Flood Watch; Three TV Programs Revisit Katrina

On August 20, 2010, In Rebuilding, By admin

Programming television can’t be easy, and least of all in August. So it should come as no surprise that next week offers three documentaries tied to the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which made its landfall on the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29, 2005. What is surprising is how different in tone, approach, and subject they manage to be.

Spike Lee’s “If God Is Willing and Da Creek Don’t Rise’’ follows up on his Emmy-winning 2006 documentary, “When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts.’’ That film was about the hurricane and its immediate aftermath. This one looks at New Orleans in the time since. More specifically, it looks at New Orleanians. Personality, both his own and that of the characters in his films, has always been Lee’s strong suit as an artist. The vividness and unpredictability of his interviewees is what’s best about the documentary. The title’s sense of wary optimism — all right, very wary optimism — largely reflects their view.

The documentary includes a little news footage and the occasional excerpt from “Levees.’’ Otherwise, it’s talking heads. This being a Spike Lee Joint, they do the right thing verbally. These heads don’t just talk. They rant, reflect, remonstrate, recite poetry, complain, brag, explain, mourn, flirt with the camera, self-justify (disgraced FEMA chief Michael Brown comes off as kind of sympathetic, actually).

Some are famous, like Brown, New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton (the documentary begins with citywide euphoria over the team’s victory in this year’s Super Bowl), and Brad Pitt, who’s bankrolled low-income housing in the city’s Lower Ninth Ward. Some also appeared in “Levees,’’ like former mayor Ray Nagin, histori an Douglas Brinkley, and trumpeter Terence Blanchard. Blanchard, a frequent Lee collaborator, also contributes a very fine score. There’s a recurring trumpet figure, moody and expansive, that sounds a bit like “It Ain’t Necessarily So’’ (more wariness?). Most of the interview subjects are local residents unknown beyond New Orleans or even within it: journalists, officials, academics, everyday people, many of them poor — people who have endured.

In a nice touch, Lee identifies his interviewees not just by name but also place of residence. Sense of place deeply informs the documentary. A woman who returned to the city after living in a FEMA trailer for eight months says, “Living in New Orleans is a privilege. It’s not easy, but it’s a privilege.’’ The idea of the city’s exceptionalism, in ways both good and bad, suffuses the documentary. “We’re not really part of the United States,’’ says Garland Robinette, a local radio host. “We’re kind of like a rich Haiti.’’ (Lee devotes several minutes to the Haitian earthquake.) That sense of otherness is part of what makes the city seem both so alluring and almost cursed.

Part One is stronger than Part Two. There’s a consistent looseness to the documentary, as one issue or topic flows into another: the role of the Army Corps of Engineers, say, to how Mississippi fared so much better than Louisiana in getting federal recovery funds to the fate of New Orleans’s Charity Hospital. That looseness can be appealing, but after three hours or so it begins to feel like slackness. A long segment on the BP oil spill, the latest in the region’s almost-biblical tribulations, feels longer than it actually is — much longer. Moral righteousness and artistic laziness is not a good combination.

Lee can occasionally be heard as off-camera interviewer. He shows one maddening directorial tic: After presenting an interviewee face on, he then presents him or her at a right angle. It’s as if he’s saying, “Hey, this might be an HBO documentary, but don’t forget the guy who made it is a famous feature filmmaker.’’ Making up for that is a wondrous bit of directorial inspiration at the end of Part Two. Interviewees appear in alphabetical order (and there are a lot of them), giving their name and whatever other particulars they wish, while holding an empty picture frame around their face. It’s simple, unaffected, and utterly charming. The funniest credit consists of just three words, “Brad Pitt, self-employed.’’

The National Geographic Channel’s “Witness: Katrina’’ airs Monday opposite the first part of “If God Is Willing.’’ It deals with just the hurricane. Campbell Scott, who’s excellent, provides an understated voice-over. It’s basically an aural timeline.

“Witness: Katrina’’ consists almost exclusively of footage shot by nonprofessionals. Thanks to the gravity of the event (and the power of the images), the result represents a kind of apotheosis of the twitchy, lo-res, in-your-face documentary style that fills so many hours of cable programming. It’s the negligible made monumental.

The overall effect is creepy, but extremely effective. “Witness: Katrina’’ is a real-life horror movie far scarier than anything Hollywood could come up with: a “Blair Witch Project’’ with groans of roaring wind and rain. The storm footage is truly terrifying — though perhaps not as terrifying as that of people haw-hawing through a pre-Katrina party. There really are an awful lot of bozos out there with camcorders. “Yeah, the footage is getting pretty good now, Joe,’’ one videographer announces, “a lot better than I expected. I was really expecting kind of a boring day here.’’ Boring is as boring does. This was several hours after Katrina’s landfall.

Next Wednesday’s “Frontline’’ broadcast, “Law & Disorder,’’ uses a death in the immediate aftermath of Katrina as a lens to look at the New Orleans Police Department. It’s not a pretty sight. The documentary is a collaboration with The Times-Picayune, the New Orleans daily newspaper, and ProPublica, the nonprofit, public-interest news organization.

An African-American New Orleanian named Henry Glover was shot on Sept. 2. Glover’s brother flagged down a passing motorist, also African-American, and they took Glover to get medical attention at a nearby elementary school that police had turned into an emergency center. Instead of giving assistance, officers beat the two men and drove off with Glover and the car. It’s a shocking turn of events — or maybe not. New Orleans police shot no fewer than 11 residents in the days after Katrina. Those shootings are examined in “Law & Disorder.’’

The Glover incident briefly figures in Lee’s documentary, and several of the principals in “Law & Disorder’’ appear in “If God Is Willing.’’ The most notable is A.C. Thompson, the investigative reporter who broke open the story. Who shot Glover and what happened after the beatings is, literally, scandalous. It’s such a scandal that one keeps waiting to hear from the officers the documentary has identified. Yet the way “Law & Disorder’’ chooses to present the story is a bit of a cheat. The reason the bad cops remain unheard from, as we don’t learn until later, is that they’re under indictment. The importance and drama of the story mean “Law & Disorder’’ shouldn’t have to resort to what amounts to withholding narrative evidence. It’s par for the course in TV crime shows, but just because it’s August doesn’t mean that a series as good as “Frontline’’ should, too.

From Boston Globe

Landrieu in DC

On August 20, 2010, In Defend the Coast, Politics, Rebuilding, By admin

New Orleans is now a ‘laboratory for innovation and change,’ Mitch Landrieu tells Washington crowd

In a speech Thursday that combined boosterism for his city and political commentary, Mayor Mitch Landrieu said New Orleans has become the nation’s “laboratory for innovation and change” and proposed a new way to pay for critical coastal restoration work.

Speaking at a National Press Clubluncheon, Landrieu proposed generating money for coastal restoration through fast-tracking oil revenue-sharing for the states, now set to begin in 2017, and modest increases in offshore oil royalties.

Five years after Hurricane Katrina, and four months after oil began spewing out of BP’s Macondo well, Landrieu described his city as gritty and determined, struggling with plenty of problems including crime, a police scandal and a big budget deficit.

“We’ve had hell and high water, pain and salvation,” Landrieu said. “We’ve survived Katrina, Rita, Ike, Gustav, the great recession and the BP oil catastrophe. The message is clear: Through it all, we are still standing unbowed, unbroken and ready to embrace whatever challenges come our way.”

While few politicians have defended BP, Landrieu was particularly hard-hitting in his criticism, saying the British firm was “incredibly irresponsible and negligent.”

“And while the oil gushed into the Gulf for 85 days, BP constantly dragged its feet to clean up and compensate, missed meetings, and seemed to react to the crisis with disdain,” Landrieu said.

“They just wanted their life back as if it were our fault. And, once BP is finishing pillaging our coast for all that it is worth, while shirking their responsibility, they are poised to, in my opinion, cut and run.”

He said BP could help prove him wrong by moving its headquarters to New Orleans.

Continue at the TP

New Orleans mayor tells media group BP is ‘poised to cut and run’

Washington (CNN) — New Orleans, Louisiana, Mayor Mitch Landrieu walked a political tightrope Thursday in Washington, D.C., as he assessed the progress of his city for a luncheon audience at the National Press Club.

He was invited to speak to the journalism organization about the progress the city had made rebuilding on the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and what effects the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico were having on the city.

Landrieu hammered BP’s cleanup efforts after the oil spill, saying, “In my opinion, they’re poised to cut and run.”

The mayor also expressed his desire to see the ban on offshore drilling lifted, a position that puts the Democrat squarely at odds with the White House. “It is not a zero-sum game,” Landrieu said of offshore drilling. “We are not limited to ‘drill baby drill’ or ’stop drilling forever.’ We can do better. We must drill and restore.”

Landrieu said the spill and cleanup efforts were a continuing threat to New Orleans and other Louisiana coastal areas. “BP and others are acting like this is the beginning of the end. It is not,” he said.

“We have no confidence in the claims that much of the oil is gone.” In fact, he said, a study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released Tuesday “found 70 percent of the oil is still in the ecosystem. This is the beginning of the beginning,” he said.

Even though New Orleans does not sit directly on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, Landrieu said the city is affected indirectly in numerous economic and environmental ways. Although the numbers are not final yet, he said preliminary data has shown that tourism in New Orleans could be down by 12 percent to 16 percent so far this year.

He said the oil spill and Hurricane Katrina were two sides of the same coin. Both disasters, he said, were man-made.

The bulk of the destruction in New Orleans after Katrina came when man-made levees failed and 80 percent of the city was flooded.

Landrieu struck a hopeful tone about the progress of the city’s rebuilding. “We are not rebuilding the city that we were. We are trying to create the city we want to become. The world and we deserve a better New Orleans,” he said.

“We have had hell and high water, pain and salvation. We survived [hurricanes] Katrina, Rita, Ike, Gustav; the great recession and the BP oil catastrophe. And so the message is clear. Through it all, we are still standing. Unbowed, unbroken and ready to face whatever challenges come our way. Not because we want to, but because we have to.”

Continue at CNN

Mayor: New Orleans needs more time to rebuild

WASHINGTON — Five years after Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans, the city’s mayor said its recovery — slowed by the Gulf oil spill — will take at least another five years.

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu reported Thursday on the city’s progress as it continues to deal with the effects of Katrina and the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Both events, he said, brought the coast “to its knees.” He addressed a luncheon at the National Press Club where Gulf shrimp was served.

Continue at the AP

Drew Brees’ Super scenario

On August 19, 2010, In Saints, By admin

METAIRIE, La. — Moments after the New Orleans Saints won the Super Bowl, quarterback Drew Brees carried his son, Baylen. Brees’ wife, Brittany, carried a secret.

Two days later, Brittany shared it with her husband.

“My wife and I are sitting in our kitchen still in the middle of the whirlwind, not knowing what had hit us yet with all of the things that had happened after the Super Bowl, with me and Baylen being on the cover of Sports Illustrated,” Brees revealed Monday. “We started saying, ‘How are we going to eclipse this with the next child, whenever that child comes?

“I said, ‘I wish that child could have been a part of this.’ And my wife said, ‘Well, he was. Because I’m pregnant.’”

One week before the Super Bowl, Brittany discovered she was pregnant. She saved the secret until two days after the biggest win in New Orleans sports history.

“That baby, be it the size of a sesame seed, was alive and well during the Super Bowl,” Brees said.

The Brees’ timing was good but not all together perfect. Their second baby boy is now due in mid-October. The Saints have their bye in November. They can only hope their unborn child’s birth date does not interfere with a game date. But Brees is not worrying about the issue right now.

What’s on his mind is this: He would like to hoist a second Vince Lombardi Trophy and a second son, all at once.

Continue at ESPN

Storm-damaged NO hotel to reopen in fall 2011

On August 19, 2010, In Architecture, Rebuilding, By admin

NEW ORLEANS — Renovation began Wednesday on the Hyatt Regency New Orleans, a hotel that became a familiar symbol of Hurricane Katrina’s destruction when shattered glass poured onto streets and furniture was sucked out of broken windows.

The $275 million project is aimed at reopening the hotel in the fall of 2011, when the once-storm-mauled area around the Louisiana Superdome will be fully restored.

Continue at the AP

Mayor Announces 100 Projects For New Orleans

On August 19, 2010, In Uncategorized, By admin

NEW ORLEANS — Mayor Mitch Landrieu said Wednesday that he’s hoping to build a “new” New Orleans.

In preparation, he announced 100 projects for the city.

“The reality is we’re talking about bricks and mortar, but at the end of the day, what we’re really talking about is quality of life,” said New Orleans City Council President Arnie Fielkow.

He said the 100 projects deliver on a promise to rebuild a better, stronger New Orleans.

“We have been neglected more than any other community in the city of New Orleans,” said City Council Member Jon Johnson, who represents District E. “We are looking forward to that concept changing.”

Methodist Hospital will be the first full service hospital in New Orleans East since Hurricane Katrina. A VA Medical Center is in the works for Mid-City.

Other projects include improvements to the Saenger Theater, a new police station, road repairs and new parks and libraries, as well as community and senior centers.

“This is a start, and what our people have always wanted from the beginning are answers,” said City Council Member Kristin Gisleson Palmer. “We have our answers, and we can move forward.”

Landrieu said he feels fairly comfortable saying the projects are a go.

“You can take them to the bank,” he said.

The projects will cost $1.1 billion. The money comes from a variety of sources, including insurance settlements, reimbursements, FEMA money and more.

From wdsu

My Morning Jacket, OK Go Lead Big Easy Benefit LP

On August 19, 2010, In Benefit, Music, By admin

Top artists like My Morning Jacket, OK Go, Steve Earle, R.E.M.’s Mike Mills, Tom Morello and more have teamed up for a new digital benefit compilation, titled Dear New Orleans, marking the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. The set — which hits all digital retailers and DearNewOrleansMusic.org on August 24th — includes new material, covers of traditional songs about New Orleans, and collaborations with local musicians. The MC5’s Wayne Kramer teams up with New Orleans’ funk rock mainstays Bonerama on one track, while MMJ collaborate with Preservation Hall Jazz Band on a cover of Al Johnson’s Mardi Gras anthem “Carnival Time” for another. See the complete tracklisting below.

Air Traffic Control — a group of managers and artists who promote social justice initiatives — and the Washington D.C.-based nonprofit Future of Music conceived the album. The two organizations have been hosting artist activism retreats in New Orleans since 2006, where musicians interact with other local musicians during a three-day benefit. “Go to New Orleans and meet the folks down there,” the MC5’s Wayne Kramer said in a statement. “Talk with them, eat with them, work alongside them and then play music with them and for them. Anyone that calls themselves a musician owes a debt to New Orleans.”

Tracklisting:
OK Go, “Louisiana Land”
The Mendoza Line, “Catch a Collapsing Star”
Tom Morello: The Nightwatchman, “Midnight in the City of Destruction”
Janet Bean and the Concertina Wire, “My Little Brigadoon”
Matt Sweeney and Bonnie “Prince” Billy, “Love in the Hot Afternoon”
Paul Sanchez (featuring Shamarr Allen), “Don’t Be Sure”
Alec Ounsworth (featuring Al “Carnival Time” Johnson and John Boutte), “Dr. So and So” Steve Earle, “Dixieland”
Luke Reynolds, “Flood”
Jon Langford, “Last Fair Deal Gone Down”
Laura Veirs, “I Can See Your Tracks”
Vijay Iyer, “Threnody”
Jill Sobule, “Where is Bobby Gentry?”
Flobots, “Stand Up”
Rebecca Gates, “Doos”
The Wrens, “Crescent”
Indigo Girls (featuring Brandi Carlile), “Kid Fears”
Timothy Bracy’s Collection Agency, “Matching Scars”
Nellie McKay, “Late Again”
Blind Pilot, “Buried a Bone”
Mirah (featuring Thao Nguyen), “NOLA”
Allison Moorer, “A Change is Gonna Come”
2nd Chief David Montana, “The Change of Heart Man”
Wonderlick, “The American Way”
Bonerama, “Mr. Go”
Thao Nguyen and Bonerama, “Body”
Erin McKeown and Bonerama, “Blackbirds”
Nicole Atkins and Bonerama, “When the Levee Breaks”
Mike Mills and Bonerama (with Wayne Kramer and Dave Herlihy), “Ohio”
Wayne Kramer and Bonerama (with Mike Mills, Erin McKeown, Nicole Atkins and Martin Perna), “Kick out the Jams”
My Morning Jacket and Preservation Hall Jazz Band, “Carnival Time”

From RollingStone

Today’s New Orleans a tale of two cities

On August 19, 2010, In Uncategorized, By admin

(CNN) – Five years ago this month, Katrina hit New Orleans. What it created is a tale of two cities, the haves vs. the have-nots. Enormous progress in the city’s Business District overshadows the lingering blight in the 9th Ward and St. Bernard Parish, where folks are still struggling to rebuild and many lots remain empty.

Unfortunately, Katrina attacked the two poorest states in America, Mississippi and Louisiana. It destroyed or disrupted the economic engines of both states: their tourism, shipbuilding, fisheries, port operations industries and petroleum production in the Gulf.

Katrina left about 1,836 people dead, destroyed about 275,000 homes in Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana, and cost the federal government about $114 billion.

But there is good news. Post-Katrina tax incentives have had a dramatic impact. The region has more hotels and restaurants than it had before the hurricane, and its major infrastructure — sewer, water, public service buildings, police and fire departments, National Guard — has new or rebuilt buildings. Federal money has transformed the schools in New Orleans, reorganizing them into charter schools, which are a far cry from pre-Katrina’s dysfunctional schools operating in dilapidated buildings.

Public health in New Orleans before Katrina meant treatment in run-down, understaffed public hospitals. Chief of those was Charity Hospital, known as “Big Charity,” the state-run teaching hospital for Louisiana State University Medical School. But it is no more.

The Veterans Hospital, next to Big Charity, was also destroyed during Katrina. Afterward, much discussion revolved around whether to repair or replace Big Charity. The Federal Emergency Management Agency insisted on providing only repair money versus money to replace Charity with a hospital that could share a campus with a new Veterans Hospital.

It took four years to get a FEMA decision on helping to pay for replacing Charity, yet during this period of indecision, the city and state public health systems built community-based clinics. This is a 21st-century medical system far superior to pre-Katrina hospital-based public health.

New Orleans’ levee and water control systems have been steadily improved by upgrading pumps with backup generators. Gates have been installed at critical canals to help block water from entering the city during storm surges. About 325 miles of levees are around the city and surrounding parish, and work on the levees continues.

But seemingly intractable problems that affect the poorest residents still beset the city. Two years ago, during Hurricane Gustav, water was splashing over the levee protecting the 9th Ward, the neighborhood most devastated by Katrina. Gustav reminded us the city remains vulnerable to levee failure — any levee is no match for nature.

The enduring erosion of the coastline, caused by bad water management all the way from the upper Mississippi River and the coastal canals, erodes the marshes and leaves coastal Louisiana exposed to the full brunt of future hurricanes.

Public safety and housing remain the most difficult issues. Crime is a major problem in the Big Easy, and the police department is under enormous strain. Several groups of New Orleans Police Department employees are under federal investigation, accused of abuse of power — including murder charges. Today, in these tough economic times, police officers are being asked to accept a 10 percent pay cut. Most officers cannot take their police cars home without paying for that privilege. Public safety has a long way to go.

Also, more bad than good has been said of Louisiana’s “Road Home” program, designed to help displaced residents get back into their houses. The shining star of home rebuilding, instead, is the enormous amount of volunteers who work tirelessly to help poor folks get back into their homes.

Many middle-class neighborhoods still include blighted houses. The only option for the owners, who don’t have the cash to rebuild, is to tear them down. The 9th and 7th Wards and St. Bernard Parish have the worst problems.

Many people remain frustrated with the “Road Home” program. Although some got enough money to rebuild, most complain that the amount of provided by insurance and FEMA falls far short of actual repair costs.

FEMA used pre-Katrina values to determine repair costs, but the costs of building materials and labor were a lot higher after the hurricane. New Orleans also had one of the highest number of renters in the country, at about 37 percent of residents. Initially, FEMA did not provide funding to rebuild rented housing.

The slow economy that followed Katrina put limits on the amount of cash for building affordable housing. Most of the city’s public housing projects were demolished. The city and private companies are building mixed-use public housing, but most of the poor people I speak with are suspicious of the effort.

The Business District is in better shape than ever, but the legacy of Katrina’s destruction lives on in the poorer neighborhoods of the 9th Ward and St. Bernard Parish.

From CNN

Cajun Goat Cheese

On August 19, 2010, In Food and Drink, By admin

From her small family farm on the outskirts of St. Martinville, Wanda Barras is creating what she hopes is a new cajun delicacy.

“These are dairy animals. They’re bred and raised and produce mile. They’re very clean. The milk is wonderful,” she says.

Every morning and afternoon, twice a day, the goats are herded into the milking room on the Belle Ecorce Farm. The goats jump into position, are locked into place, and get to eat, while Daniel Durand does the milking.

“Clean ‘em of before we milk “em,” Durand says.

“This is good milk. It’s sweet, it’s palatable. It’s just really really good, and healthy, very healthy,” Barras says.

Each day the goats produce two cans of milk in the morning and another two cans in the evening. The milk is filtered and stored in ice water. Then the transformation begins into products with names like Tres Belle Chevre and Tuscan Pelote . The process starts in the pasteurizer.

“And this is curds. It’s turned. It’s ready to hang. And this is the fresh Chevre. It’s gonna be cream cheese. And you get a clean break. This is when cheese makers talk about a clean break. It’s perfect. See how it splits, it’s just gorgeous,” says Barras.

As the goat’s milk turns into cheese, it’s hung in sacks, placed in molds and some is formed into balls of flavored cream cheese.

“I do it the way I cook. I do by feel, smell, touch, just the whole nine yards, and that’s how I decide if it’s time to go in here. Should i leave it longer, should i turn it some more?” Barras says.

The cheese that’s made here in St. Martinville has its own unique flavor. The goats graze in the grass of the Cajun prairie. And the cheese is flavored with locally grown flowers and herbs.

“Your goats, where they live, what they eat, the climate, how you handle ‘em, it shows the area. That’s what you’re eating is what the goats eat and what you do, so we do the terroir like wine, it’s similar to wine,” says Barras.

On any given day, you’ll find Barras surrounded by her goats and a half dozen or more grandchildren who help with the animals, but mostly like to play on the farm. It seems this family-style approach to making goat cheese has its rewards.

Most of the cheeses from the Belle Ecorce Farm is sold at farmers markets from Lafayette to Baton Rouge. Last year, the Cajun cheeses were awarded for being among the best in their class at national cheese competitions in Wisconsin, New York and Texas.

For more information, go to http://www.belleecorcefarms.com/

(WVUE)

Giant Cloud & TV Torso Tonight @ the Saint

On August 19, 2010, In Event, By admin

Parasol’s closing, changing ownership

On August 18, 2010, In Food and Drink, By admin

Home of the legendary roast beef po-boy and ground zero for New Orleans’ St. Patrick’s Day revelry, Parasol’s Restaurant and Bar will close at the end of August and re-open at some point under new ownership.

Take a minute if you need it to let the news sink in. It’s still sinking in for proprietors Jeffrey and Jaimee Carreras, who have leased the building and owned the business since December 1998. Parasol’s was one of the first po-boy shops in the city to re-open after Katrina.

The Carreras’ started negotiations last March with current owner Billy Hock to buy the building on the corner of Third and Constance Streets.

“The owner put it on the market for almost double what I was willing to offer,” Jeffrey Carreras says. “I wasn’t going to pay that much for the building. I’ve been here for 12 years. I know the condition the building is in.”

On July 28, the Carreras learned that a couple from Clearwater, Florida purchased the building and the business. The new owners could not be reached for comment.

Adding to the Carreras’ heartbreak: the name Parasol’s stays with the building, according to the original lease agreement.

“That was the crusher for me and my wife,” Carreras says. “It knocked the wind out of us.”

Carreras says they will be out of the building by August 31. They are gathering up the memorabilia, the menu and the employees and moving one block north to the space currently occupied by the Irish Garden bar and restaurant at 2604 Magazine Street. They’ll reopen with a new name — Tracey’s — but the same, familiar faces.

When asked if he knows what the new owners’ plans are, the shock and anger in Carreras’ voice is palpable. F-bombs fly. The negotiation to buy Carreras’ liquor license and other operational functions of the business did not go well, he says.

The new owners will have to apply for a new liquor license, which can take 30 to 45 days.

Although he is still working through the details of moving into Irish Garden, Carreras plans to take over the bar’s licenses and re-open within days of leaving Parasol’s.

Carreras may be losing one name in history, but he’s reclaiming another and bringing a legacy full circle. Before Parasol’s opened in 1952, the building had been occupied by a bar called Tracey’s. In 1949, Tracey’s relocated to the building where Irish Garden is now.

“It’s a huge space and its in better shape,” Carreras says. “I know part of the charm of Parasol’s is that it’s so grungy, but it’s also about the local clientele and I know they’ll follow us to Tracey’s.”

“Maybe I’ll poke some holes in the floor and make the building lean a little,” Carreras jokes.

Carreras is organizing a Second Line from Parasol’s to Tracey’s on August 29, and a priest will bless the new space with holy water from Ireland. For details, ask the bartender when you drop by the bar for a cold beer and that signature, sloppy roast beef po-boy.

(NewOrleans.com)

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