NOLA 2005 Tri-State Shutter Swap 012 - Little Reminders

Please click on the image for a larger, more-detailed version

By Spring of 2006, much of uptown had been cleaned up pretty well. The bigger emergencies had been tended to first. Eventually there was time to get to the minor casualties and things that were not posing immediate threat of additional harm. This tree is just a little guy who didn't make it. I'm not sure if it was salinity or pollutants or what- but not only submerged trees and shrubs died.

NOLA 2005 Tri-Sate Shutter Swap 011 - Hotel Isle of Dry

Please click on the images for larger, more-detailed versions.

This is a big house in riverbend offering shelter after Hurricane Katrina.

NOLA 2005 Tri-State Shutter Swap 010 - Food Certificate

Please click on the image for a larger, more-detailed version.

Before re-opening after Katrina, all food service-type places had to be given certification by the Department of Health & Hospitals. This one was given to Le Crepe Nanou, which is my favorite restaurant anywhere. It's just a modest neighborhood crepe joint, and it's the first place we go every time we go back. It's also the only restaurant we go to every time we go back.

As you can imagine, much of Katrina recovery was a bureaucratic, red tape nightmare. One restaurant that did not fare as well is the beloved Gabrielle in Mid-city. If you're interested in such a story, you may read it here. To hear their side of it, they were run out of town on a rail. But I'm happy as Hell to see that they have returned and now have a new business in the French Quarter.
Commanders Palace Renovation

The Brennan family, who own many high-profile restaurants in New Orleans, immediately created a link to a bulletin board on the Commanders Palace website for displaced restaurant employees (not only for their own restaurants, but any restaurant employees) to let each other know of their safety and plans to return or calls for help. You can hear a great podcast interview with one of the owners, Ti Martin, right after they re-opened at New Orleans Podcasting.com.You will often hear of the "restaurant culture" in New Orleans. It is true that it is a world within a world, both for those who dine frequently and casually as well as those who work in the service industry. I think there are more restaurants than cats in New Orleans.

It was my impression that New Orleans is inhabited by the richest people in the world and the poorest people in the world. There isn't much of a middle class. The middle class that is there is made up almost entirely of transient service industry folks and rich college kids, rounded out by the non-skank portion of the arts community. But that was just my narrow little world.

NOLA 2005 Tri-State Shutter Swap 006 - Street Memorial

Please click on the images for larger, more-detailed versions.

Memorials for lost or missing persons persisted for some months after the 2005 storms. This was Uptown on the upstream, riverside corner of Jackson at Magazine.

NOLA 2005 Tri-State Shutter Swap 005 - Appliance

Please click on the image for a larger, more-detailed version.

You may have seen pictures of the post-Katrina "Refrigerator Graveyard" or "Appliance Graveyard". Most of these appliances had messages painted on them. Like the "warning, we will shoot" messages on some of the houses, it got lots of press. I've even seen a book entirely of photographs of these appliances. Of course it has a Wiki entry. People even went as discarded appliances for Halloween.

I'm sure this has become a tradition for all appliance disposal in the city. I'm also sure it will eventually lead to an annual parade and become yet another excuse for the city to get together and get sloshed.

According to "On Earth", after Katrina, twenty-two million tons of toxic waste needed to be dealt with in Louisiana alone. By comparison, New York's World Trade Center was 1.5 millions tons (albeit not spread over the whole state). In a "normal" year, LA produces 350,000 tons of garbage. A lot of this was in the form of refrigerators or other appliances with refrigerants or so-called "E-waste." Last I heard, Waste Management, Inc. (the "environmental" waste company) buried it all right outside a Vietnamese immigrant community and wrecked their groundwater (scroll down to "Debris" here). I haven't done tons of research to verify this.

I'm not sure what the date is here, or even if these numbers are supposed to be a date (almost looks like an IP address). Katrina hit on August 29th, 2005. I took this picture in March, 2006.

NOLA 2005 Tri-State Shutter Swap 004 - Flood Water Line

Please click on the image for a larger, more-detailed version.It was just enough water to get in and screw everything up.

The Live Oaks did just fine, but massive Magnolias, Crepe Myrtles by the score and anything submerged below the waterline for extended periods of time as these shrubs were didn't have a chance. This medical center is on Canal Street near Mid-City, which is the deepest part of the bowl that is New Orleans and thus had the deepest flood waters. The high rim of the bowl is the levee created by the river. It's true: you were safer from the flood if you were near water, either the lake to the North or river to the South. The World Trade Center is on Canal, but on the river, so it remained high and dry.

NOLA Art & Whimsy 006 - Stencil Graffiti

Please click on the image for a larger, more-detailed version. I'm sure you've noticed in your town that stencil graffiti has become rather popular. There is master stencil graffiti artist out there who uses the moniker "Banksy". Apparently, when Banksy violates your property rights and besmirches the visual integrity of your building, your property value increases by $35,000 to $170,000!. The work you see above seems far too simple and simple-minded to be a Banksy, but I don't know. You really should check out this gallery.

Banksy's work is usually critical of some societal failure, usually by those who are supposed to be watching out for us. Artists always have to be shocking or fighting the status quo or rebelling against some perceived totalitarianism these days, don't they? Seems it's still shocking to those who wield paint and pens that our governments have failed us. Or maybe they're just bitter that the socialist Utopias they dreamed of and voted for have come around to bite us in the ass (Surprise!). On the third anniversary of Katrina, Banksy (who is from England) paid a visit to New Orleans to comment on the healing thus far.
Banksy has a now somewhat famous quote concerning New Orleans:
"I looked out the window of the taxi on the drive into New Orleans and remarked, "There's still so much devastation, I can't believe they haven't cleaned this mess up,' to which the driver stared at me and said, "This part of the city wasn't affected by the hurricane, it's always looked like this.'" {-Gambit Magazine}

Also unbeknown to Banksy, New Orleans is home to a 52-year-old ex-Marine named Fred Radtke who has taken it upon himself to cover up any graffiti he sees with grey primer. This has earned him the name "Grey Ghost".


WELL, Radke has become somewhat of a large rock thrown with great force into a nest of already-angry bees. Not only did Banksy start targeting Grey Ghost specifically in his art, there was a public outcry against Grey Ghost (at least from the Arts community).

A little presumptuous, Banksy.

A little presumptuous, arts community.

Not only that, people are threatening to sue Grey Ghost for devaluing property (after it is increased by Banksy). Since he is in cahoots with the local Police, Military police have been brought in to deal with him. Some have taken to covering their walls with Plexiglas to protect Banksy's work. Seriously, read it all here.

Talk about being oblivious to drama unfolding within your community, beneath your very eyes. At any rate, Banksy has spawned many wannabes and copy-cats, especially since that kind of money is being mentioned. They're coming to city near you if not already. Hell, I might try this on my own house, if it can get me an extra 10-spot on the resale. I imagine others will do the same. And thus, another art form becomes inbred and devalued.

NOLA Flora & Fauna 006 - Leaning Oak

Please click on the image for a larger, more-detailed version.I promise I will get away from the Oak trees soon. I think I could have a whole album called "New Orleans Live Oaks" separate from the "Flora & Fauna", and have a paragraph to write about each one.

This tree is in the Garden District, at 7th and Prytania. I took this photo in March of '06, when Katrina / Rita cleanup was being executed with reckless fervor and wild abandon.

You see that there is a note affixed to the tree. It is in a clear plastic 3-ring binder sleeve to protect it from the weather and it reads:

ATTENTION:

DO NOT REMOVE THIS TREE.

THIS TREE HAS BEEN LEANING IN THIS MANNER FOR OVER 50 YEARS AND DID NOT MOVE OR TAKE ON ITS CURRENT POSITION AS A CONSEQUENCE OF WINDS SUSTAINED BY HURRICANES KATRINA AND RITA.

FURTHER IN LATE OCTOBER 2005, THIS TREE WAS INSPECTED BY A LICENSED ARBORIST EMPLOYED WITH BAYOU TREE SERVICE, INC. WHO DETERMINED THAT THE TREE WAS HEALTHY AND POSED NO THREAT OF FALLING OVER.

SHOULD YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS, PLEASE CONTACT THE OWNER OF 1506 SEVENTH ST. AT 585-XXXX OR 451-XXXX.

THANK YOU

Eloquent; concise; polite; stern.

Just as some businesses survived all of the weather disasters of 2005, yet still had to close because the customer base moved away, imagine the panic these people felt to have this amazing tree that survived not only the 4 major hurricanes of the past century, but untold numbers of storms in the century or centuries before that, at risk of being brought to the ground by some mouth-breathing government worker.

I suspect that if the author had his or her 'druthers, they'd quit their job and stand sentry on that upper gallery with a shotgun. I would.

There are thousands of these trees in New Orleans and the city and private citizens pay lots and lots and lots of money to keep them healthy, mostly to Bayou Tree Service, Inc. I see their trucks everywhere, always.

And that's good.


Also in this photo: along the fence across Prytania Street you see a handful of elections signs. In the Mayoral election following the storms, there were literally dozens of people vying. You couldn't swing a dead cat anywhere in NOLA without hitting some kind of campaign propaganda.

NOLA 2005 Tri-State Shutter Swap 003 - SPCA Warning

Please click on the image for a larger, more-detailed version. This was uptown, near the upstream end of the Garden District.

NOLA 2005 Tri-State Shutter Swap 002 - Tree on House

If a larger version is desired, please click on the image below.

"Shutter Swap" posts are mostly professionally-taken photos or photos found on the web, and largely offered without comment.

NOLA by Professional Photographers 002 - Bob French

If a larger version is desired, please click on the image below.

This powerful image is sold as a poster by Habitat for Humanity to raise funds for a Project called Musician's Village among other things. {From Ebay} The photograph, taken by Scott Landis, is of New Orleans musician Bob French. Mr. French is one of the many who lost their home to the flood waters when the flood walls failed. Mr. French is a drummer and leader of the Original Tuxedo Brass Band. This is the band established by Oscar (Papa) Celestin in 1910. Mr. French took over the leadership from his father Albert in 1977. Notice that down the street there is a house in the road.

In the "New Orleans as photographed by professional photographers" posts, every photo is owned by a professional. These low-res reproductions will hopefully entice you to seek out the originals. I will include all contact information whenever possible

NOLA 2005 Tri-State Shutter Swap 001- Keep Moving

If a larger version is desired, please click on the image below.
Keep movin'. Nothing to see here.

This photo from http://groups.myspace.com/nolarefugees

Mostly aftermath pictures from Katrina & Rita.

"Shutter Swap" posts are mostly professionally-taken photos or photos found on the web, and largely offered without comment.