Garbage outside home after gutting - Photo by Lia Lehrer

I’m reading a novel about Katrina called City of Refuge by Tom Piazza. While fictional, so far it seems to portray a very honest glimpse into two families evacuation stories. This passage struck me though, in the context of stuff:

“The hurricane was headed directly for New Orleans, and at the last minute, now, even people who had never before evacuated finally packed bags, threw blankets and bottled water in their car, or their neighbors’ car, or their brother’s, along with one or two toys for the kids, their medicines, their pets, all grabbed in an escalating urgency, along with last-minute things that struck them—either heirlooms (Oh, get the wedding album…take the wedding album…) or odd choices that crossed their field of vision at some final moment and were suddenly irradiated with meaning—that old lamp that had sat for decades on their mother’s nightstand, or a favorite picture from the wall—and started out of town, faintly dazed with a sense that this might in fact represent the end of everything they had ever worked for, or taken for granted, heading toward some undefined future.” (City of Refuge, page 95)

But I suppose what really has me thinking about stuff these days is the fire in the home of some people I know here. Bonnie, her husband George and her sister Connie had a fire on Saturday, January 14th. Much of the kitchen/bathroom on the ground floor and parts of the upstairs were destroyed. If you would like to help there is a paypal address to send donations: firefund@cox.net or you can log into the Facebook Page Bonnie & George New Orleans at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bonnie-George-New-Orleans/358310210862674?ref=ts

Kitchen countertop

Hole in roof that firefighters made to get into second floor

Rising Tide

Richard Companlla – Featured Speaker
Looked at the geography of New Orleans back to the 1800′s, discussing how racial divisions originated and have evolved over time. One thing I found interesting about his presentation was, at one point he first showed where black and white people had lived before Hurricane Katrina as blue and yellow, and the division was pretty clear. But, then he showed where natives to the city lived and the whole city was green, except for the French Quarter and a few other wealthier neighborhoods, which were red. This led into a conversation of how we should look more critically at how some racial tensions have been created by politicians in the past. He then ended with a call for New Orleans to come together after Hurricane Katrina. Interestingly this is a topic that also came up in a few of my interviews.

Panel on using Social Media for Social Justice

(Jordan Flaherty / Cherri Foytlin / Jimmy Huck, Jr. / Stephen Ostertag)
This is where I heard the quote that went “Social justice will be achieved when you are willing to put your life in a bingo reel with everybody else’s in the world and feel assured you will draw a good new life”. One thing that was brought up is that we should not use Facebook for every goal. With all the new resources out there (ie Google Earth, YouTube, Reddit, Al Jazeera and an endless number of blogs) we should use tools that are appropriate to specific goals. And if we do choose to use Facebook, to remember that there is a big difference between getting someone to simply “like” your page and getting them to actually believe in your cause.

Neighborland
Please see my fourth blog if you want to learn more about this project started by Candy Chang.

Re-capping the well

(Anne Rolfes / David Hammer / Dr. Len Bahr / Drake Toulouse / Bob Marshall)
Looks into the second disaster that hit New Orleans: the BP oil spill. Even though this screw up caused several dozen potential ticking time bombs, that may or may not blow up, politicians are still not cracking down on the oil industry. And money is only given out for recovery if you can give hard proof, which is very rarely available. If you are still interested on the topic, make sure to read the blogs Tanya has written on the BP oil spill.

New  food: continuity and change

(Todd Price / Peter Thriffley / Rene Louapre / Chris DeBarr / Adolfo Garcia / Alex del Castillo)
Please see my second blog if you are interested in learning more about how Hurricane Katrina affected the food culture in New Orleans.

August 28th
The 28th was the grand opening of the New Orleans healing center, please see my fourth blog if your interested in learning more about it.

Of course august 28th was also the day that Hurricane Irene hit the east coast. Being in New Orleans during the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina made it that much more eerie, staying up until 2am the night before, watching as it headed towards the coast. A few days later Tanya went down to help out in the recovery process with the Red Cross. So if you’re still interested in the topic make sure to check out her blogs as well.

August 29th
For a full list of events this day you can also check out:

http://www.nola.com/katrina/index.ssf/2011/08/hurricane_katrina_anniversary_1.html?mobRedir=false

In the morning I went to the second line I talk about in my second blog. Then the anniversary events ended for me with…
MR CHRISTY’S WELCOMING HOME PARTY!!!
I was so excited for this event I made sure I got Mr. Christy a welcoming home gift and road my bike out to his house the night before to check it out. I still can’t believe the luck that I would plan my trip for the same week as his welcoming home party! Unfortunately Mr. Christy was unable to be there himself because he had a fall that morning and was in the hospital for minor care. But his grandson and long time neighbor where there for the ceremony. During the ceremony, not only was I able to present the welcoming home gift, but I also got to say a word for our class about our work on Mr. Christy’s house. This was followed by an open house with donated food and cake. Another thing that I really liked was that I ran into Ashley, our supervisor at Mr. Christy’s house in May, so I got to talk with her. Below are pictures from Mr. Christy’s house as well as, hopefully, a video of my speech!

Mr Christy #1

Mr Christy #2

Mr Christy #3

Mr Christy #4

Mr Christy #5

Mr Christy #6

Mr Christy #7

Reflection (where I’m at)
Now that I’ve been back from New Orleans for two and a half months now my experiences are starting to sink in a bit more. I have also been lucky enough to teach two high school classes all about Hurricane Katrina in my teaching placement. And next week I will be giving a presentation to the Environmental Disasters class at York about CINT912 and the application process. I am really excited about this because it was Pascal giving this presentation last year that motivated me to sign up last year. And as some of you may know, I am also writing my Senior Thesis on Hurricane Katrina, ironically, with the same supervisor Tanya has her PhD. So I often times have New Orleans on the mind and must say I really miss it. Hopefully I will be able to go back soon and will make sure I update these blogs more frequently as I go through the experiences. On that note I feel this set of blogs has been drawn out a bit too long and I’ve decided I will only be writing 2 more for a total of 8, instead of 10 like I had originally promised.

Bryan McGill from YorkU

http://www.neworleanshealingcenter.org/

1) Arts and Performance

Cafe Istanbul Performance Theatre:  Cafe Istanbul offers a performance stage with seating, a bar, balconies and great acoustics! If anybody recalls my 2nd blog: “A taste of the culture”, the jazz show that I say I saw at the New Orleans Healing Centre was in Cafe Istanbul. Along with being used for concerts and musical performances, this space can also be used for plays, movie screenings and community meetings. I look forward to seeing many more performances at this venue in the future!

Cafe Istanbul Performance Theatre

The Gallery Spaces: The Gallery Spaces program makes use of all the empty wall space in the Healing Centre by displaying local art. Different art pieces are displayed for 1-2 months before being put up in the Crossroads Arts Bazaar for sale. Part of the proceeds also go to the Healing Centre to help maintain the facilities. This is a great program because it brings life to the centre instead of the walls being empty and it supports both local artists and the centre! Below is some of the art I saw in The Gallery Spaces:

Gallery#1

Gallery#2

Gallery#3

Also under the Arts and Performances section was: The Movement Room Dance Studio and Crossroads Arts Bazaar, but I didn’g get to check these out so go to the website if you’re interested in learning more.

2) Community and Environment

I don’t know if no one under this section was there that day, or if I just got there too late and missed them…but I didn’t really get to check out anything that was available under this section. However, this group does include:
1) Build Now (helps return residents with financing)
2) Full Circle Women’s Collective (women helping women help themselves)
3) Guardian Angels and NOPD (NGO crime patrol and New Orleans Police Department)
4) Community Outreach (provides vouchers for those in need)
5) Building Block (provides warehouse or office space)
6) Earthlab ( I believe this is the garden outside and is used for projects dealing with soil health, food production and storm water management)

3) Wellness and Wholesome Food

FOOD CO-OP!: The way I have come to understand the Food Co-op,  is that they are independent grocery store that is owned by the community, for the community. A few of their many missions include: promoting local and regional food production, keep capital and jobs in the community and provide access to healthy food at a fair price. Where things get a little different is that people in the community can buy a membership to the Food Co-op. This membership gives part ownership of the Food Co-op, special discounts, eligibility to serve on the Board and vote in elections, and a profit at the end of the year from the patronage refund program.

Food Co-op Before

When I was there with CINT912 in May we were able to deliver many pamphlets to the community and convince many people to sign up for membership. Well, we didn’t really have to convince them; a lot of people were thrilled to hear a grocery store was coming close by and wanted to know more about it. I still remember it was N Villere Street I pamphleted between Elysian Fields Avenue and Press Street. A few of the community members my classmates talked even came to the Food co-op meeting that night, it was really great to see.

Food Co-op After

The second time around in August I helped put together almost a lot of the shelving. I really liked being able to see all of the progress that has happened since May, especially the murals outside on the wall which look beautiful. Unfortunately the Food Co-op was not able to open on Aug. 28, but were set to open Oct. 1 as you will see in one of the pictures below. If you are ever in New Orleans try to check out the Food Co-op and “make your groceries” there.

Food Co-op Mural

Countdown to Food Co-op Grand Opening!!!

Affordable Healing Arts: Provides  fair cost healing for victims of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. You can read more about PTSD in Tanya’s post here: http://toronto2nola.wordpress.com/2010/07/12/disasters-and-post-traumatic-stress-disorder/
Downtown Fitness: Includes a gym, cardio room, saunas, and many different stretch classes. The thing I really liked about this gym is that it not only offers day and month passes like regular gyms, but also offers week membership. This is perfect for travellers that will only be in New Orleans for a little while as well!

Optimal Wellness 55: Provides vitamins and nutraceutical prescriptions. What I found interested about this vendor was that him and his wife were sponsored by Kiva. Kiva is a website helps people give micro-loans to people around the world to start-up a business, but I did not know they were active in the United States.

Also under the Wellness and Wholesome section was: Fabush Restaurant and Wild Lotus Yoga, but I didn’t get to check these out so go to the website if you’re interested in learning more.

Spirituality and Learning

Island of Salvation Botanica: This Vodou shop is run by Sallie Ann and as her site says, is nothing like the hockus pockus voodoo stores you’ll find throughout the city for tourists. Visit her if you want to know more about Vodou or the religion and culture of the area in general.

Street University: Offers 4 classrooms that can accommodate up to 20 students each for learning anything that anyone in the community has to offer. If you have a practical skill that you can teach people, you can rent out one of the rooms and classes go every evening from 6-9pm. A few examples of classes going on right now include: acting, french, political conspiracies, cpr. When the classes are not in use they are also open to be rented for meetings or many other events.

Also under the Spirituality and Learning section was: Interfaith Centre and Maple Street Books, but I didn’t get to check these out so go to the website if you’re interested in learning more.

Services

I did not get a chance to check out ASI Federal Credit Union of Worldwide Concepts Vacations, so check either of these out on the website if you are interested.

Hope you all enjoyed this blog! Sorry again it took so long for me to get it out to y’all, but as you have seen it is quite lengthy and I lost it half way through the first time around.My next blog will be on Katrina 6th Year Anniversary events including Mr. Christie’s welcoming home party!!!
Bryan McGill (Envs. Studies @ Yorku)

I Wish This Was:
Started in November 2010 with the Ethnographic Terminalia exhibit, this project took the “Hello, my name is _______” sticker idea and altered it to “I wish this was _______”. These stickers were then made available to citizens across the city in cafes, salons, stores and public places. The idea was that citizens could take these stickers to the many abandoned buildings around the city and write what they wanted to see these buildings become. This is a great community development project because it allows citizens to both share their hopes and imagination, as well as influence incoming development. All while using a “low barrier tool” that was made widely available.

The answers I saw were quite diverse and ranged from funny (Sparta), to crude (a whore house), to depressing (on fire), to knowledged (what it was), to hopeful (a grocery), and more. These stickers are now available internationally and have led to other forms of public discussion elsewhere. For example Candy used this idea in New York with post-it notes for people to share now much they are being charged rent and see if they were being ripped off. Below are some of the stickers I found around New Orleans!

I wish this was 1

I wish this was 2

MORE PICTURES AVAILABLE HERE:

http://candychang.com/i-wish-this-was/

http://iwishthiswas.cc/

Before I die I want to:
Started in February 2011, I feel that the “before I die I want to” wall is one of Candy’s “I wish this was” stickers come to life. With the help of some friends Candy essentially turned the side of an abandoned building into a giant chalkboard. They then stenciled “Before I die I want to _________” many times across the board for people to fill in. Once the board is full from people sharing, Candy takes a picture and then erases it for more people to share.

This means that instead of having yet another abandoned building in the city. One of them has now been transformed into a centre for sharing community goals and dreams, and getting people to think about what they want in life. A question that may still ring deep for New Orleanians after many were shown just how fragile life can quickly become. I decided to make my own addition to the wall by putting “Before I die I want to live in NOLA.” I don’t know if Candy stated this idea or not, but I found that it is used by other artists as well, and has spread around the world. Below is a picture of one of my dreams in writing (2nd column/3rd from the bottom), amongst many other people’s dreams.

Before I die 1

Before I die 2

Before I die 3

MORE PICTURES AVAILABLE HERE:

http://candychang.com/before-i-die-in-nola/

http://beforeidie.cc/

Neighborland:
Still in “alpha testing” as of August 2011 (when I saw their presentation at the Rising Tide conference), Neighborland evolved out of the “I wish this was” project. Candy started to see that not only were people sharing their hopes and getting to see other’s hopes, but people were also responding to each other. The following is one example of the many conversations that arose: first came “I wish this was a grocery”, then a response to this hope “If someone can clean it out, I can provide the fresh produce”, then came “I would be happy to clean it out” and so on.

Neighborland is a website that brings all these conversations together in one place. Instead of going to each abandoned building around the city to see what people want in different areas, developers can now quickly see perhaps 12 people want a grocery in the Lower Ninth, 7 people want a theatre in Midcity, and so on. It also enables people to ask for things that were unrepresented with the stickers. Things like more buses in St Bernard Parish, fixed potholes on N Prieur St in the Lower Ninth, or a safer way for bikers to get across the Claiborne Bridge (see my first post for more on this one).

One big advantage of this website is that people can also share information on subsidies, or how they have overcome tricky building laws in the city. So if someone wants to start-up a restaurant they can learn from other restaurant owners what has worked and what hasn’t worked in order to save a bit of time and money. In some cases this could help make a difference between someone not opening a store because it seems to tricky and deciding to fulfill a dream because they have received support.

Finally I just wanted to touch upon something I saw come up at the conference that is also becoming an indirect benefit of the website. Someone had posted I want StoreX (I can’t remember the name) to reopen in Midcity on the site. To which someone replied StoreX is not in Midcity…its in this neighborhood. Upon hearing about this interaction on the site many people at the conference started stating that it was hard to tell the difference between certain areas, yet people get so defensive about where they’re from. The moderator took this as an opportunity to go around the room, ask everyone where they were from, and wrote a quick sentence on what that area meant to them. If that post continues we can obtain a better understanding of how New Orleanians see their neighborhoods and have another source for community development.

http://candychang.com/neighborland/

http://neighborland.org/

Hope y’all enjoyed this special piece, look for my next blog on the grand opening of the healing centre and an update on the food coop this weekend!
Bryan McGill @ YorkU

Anyways a few days pass and I wake up on August 27th or 28th smelling smoke and thinking the house is on fire. Apparently some of the heat lightning did strike ground on the 24th, out in Eastern New Orleans. A fire burned in Bayou Sauvage (located near I10 & I510) for a few days until it got out of control and started covering New Orleans and surrounding areas with smoke by August 28. Below are some pictures that Tanya and I took of the smoke billowing towards the city and choking the sun out of the sky on the 28th.

Swamp Fire

Swamp Fire 2

Blocking out the sun

It only continued to get worse from there. On August 29th Tanya had to go to Baton Rogue for Red Cross paperwork before going to the east coast. When she got back she said she could smell the fire all the way there! (FYI, Baton Rogue is roughly 80 miles away from New Orleans). When I went to Eatin’ at Holmes’ for lunch that afternoon I also saw news coverage on the blaze. The coverage included an abundance of Facebook messages from concerned parents, that their children were having respiratory problems. Yet it seemed like the cities desicion was to let the fire keep burning as it was in a swamp and would eventually reach water.

I did find out recently though, that the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality did declare the 29th an Action Day for the high levels of pm2.5 in the air. Then on the 30th the mayor declared the fire as an emergency and said it would start looking at possibilities to distinguish it. According to NOLA.ca, the fire had already burnt 2300 acres of land (equivalent to two and a half times the size of City Park) by that point. That day I trully felt the need and urgency of eliminating the fire. I was working with St. Bernard Project, demolishing a house in Midcity, but about an hour in, the wind started bringing the smoke our way until it filled the air. I started having problems breathing and by lunch time I had to call it quits. I went home and had to sleep for 4 hours on my last day in New Orleans. When I woke up my throat fealt rough and scratchy, and my clothes still smelt heavily of smoke. Below are a few pictures of the smoke covering my worksite that day.

Smoke behind the Demo

I wasn’t going to write a blog about the marsh fire until I was emptying the rest of my suitcase the other day and could still smell smoke in it. I decided to look up online what became of the blaze and was shocked that it was only eventually put out the day before on September 11. However warnings continued to advise people with respiratory problems not to travel to NOLA because of air quality for another few days.

I was in NOLA during many heat warnings and an air quality alert and can say that I definitely felt the effects of both. But I don’t have any respiratory problems and was only there for one of the two weeks the fire burned before flying back to cooler Canada. I can’t imagine how rough it gets for the elderly, younger children with asthma and anyone with respiratory problems. Especially in a city that is already so hot, and has a large number of people that suffer respiratory from mold issues after Katrina.

Being made more aware of how true it is that “Heat Kills” I feel that heat emergencies should be taken more serious and there should have been stronger plans and attempts to put this fire out sooner. I could be wrong, but I don’t think the fire wasn’t taken as serious as it should have been, especially with the outcry of all the concerned parents. I encourage you to read some more blogs/news on the fire, and tell me what you think!

Bryan McGill (York University)

Po-Boys and Muffelettas at Arabi Food Store

In fact this was one of the topics I heard the “New Orleans Food: Continuity and Change” panel discuss at the 6th annual Rising Tide conference. They brought up the point that after Hurricane Katrina, it was just as easy for a new chef to establish themselves as an older chef. This meant that many chefs had the opportunity to take the traditional ways of cooking to new places. This re-invention of New Orleans’ food scene in the past few years seems to have also opened the door to more ethnicities being represented as well. Making the food in NOLA even more unique and diverse.

Eatin’ at Holmes’: Alright, so let me just say…E@H is where it is #*@%ing at! Maybe it’s just that I love breakfast food and this place gives you endless breakfast options at amazing prices, but I will never go to New Orleans without hitting up this place. “YOU CAN GET TWO SLICES OF BACON FOR $0.99, FOUR SLICES OF BACON FOR $1.98, OR SIX SLICES OF BACON FOR $2.97!!!”. Moving on, not only does this place offer almost anything you can think of for breakfast (including deep-fried PB&J) at reasonable prices (most things are $1 each), but it also has a real hommy environment and great jazz oil painting on the wall. Check it out at 5340 St. Claude Ave in the Lower Ninth Ward!

Eatin' at Holmes' Main (but not full!) Menu

The Joint: Another great restaurant and very unique place. Their motto is “The Joint…always smoking” as they have a smoke pit out back that they use to cook the meat. Their restaurant looks and smells like a shack that my French Canadian grandfather built, but that’s part of what makes it so great! Hey they must have great food if Playboy voted them to have the best ribs in the country; as my friends know I don’t care that much for ribs, yet this place has pulled me in more than a couple of times to enjoy the experience. Check it out at 801 Poland Ave in the Bywater!

All Hail THE JOINT!

Sno-Ball Stands: Sno-Balls are like snow cones, but apparently the difference is that they use shaved ice instead of crushed ice. I don’t know if there is a REAL difference…but to me it SEEMS the difference is that: At the end of a snow cone you are usually left with a clump of ice, but no syrup or flavour. Whereas with a sno-ball you are usually left with tons of syrup and flavour, even after the ice has long melted. What I do know about sno-balls for fact though is that the stands almost never offer less than 40 different flavours to choose from, and some stands can boast many more than that! Check them out at…well, all over the city and St Bernard.

Floras: This restaurant threw me off a bit when I finally found it. I heard about it front a friend at The Green Project; she was eating some rad nachos and told me I could get some of them, or really good burritos at this place called Floras. So the next day I didn’t package a lunch and decided I would check out Floras. Well I was expecting a Mexican restaurant, and ended up walking by Floras a few times before I found out it was a small cafe on the corner of a street. When I entered I learnt that not only was it a cafe instead of a Mexican restaurant, but it also seemed to be 420 friendly. I ended up getting the biggest burrito I have eaten in my life and really enjoyed the atmosphere as I ate my lunch. Check it out at 2600 Royal St. in the Bywater!

The Big Fat Burrito I got at Floras (After a few bites out of it!)

Bayou Beer Garden: A pretty chill place I went to with the Green Project for a going away party for one of their staff. It’s more of a bar so I wouldn’t recommend going here for dinner or anything. Three points of interest that stuck out to me were: 1. It’s got a cool private patio out back for throwing parties 2. Since they didn’t have pitchers of beer, they sold buckets full of ice and bottles of beer at discount (this may be more common in New Orleans, but I have never seen it anywhere else) 3. They have the closest thing to poutine that I can find in New Orleans. Check them out at 326 N Jefferson Davis Pkwy in the Midcity.

My "Poutine" from Bayou Beer Garden (Or "Disco Fries (omg!)" as they called it)

Crescents Pie and Sausage Company: Gets its name from selling both meat pies and pizza pies that are quite yummy. However I included this place to talk more about its beers, or even micro-breweries in New Orleans more generally. Most of the bars I’ve been to in Toronto will offer up to 15 kinds of beer and I find this overwhelming. But at Crescents I was presented with over 30 kinds of beer to choose from. I like to tell myself that us Canadians who are notorious for drinking beer, that we simply have the best beer already and don’t need other options. But nonetheless my hat goes off to anywhere that can provide you with a 2-4 and every bottle can be a different brand! Check it out at 440 Banks St. in the Midcity.

Hot Wok: In my opinion every city in the world should have an all you can eat Chinese food restaurant like the Mandarin I grew up on. Hot Wok not only provides this, but they also have a sweet Mongolian Grill style booth where you can choose what you want mixed up and it gets grilled right in front of you.  Check it out at 8700 W Judge Perez Dr. in Chalmette!

The Wing Shack: As many of the reviews online bring up, this place is so deep in DA HOOD that their featured drink is called ghetto punch, and you are served through revolving bullet-proof windows (although I heard rumors these windows were just as much for keeping their weed in, as for keeping crime out). It’s about this point where I bet you are wondering why I would suggest this place. Well, with 20+ flavors to choose from that all seem to be better than the last, this place is truly a hidden treasure in New Orleans. The wing shack brings all da boyz to da yard, and they’re like it’s better than…Yeah…just check it out at 759 N Claiborne Ave in the Seventh Ward!

Music & Clubs
Cajun and Creole roots have had their influence on music as well as food, creating the genres of zydeco, swamp pop and rockabilly. However, to me it seems that New Orleans is more known for its music that has been influenced by African-American roots. During the slave trade, New Orleans served as a foci for Black artists trying to establish themselves in the ragtime music scene. As this scene developed and grew to include jazz, blues, and eventually hip-hop, music became so intertwined with the heart and soul of New Orleans that it is now inseparable.

Some sites claim that heavy metal has gained more momentum in New Orleans recently, but I am more familiar with that scene and did not feel that that was the case. (I could be wrong though, I included this point to get a response from people and hopefully learn more Metal in NOLA).

Various Artists at The New Orleans Healing Centre: Tanya would probably wring my neck if she found out, but I can’t remember the names of the two artists I saw at the Healing Centres grand opening. I don’t want to say much about the grand opening since I will be writing a whole blog about it sometime this month. But I will say that I like NEVER dance, yet when the second artist started playing “Down in The Treme” even I was up and grooving.

Show from the New Orleans Healing Centre

Lower Ninth Brass Band at Katrina Memorial Event: This was the first time I actually slowed down, relaxed and listened to a full brass band song with my undivided attention. I must say, it’s really amazing what they do. With the songs being so long and energetic I would get tired just holding the instrument up that long. But they not only keep it upbeat the whole time, but also dance around to get the crowd involved and hyped up.

Lower Ninth Brass Band

Second-line on Tennessee St: One of the highlights of my trip was getting to be part of a second-line on the main street where all the Make It Right houses were built in The Lower Ninth Ward. The second-line was done in remembrance of those lost during Katrina and included a few Mardi-Gras Indians. I don’t know what else to say besides I came closest to feeling like a true New Orleanian as I marched down the street amongst brass instruments, Mardi-Grass Indians and other New Orleanians.

My First Second-Line!

Mark Growden at Chickie Wah Wahs: From my understanding Mark is Tanya’s favorite artist in New Orleans, and I can see why. Mark is a truly friendly person who interacts with the audience before, during and after his show and seems laid back about it. Probably true to the most music scene in New Orleans I’m sure…but Mark also seems to play for his love of the music, rather than any money. My favorite part of his shows has to be the number of instruments he plays (including BIKE HANDLES! Where else can you see someone seriously play bike handles?).

Mark Growden Playing BIKE HANDLES!

There were a few other parts of the culture I wanted to bring-up, but this post is getting quite lengthy so I will try to bring them up in other blogs. Or if anyone has any questions or comments please bring them up sooner!

Bryan McGill (York University)

I have travelled quite a bit, so again believe me when I say I have more than a few stories. However, I am done talking about how stressful travelling can be, and I want to talk about a more serious topic regarding transportation in New Orleans specifically. I am talking about biking in the city. Biking around downtown is fine, but once you start taking side streets, the side walks disappears in spots and if you ride on the road you have to avoid potholes, and cars avoiding potholes. I had a few cars come too close because they were swerving out of the way of potholes.

The real death trap though, is for any bikers that need to cross the St Claude bridge. Which is the only way to get from the Upper Ninth to the Lower Ninth on bike without taking over an hour detour north. When I was in New Orleans in May we went across that bridge in big white vans and all liked the bumps Pascal made the bridge do. But as I saw bikes go over it I wondered how scary it would be to bike across it. I even remember seeing some signs that someone put up that said “be kind, share the road” and had a picture of a bike.

Anyways a couple of months go by and I’m back at this bridge, this time with a bike. SHIT! Let me tell you, going over that bridge on a bike fealt illegal. There is not enough room for a bike and a car to cross at once, let alone a van or a truck. So to go over you have to hold up traffic behind you at this funnel; I had at least 3 cars honk at me once I got threw and they went past me. I quickly rode to the end of the bridge thankful to have my life and decided I wasn’t going on that bridge again. On the way home I rode my bike under the bridge, carried it up some stairs, walked it threw the pedestrian walkway, and then down the stairs on the other end. In this walkway I took the video that is attached below that shows how bikers are supposed to cross. (I’ve been having a lot of trouble trying to upload this video, so I don’t know when/if it is going up

I stated to think that maybe bikers were supposed to use this walkway too and only those who were in a hurry took the bridge. So I asked someone who has lived in the city for 20yrs, works for Sierra Club and is an advocate for biking in the city (in fact he put up some of the signs I mentions earlier from May). He said not only are bikers not supposed to use that walkway, but that it was illegal for them to.

I was debating whether or not I wanted to include this post on travelling and transportation since it essentially was going to be me ranting. But 3 days after I got home Tanya sent me and email about a police report that a man on a bike was hit and killed after being thrown from his bike on Sep. 2 on the St. Claude bridge.

http://projectnola.com/police-alerts/view-all-nopd-e-alerts/157765-nopd-investigating-fatality-on-the-saint-claude-avenue-bridge-new-orleans-police-de-partment-public-i-nformation-office-

I find it extremely scary that another person has died in the same spot I feared for my own life only weeks ago. This is obviously saying something about the bridge and I feel something has to be done. However, I don’t want to end any of my NOLA blogs on a downer. So I will end by encouraging everyone who is going to New Orleans to be safe on your bike (or be kind and share the road if your driving) and to watch out for free guided bike tours from Daryll Malek-Wiley. Or even swing by his Sierra Club office and pick up a Lower Ninth Ward Self-Guided bike tour pamphlet (Darryl.Malek-Wiley@sierraclub.org).

Look for my 2nd blog “taste of the culture” later this week.
Bryan McGill (Env. Studies @ YorkU)

I flew to Hartford, CT (via DC) and then met up with a few other volunteers at the Avis rental centre. We took two cars and headed off, convoy style to Southbridge MA. The woman, Margaret, that I travelled with is 74 and is on her 51st mission; in 8 years. Yeah, she doesn’t spend much time at home.

She and I are both assigned to Mass Care (shelters/feeding) but when we arrived at the headquarters in Southbridge today we were told that we will probably be shipped off to Vermont tomorrow. Not sure where exactly we will be going but the flooded roads — including three historic, covered bridges that have been washed away — will make it very difficult. We will be making a long detour west, through NY state and then into Vermont.

I found this video showing the types of flooding that occurred in Vermont this weekend.

Rebuilding the City

Hey Everyone!

Hope everyone is well! As some of you may know, I have been back in New Orleans since Aug. 19th and will be staying here until the 31st. I must say it has been another roller coaster ride of experiences and emotions as I get pulled deeper into the vibes and rhythms of the city. But I am going to keep this short and sweet…for now Just wanted to get everyone excited by letting y’all know y’all have 10 blogs coming from me over the next few weeks on my adventure here and different things I have come across. I will definitely be writing a blog about Robert Christy’s welcoming home party as well as topics including “Neighborland”, The New Orleans Healing Centre Grand Opening, and a brief look into the interviews I did with some citizens. If anyone would like to see any specific topics PLEASE let me know and I will get them in there! <3 And everyone please comment and share what you think about what I have to say and share it with friends. The more help everyone gives me with this series of blogs, the better my next set will be from my next visit!

Bryan McGill (5th Year Environmental Studies Student @ York University, Toronto)