury Home” for $1,710 on average per night and the “Opulent Esplanade Estate near the French Quarter” for $3,140 on average per night.

The Lens was able to confirm the addresses of 34 of those listings. Nineteen of those had expired short-term rental permits. Of the 15 with valid permits, several have records of alleged violations from the Department of Safety and Permits.

Even if City Council were to pass the strictest regulations we could write up for them, it will still fall to the mayor to see that they are enforced. Sooner or later we're going to have to hear something from her about how she plans to do that. Apparently that isn't happening today, though. 

Officials with the Department of Safety and Permits said they needed permission from Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s communication team before they could speak to The Lens. Cantrell’s office did not respond to repeated requests for comment.