To Start

A few months ago, I got the idea to create a “state of New Orleans” report, either in a web page or blog fomat. I had hoped to put together something that would describe the conditions that I and many of us who live in this the city encounter daily, and some of the changes that have occurred since I returned in October of 2005. I began making some notes and decided to aim to have something finished for the one year anniversary of the storm.

The anniversary (which is not the correct word, I don’t know if there is one) on August 29^th turned out to be a bit more than many of us could handle. We understood the importance of letting the country know that we are not okay, to highlight the problems and continue to stress the important points, and I think the local community and leaders did a fairly good job at this. However, many people, including myself, found the emotional load a lot to bear for a host of reasons.

The seminal reason for me was that I did not want to revisit the tortuous emotions of those events on someone else’s schedule, and at someone elses pace. Also was the fact that this was coming in the midst of a hurricane season, which, though quiet so far, has had everyone on edge for months. And it is August; no one is happy in August. In the best of times, it saps your motivation, drains your enthusiasm, and leaves you irritable and holed up at home huddled in front of the air-conditioner. On the whole I think we just were not yet ready to breathe a sigh of relief and take stock of things.

I laid low, most of the anniversary (that word again). And now that the event is past, the news crews packed up and moved on, looking forward to the next missing attractive white woman, I am returning to my idea of describing the state of life in the city.

I have decided to place my thoughts, observations and comments on the city’s recovery, or lack of, here. I hope those removed from the events and reality that is life in New Orleans, who may have once called it home, those slogging it out in the daily struggle to survive, and those fighting to make it better will all find something in this.

I know that my observations, opinions and rants will not be in accord with those of everyone. I am certain many looking at the same scene will have a completely different take on it. I only present these as my opinions and observations, but I hope to keep a modicum of objectivity and hope to paint a reasonably accurate picture of what is going on.