apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Here are some pics from august 2006, one year after the flood. Amazing - they look like they could have been from one week after the flood. . .

Lakeview: http://www.flickr.com/photos/1115/sets/72157594265444202/

9th Ward: http://www.flickr.com/photos/1115/sets/72157594252800142/

I love New Orleans, heart and soul.

oh maaannNnn! Have fun! wish i was there!! (Take a horse and carriage ride... ) It will be so worth it!! (It'll take the sting out of the "eerienest out of the air".... )

A favorite city -- I returned every year or so for decades. My last visit was the Mardi Gras after Katrina. Very depressing. Much had been lost.

Much is still lost. New Orleans is not OK, not even a little bit. 16 months later and the city is still predominantly empty and broken. I live here and every day, I still mourn. 2006 was a year of unbearable frustration for New Orleanians, as we realized that no matter how hard we tried, things were not going to get better this year. I am dreaming of 2007 as the year in which we become the Comeback City.

Shannon, I hope that you can bring back some stories of the true state of things in today's New Orleans. It often seems as though the rest of the country either believes that things are better than they actually are and that we're just whining, or that things are hopeless and that we should just get over it and move on. Both are oversimplifications and vastly underestimate the power and extent of the situation.

So glad that you are visiting our beautiful city! Even after Katrina, we are still so proud of this amazing home.

New Orleans is my home though I have not lived there for eight years. My family and many wonderful friends are still there and my hopes are there too. It is a great city and needs support more than ever. So, go, pass a good time, and spread the word that New Orleans is worth visiting and worth supporting!

I had the honor to go to New Orleans in August (hot!) for a week to help gut homes with Mercy Response (www.mercyresponse.com). It was EYE-OPENING, HEARTBREAKING, ENCOURAGING and LIFE CHANGING! If you have the means, GO! HELP! (Frankly, we all have the means. All it took for me was a week of my time and $25 for insurance!)

GO!

new orleans, the epic island...

I'll ignore the epic island line on the grounds I can claim I don't understand it.

New Orleans needs help. Hands on, if you can, as Melissa suggested, but even a small check to a qualified charity will help.

new orleans has serious legal recourse as it was never sovereign territory, new orleans is 'transitory'.

new orleans...epic island, historically conciderable, super-continent?..dubai.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_River_Delta

The source or justification of sovereignty ("by God" or "by people") must be distinguished from its exercise by branches of government. In democracies, sovereignty is held by the people. This is known as popular sovereignty.

question is: was new orleans distinguished from its exercise by branches of government.

10 reasons why New Orleans is not the "Brooklyn of the South."

1) You can park in front of your house.
2) Street cleaning???
3) 2 bedroom apartments actually have 2 bedrooms.
4) You don't see many 50 year old men pushing powder blue ultralite strollers with polymer rims.
5) No matter how hard you try, money can't buy you cool.
6) Musicians and artist types actually own their own homes.
7) You can smoke in a bar.
8) You can drink on the street.
9) Jazz Funerals and other offbeat reasons to have another party.
10) Nobody pays a broker to find an apartment.

Well, I can certainly vouch for 10, since I nearly bought a house there a couple years ago without having to go near a broker, but I might reconsider the smoking in bars bit. Last time I was there, a couple of non-smoking bars had sprung up.

Not to be the squeaky wheel, but I last visited New Orleans in Sept. 2006 and was still very surprised by the state of things. I stayed in Metairie (just outside of NOLA) with friends and it was a ghost town. Please, as you consider your goals for the year, don't forget New Orleans and all that they still need.

Thanks LongLiveNOLA!! That is too funny and spot on. I know, having come from NOLA only to live in Brooklyn for its big gentrification over the last several years.

And to Melissa, you are so right. I had the 'privilege' of gutting a home in the weeks following Katrina. The home was mine, lived in by parents and family. They were in a kind of shell shock, understandably. I went down with a good friend of mine and we just got to work. A few days later it was picked clean. They have since rebuilt. But the experience of helping and being there was so enlightening and life changing. I learned more about myself in that week than I could have imagined.

I grew up in Brooklyn, but I love New Orleans. (They're not the same in my mind, either. NO is more like the Greenwich Village I enjoyed in my college years.)

My husband and I got married in NO and visited five times while he was stationed at Barksdale AFB in NW La. In honor of Mardi Gras, I posted a design-themed ode to New Orleans. In it, I included the garden where we wed, great Nola buildings and some pretty cool artists on Etsy:

http://jgkitchens.blogspot.com/2009/02/new-orleans-inspired-style-its-mardi.html

Laissez les bons modes roulez!