Originally businesses contemplating returning to New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina cited worries about flood protection and infrastructure as factors in decisions to again set up shop in the city. A Louisiana State University study, however, says crime has now become the top worry.
On August 27, 2009, In Quote, By dno
On August 26, 2009, In /, By dno
NEW ORLEANS — The devastation of Hurricane Katrina four years ago brought with it many changes for this city, but perhaps its most enduring mark may be the new charter school system that came cascading in during the storm’s aftermath.
Take, for instance, the students at Langston Hughes Academy. Once struggling to meet state testing standards, they’re getting a lot of help to try and do better. Their learning environment has changed to one with electronic blackboards and teachers hailing from Ivy League schools.
The talk here is not about where to go after school, but where to go to college.
“There are higher expectations now and no excuses,” said John Alford, the Harvard-trained leader of the school. “Kids are starting to see college more as a reality, a real option.”
Langston Hughes Academy is one of 52 charter schools operating in New Orleans, which also has 37 traditionally run schools. Nearly 60% of the city’s public school students attend charter schools — the highest percentage of any American city. School district officials hope to raise that percentage to 75% in the coming years.
New Orleans’ school district’s performance score — a tally of test scores and other performance measures — jumped from 56.9 pre-Katrina to 66.4 last year, according to state Department of Education figures. Statewide, the average during that same period stayed roughly the same: 87.4 pre-Katrina and 87.2 last year.
The numbers suggest the city still has some catching up to do with the rest of the state. Determining how New Orleans stacks up with the rest of the nation is difficult to assess since the tests are particular to Louisiana and comparisons cannot be reliably made with similar tests in other states.
Even so, the revamping of New Orleans schools, some of the worst-performing in the nation pre-Katrina, is catching the attention of educators nationwide, said Tony Miller, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Education. “If these types of practices can be taken across the country, especially in some of the more challenging urban environments, that would make a difference in improving education,” Miller said during a recent visit to New Orleans. “You’re seeing some of those results here.”
On August 25, 2009, In /, By dno
WASHINGTON — Huge flood-control pumps installed in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina don’t protect the city adequately and the Army Corps of Engineers could have saved $430 million in replacement costs by buying proven equipment, a federal investigation finds.
The investigation by the federal Office of Special Counsel finds there was “little logical justification” for the corps’ decision to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on the “untested” hydraulic pumps, which are meant to empty millions of gallons of water from the below-sea-level city during storm-related floods.
Citing the corps’ $430 million plan to replace the hydraulic pumps by 2012, just five years after they were installed, the special counsel concludes that a “proven” direct-drive pump design would have been less prone to corrosion and breakdowns. Based on an independent engineering review, the counsel says direct-drive pumps could have been purchased “more quickly, more reliably and without planning for pump … replacement.”
Hydraulic pumps are powered by pressurized oil. Direct-drive pumps use solid drive shafts.
The findings, previously unreported, were sent to President Obama on June 12.
On August 22, 2009, In /, By dno
Musician and historian Ned Sublette couldn’t say no to a Tulane University fellowship that brought him and his wife to New Orleans from 2004 to 2005. “We acted as if it wouldn’t be there tomorrow,” Sublette writes in the introduction to “The Year Before the Flood: A Story of New Orleans.” “We couldn’t know we were scrutinizing, day by day, the last year the city would be whole.”
Four years on, the Crescent City is still putting itself back together after Hurricane Katrina. Sublette too. “The Year Before the Flood” is his tribute to New Orleans as it was. Part memoir, part history lesson, it’s a scrapbook of the bustling port city at its most joyful, boisterous and deadly.
He begins with his childhood in segregated Natchitoches, La., and keeps up a counterpoint through the book between the discrimination against blacks in the South and the rise of black music in popular culture.
Sublette is a musical archaeologist at heart, and as we settle in with him into his new digs in the rough-and-tumble Irish Channel neighborhood, he weaves detailed stories on the Neville Brothers, the madness of cornetist Buddy Bolden and even Master P and the rise of No Limit Records.
He’s as comfortable in the barroom as in the library, and he shines when delving into the social underpinnings of the second lines. Not just an “ambulatory party,” second lines stem from community aid clubs that used to offer insurance to their brass-wielding members, and still arrange employment for musicians for birthday parties and funeral marches.
On August 20, 2009, In /, By dno
NOAH (New Orleans Arcology Habitat) or Arco(short for arcology), this massive trigone building that contains all the elements of a city within one structure. NOAH is a 1200-foot-tall arco designed especially for New Orleans.NOAH proposes to be a habitat for 40,000 residents who can benefit from the planned residential units, school system, commercial, retail, hotels, casinos, parking, and public works facilities. And features this structure will use an array of green systems, including solar panels, water turbines, wind turbines, fresh water recovery, and a passive solar glazing system.
Design Challenge:
1. The first challenge is to overcome both the physical and psychological damages of recurring severe weather patterns. Though re-population has begun, the need to provide a stabilized and safe environment is paramount to a long term recovery and economic well being of New Orleans.
2. The second challenge is that New Orleans has too much water. The city has been built at and below sea levels which creates consistently high water table and makes it prone to flooding and storm surges.
3. The third challenge is that New Orleans is built on soil condition which consists of thousands of feet of soft soil, silt and clay. These conditions make building large scale concentrated structures difficult.
Believing that NOAH is a viable plan, our solution to overcome these challenges is to take advantage of these seemingly conflicting issues with the introduction of a floating urban platform.
“The proposal places this 30 million-square-foot monstrosity on the Mississippi riverfront, just across from the central business district of New Orleans. Atop the multi-cavity all which will attempt to be hurricane proof, there will be 20,000 residential units, three hotels, 1,000,000 square feet of commercial space, plenty of cultural facilities and offices, a 20,000 healthcare clinic, and of course, just for fun, a trio of casinos.”
On August 19, 2009, In /, By dno
We at Static are super excited about this one. Siren Fest was the first festival we have covered since I moved to the New York area. This episode features interviews with Micachu & the Shapes and Brooklyn’s own Bear Hands and a few other surprises along the way. Head to our website to watch the whole episode.
All videos are in order of appearance:
The Buttons – Roller Rock
Tim Exile – Family Galaxy
Metric – Sick Muse
Naomi Shelton and the Gospel Queens – What Have You Done
Yo La Tengo – Periodically Double or Triple
Micachu & the Shapes – Golden Phone
Wildbirds – There is No Light
Friendly Fires – Kiss of Life
Jack Penate – Be the One
Elvis Perkins in Dearland – Chains, Chains, Chains
We Were Promised Jetpacks – Roll up Your Sleeves
Blitzen Trapper – Black River Killer
Girls – Hellhole Ratrace
I have to say, we play some pretty sweet videos, but we always need more, so keep sending me videos! For more information or if you have any questions don’t hesitate to email me.
————-
Wesley Swinnen
Producer/Creator
Static Television
www.statictelevision.com
Hey, if you don’t want to be on this lame ass mailing list, I will not be hurt or anything. Just email me back and tell me to knock it off!
On August 19, 2009, In Photo, By dno
Quintron and miss P come home
On August 19, 2009, In /, By dno
By Mark Wilson, 10:33 AM on Tue Aug 18 2009, 47,426 views (Edit, to draft, Slurp
)
How do you know when your building plan has gotten unnecessarily crazy and pretentious? When it’s named after a Biblical figure who was fabled to save life as we know it…that might be a clue.
NOAH (New Orleans Arcology Habitat) is a massive, 1200-foot city within a building that’s hurricane-proof and can actually float (don’t worry, it’s tethered to something or other). Conceptualized through a mind trust of three architectural firms, green (wind, solar and water) energies would help power the structure’s 20,000 residences, 1,000,000 square feet of commercial space, school, hospital and, just for fun, 3 casinos.
On one hand, this floating triangle seems like nothing less than a feat of modern engineering, a clever idea that’s both structurally sound and handy in an emergency. On the other, have we given up so much on New Orleans that architects should abandon existing infrastructure altogether? If culture and way of life are not things we’re looking to preserve, then why not just tell residents to move and be done with it?
On August 18, 2009, In Photo, By dno
New pho bang grand opening today. 932 westbank expressway
On August 17, 2009, In /, By dno
Orange couch espresso and muffin. Orders mailed out. Biking through town