MetaFilter posts tagged with NOLA

the psychedelic hoodoo gonna getchoo...

flapjax at midnite — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 07:06:52 -0800

Just ease on into one of the most laid-back grooves to ever weave its way through a New Orleans junkyard, and join the procession as the estimable Dr. John is led through the rusting automobiles on a mule. After that, you'll be ready to enter the Inner Sanctum of Deep Mystic Hoodoo, with the good Doctor as your intoning, night tripping guide through the Zu Zu Mamou hallucinations. You won't be the same, afterwards...

SkeleCANS

flapjax at midnite — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 05:34:46 -0800

Enrich your Halloween experience with some seasonally appropriate art: the whimsical and charming SkeleCANS (flapjax recommends: slideshow viewing) from New Orleans' indefatigable Skeleton Krewe.

NOLA Cycle Project

liketitanic — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:10:31 -0800

One effect of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans was to render existing bike maps of the city obsolete and incomplete. The NOLA Cycle Bike Map Project is a grassroots effort to create a comprehensive, freely-available bicycle map for New Orleans (like those that already exist for Chicago, Portland, and other cities). Because the project is driven by DIY maps produced by individuals and by volunteer social events organized around mapping different locations that can then be added to the project's database, it's been described as "Wiki-style involvement in the real world." (Here's some video of the project.) The project began as an undergraduate capstone project for planning student Lauren Sullivan at the University of Cincinnati. Sullivan moved to New Orleans as part of Cincinnati's innovative co-op education program, and, once there, found the city difficult to bike in without a good map--"We do have a lot of fast roads, a lot of dangerous roads and roads with a lot of potholes," she told the Times-Picayune when the project began in 2008. "But then we also have a lot of good hidden neighborhood roads." She modeled the project on Youthline America's Mapping America project, in which high school students are sent out to map their neighborhood resources. By June of this year, most of Orleans Parish, including the 9th Ward, was mapped; data is now being entered into ArcGIS while Sullivan and volunteers design and release prototypes. A mini-grant from the Crescent City Farmers' Market's Crescent Fund has defrayed some costs. This initiative, along with the 2009 Louisiana DOTD Statewide Pedestrian and Cyclist Master Plan and the efforts of homegrown bike co-ops and advocacy organizations, are all gradually making New Orleans a friendlier place to bike.

Fifty People, One Question

Happy Dave — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 04:04:57 -0800

New Orleans filmmaker Benjamin Reece asks fifty New Orlean's residents a single question: "If you could wish for one thing to happen by the end of the day, what would it be?".

Chevaliers de l'Ouragan

flapjax at midnite — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 16:53:45 -0800

The Gulf Coast has just witnessed what's being called the "the largest evacuation in US history", but let's hear from those hardy souls who stuck around NOLA to ride it out, shall we? Hey, where else are you gonna see National Guardsmen (charged with the task of enforcing curfew) put down their rifles and take the stage at a local bar for a little blues jam? And be sure to watch the video that accompanies the article: immensely entertaining!

The NOPD: Returning NOLA to Normal ... Normal Embarassment.

kuperman — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:17:00 -0800

More worries in New Orleans, this time from the Police Department. Within three weeks, Police Superintendent Warren Riley (as seen on the left) has suspended three NOPD officers in separate incidents: one for leading Crescent City Connection police on a high speed chase which ended in one pursuit officer grazed by the fleeing car and another slapped (video). One involved an off-duty officer brandishing a gun at a children's camp and shouting expletives, apparently even backed up by responding officers, according to witness accounts. Another was suspended for wearing the wrong colored shirt on the day he retired, a punishment Riley sees as appropriate as a "consequence of his actions".

Killing Brings New Orleans to its Bloodied Knees

ColdChef — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 18:47:27 -0800

Killings Bring New Orleans to its Bloodied Knees In the sixth New Orleans murder in less than 24 hours, Helen Hill was killed and her husband (who co-founded a sliding-scale doctors' office to serve the impoverished community) was shot in their home Thursday about 5:30 a.m., said police, who found the bleeding man kneeling at the door of the couple's Faubourg Marigny home, clutching their 2-year-old son.

Nutts!

well_balanced — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 03:54:16 -0800

Finis Shellnutt has had a rather interesting life. The apparent principal source for the 'bands of looters killing police' meme seems to have some connections to that thing they called the Iran-Contra affair as well as being this guy's brother-in-law and the husband of a certain special someone.

Photographer's account of Katrina

Pacheco — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 22:45:58 -0800

When the levees broke, he looked for was his camera and a boat. This Times-Picayune photographer tells his story of what happened next.

Show me your fund bags

MiltonRandKalman — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 10:08:30 -0800

Boobs 4 Bourbon St. Brit, Justin Ross, wanting to help out with the Katrina recovery came up with a novel idea to raise money. Use what NOLA is known for best. Boobies. So far a treasure chest of $14K has been raised [via here's my byline]

The Story is Over.

jcterminal — Fri, 16 Sep 2005 20:51:43 -0800

The Story is Over. - At least, the story is over for The Indictor. Being rotated out, he's leaving his post at Outpost Crystal; drawing the curtains on one of the few consistent wellsprings for information from New Orleans.

Money Flowed to Questionable Projects

Steve_at_Linnwood — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 07:14:23 -0800

Louisiana Leads in Army Corps Spending, but Millions Had Nothing to Do With Floods
In Katrina's wake, Louisiana politicians and other critics have complained about paltry funding for the Army Corps in general and Louisiana projects in particular. But over the five years of President Bush's administration, Louisiana has received far more money for Corps civil works projects than any other state, about $1.9 billion; California was a distant second with less than $1.4 billion, even though its population is more than seven times as large.

[H]undreds of millions of dollars have gone to unrelated water projects demanded by the state's congressional delegation and approved by the Corps, often after economic analyses that turned out to be inaccurate. Despite a series of independent investigations criticizing Army Corps construction projects as wasteful pork-barrel spending, Louisiana's representatives have kept bringing home the bacon.

New Orleans: A Geopolitical Prize

well_balanced — Sun, 04 Sep 2005 21:02:31 -0800

New Orleans: A Geopolitical Prize A very enlightening article for anyone needing a little refresher in geography. New Orleans is not optional for the United States' commercial infrastructure. The United States historically has depended on the Mississippi and its tributaries for transport. Barges navigate the river. Ships go on the ocean. The barges must offload to the ships and vice versa. There must be a facility to empower this exchange... Without this port, the river can't be used. Protecting that port has been, from the time of the Louisiana Purchase, a fundamental national security issue for the United States.

whew.

delmoi — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 10:48:52 -0800

Convoy on the go. Most of you probably already know this, but a massive convoy of food in and people out of downtown New Orleans is underway. On CNN they have video from helicopters, showing lines of hundreds of busses. This is a huge relief.

PZB Bug out with cats

nyxxxx — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 22:40:22 -0800

Horror writer Poppy Z Brite is a NOLA resident affected by Katrina. Here's some journal entries.

Toilets of New Orleans

Mean Mr. Bucket — Sat, 02 Apr 2005 13:19:20 -0800

Toilets of New Orleans. An anthropological journey for the lost and weary.

Hurricane Risk for New Orleans

sudama — Tue, 14 Sep 2004 07:41:16 -0800

Hurricane Risk for New Orleans: "if that Category Five Hurricane comes to New Orleans, 50,000 people could lose their lives. Now that is significantly larger than any estimates that we would have of individuals who might lose their lives from a terrorist attack. When you start to do that kind of calculus - and it's horrendous that you have to do that kind of calculus - it appears to those of us in emergency management, that the risk is much more real and much more significant, when you talk about hurricanes. I don't know that anybody, though, psychologically, has come to grip with that: that the French Quarter of New Orleans could be gone." (Nb. this excerpt from a fascinating 2002 American RadioWorks documentary does not refer specifically to Ivan.)