WEEKEND IN MANHATTAN

I love the title of this piece. It does sound like a Woody Allen flick, doesn’t it? It’s not. I spent last weekend in New York, just days after the storm that changed millions of lives on the Eastern seaboard. I stayed in midtown Manhattan, and if I hadn’t seen news reports of Hurricane Sandy, I would never have known there was a storm just days earlier.

Therein is the irony that is New York and surrounding areas right now. In Manhattan it’s life as usual, except for the blocks-long lines at gas stations. Those lines will diminish as power is restored to regional refineries, and reports are that many of them have already been re-energized. So that means that if you happen to be inland from where the storm hit, you can still shop, cocktail, dine, catch a show, pick up groceries and even catch the subway in most locations.

 Meanwhile, if you’re in Staten Island, or New Jersey, your life has effectively come to a halt. You have no home, or if you do have a home, you have no heat or electricity and no real indication when utilities will be restored. For those of us who experienced Hurricane Katrina in 2005, this is déjà vu. Slow governmental response, ineffective FEMA assistance, lack of supplies, ill-equipped shelters, ongoing threats from weather and elements, widespread fire damage, waterlogged furnishings and belongings, shuttered businesses, humiliating living conditions and frustration to the extreme. One woman interviewed on a NYC newscast described her hard hit neighborhood as “Beirut.” A New Jersey man said, “Where’s FEMA? Where’s Obama? Where’s God?” Watch this CNN report from late last week:
While those in outlying areas maneuvered through the sludge that surrounded their decimated homes, in upper Manhattan Lincoln Center was abuzz with the National Chorale’s gala opening concert, the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Turandot, and Jazz at Lincoln Center’s John Coltrane festival. Men in pricey suits and women in fake furs and sky-high Christian Louboutins raced up the avenues to meet their friends for dinner.

At the same time in Staten Island, Borough President James Molinaro is just hoping to get power restored to the former Arthur Kill Correctional Facility, a former detention facility for medium-risk prisoners. If he can do that, several hundred displaced citizens could use it as a shelter, since some of them can’t even get into their cars since their neighbors’ houses are resting on top of them.

So, let’s review: Uptown: furs, heels, fun, concerts and foie gras. Coastal areas: homelessness, depression, freezing cold, hopelessness and fear. It is astounding how polarized life can be among those who live just miles apart from one another.

Heroes emerge: Famously hot-headed New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (below, right with President Obama) has maintained a cool, controlled demeanor and worked tirelessly to reassure his constituents

that help is on the way and that they are not alone. He even risked the wrath of his own Republican party by praising President Obama on his response to the catastrophe. In New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has maintained a steady, authoritative voice and strong leadership. Not everyone is in his corner: tens of thousands of runners from as far away as Dubai, Japan and Russia were in the city for the annual NYC marathon, when Bloomberg cancelled it at the last minute. Had he done so when the storm’s devastation became evident days earlier, many of them could have saved the time and money they spent to get to the city for the ill-fated race. The citywide anger at his tardiness was palpable.

Those of us who have been through this nature-infused horror can generally predict what

those most affected by the storm will endure in the coming months and years. Celebrities will rally and raise millions of dollars, but most of those who lost homes, cars, belongings and such will never really see any of that money. In fact, many will question where those millions went.

Legislators in Washington will make crude, insensitive comments about how impractical it is to rebuild along coastlines like the Eastern shores. They will question whether it makes any sense for people to consider living there since they are constantly going to be in harm’s way. They have already started. Here is what Rep. Steve King (R-IA)(right)

had to say just days after the storm, about governmental assistance to victims of the storm:  "I want to get them the resources that are necessary. ... But not one big shot to just open up the checkbook because they spent it on Gucci bags and massage parlors and everything you can think of in addition to what was necessary." More reasonable legislators might focus their comments and efforts more on how to immediately relieve those in need. Not Mr. King.

And there’s more: Here is what former FEMA director Michael Brown (“heck of a job Brownie” - below, left) had to say about President Obama’s rapid and immediate response to Hurricane Sandy: “"Why was this so quick? At some point, somebody's going to ask that question. ...

This is like the inverse of Benghazi." He also had this to say: "Hurricane Sandy should teach us to be prepared, willing to live without the modern conveniences of elevators, computers and refrigerators. Hurricane Sandy should teach all of us to chill." Presumably Michael Brown is indeed living with the above-mentioned “conveniences” while storm victims suffer. Since when are communication and food conveniences?

Crackpots will come out of the woodwork and gain media attention with their far-fetched, generally hateful rhetoric. Already Rabbi Noson Leiter from upstate NY publicly stated that hurricane Sandy happened because of New York’s passage of legislation that made gay marriage legal. He truly said that.

The difference between Sandy and Katrina is that Katrina affected the whole city of New Orleans. There was damage everywhere. Not so in New York. It was pretty much life as usual last weekend where I was. The problem with that is that over time it may become easier for citizens of the largest city in America to live in semi-denial about the plight of those

just a borough away. If all is well in Hell’s Kitchen and Chelsea and the meatpacking district and upper Manhattan, will it be too easy to forget about those in Staten Island, Hoboken, Atlantic City, Coney Island and Westchester County? I hope not, but I know when the headlines die down, so will much of the country’s attention. I saw that here in New Orleans. We became yesterday’s news much sooner than any of us expected.

Meanwhile, by mid week the highly anticipated nor’easter hit hard, actually knocking out power to many of those whose electricity and heat had just been restored after Sandy. Climate change scientists and others [read: Al Gore] are predictably pointing to this crisis as clear evidence of global warming, and rightfully questioning why this issue never saw the light of day during the entire Presidential campaign. The drama is just beginning. You can help. Click here to make a donation online. It takes less than one minute. Or, you can text to 90999 to automatically donate $10 to Red Cross hurricane relief, which will be added to your wireless bill. Come on. Just do it.

THE DIRTY SECRETS OF THE DANZIGER BRIDGE

Headlines coast to coast screamed “Blagojevich Guilty” after a Chicago jury deliberated for nine days and found former Governor Rod Blagojevich guilty on 17 corruption counts. In Florida, the seemingly endless Casey Anthony child murder trial also made headlines after the defendant’s mother tried to explain away her computer searches for “chloroform,” with a straight face. But in New Orleans, all eyes were on the Federal courthouse as a jury was seated for the Danziger Bridge trial. What, no Nancy Grace, Joy Behar, Wolf Blitzer or even Dr. Drew Pinsky reports? Nothing. A quick search of the NY Times turns up nada. The Washington Post? Well, if by chance you clicked on “National” news at the top of the home page, and the once you got there, scrolled way down and clicked on “More National News,” and then once you got to that page, scrolled down to the 27th headline, you’d find an AP wire story about the Danziger Bridge story.

You get the idea. Danziger is not a term in the national consciousness. But here in New Orleans, the courthouse was packed on day one of the trial that has become so iconic to the Hurricane Katrina event, that people actually drive to the bridge just to see where it all happened. So, if you’re reading this from Salt Lake City, or Poughkeepsie, or Greensboro, maybe I should briefly recount for you what happened. At least as much as we know. What is known is that on Sept. 4, 2005, just days after the storm, two men were killed by gunfire on the bridge and four others were wounded. One of the dead was a 40-year-old disabled man who was shot in the back. To hear the accused cops (above, left) tell it, there was a distress call from the bridge area suggesting cops were fired upon. Nine other cops piled in a rented truck and rushed to the scene. What happened after that is unclear, except we know the two men were killed and four others wounded.

Now five police officers are on trial for civil rights violations, unjustified shootings and for covering up their activities. Five former cops have already entered guilty pleas to the cover up and will testify against their one-time colleagues. A detective goes on trial later in the summer. Anybody who lives in New Orleans knows something very bad happened on the bridge that day, and just about everybody believes the cops are guilty – except other cops, who never believe their brethren are guilty. Federal prosecutors allege the attacks on the bridge were unprovoked. In fact, this case may have simply faded away had the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI not become involved in the investigation. But they did. It’s a complex series of events that led to this trial. Listen to two Times-Picayune crime reporters explain the order of what happened:

New Orleans is often aptly referred to as “The city that care forgot.” So true. The story just isn’t as “sexy” as say a Rodney King police abuse case out of L.A. back in 1991. It doesn’t have the staying power of the 1997 NYC case of citizen Abner Louima, who was sexually brutalized with a plunger handle by two cops. This is New Orleans. We made it on the media map in 2005 because of the largest natural disaster in the history of the United States. But attention spans are short and news has very little longevity in our new tech world culture. So Katrina is over. Way over. And stories like the Danziger Bridge case don’t really get much CNN/MSNBC/Huffington Post/CBS/NBC/ABC/FOX attention. Almost none, you might say.

It’s tough to compete with Blagojevich, who’s still rocking those 1970’s junior high school bangs. And Casey Anthony, the innocent-looking white girl who may have killed her baby and then gone out partying? Well, that’s ratings gold for networks like HLN. They’ve even got Dr. Drew Pinsky covering it – he’s an addiction specialist and nobody in this case is claiming addiction problems. Go figure. In his new book about Katrina, former Mayor Ray Nagin (above, right) is all hot and bothered about police corruption during and after the storm. But oddly enough, while he was mayor, the words “Danziger Bridge” scarcely crossed his lips. Although the cops in question are both black and white, the victims were all black. Where is Jesse Jackson? Where is Al Sharpton? Where’s the NAACP? Where is the Southern Christian Leadership Conference? The ACLU?

Where is the public outrage? I believe it is stuck back in 2005. “Katrina fatigue” is not just an expression. In New Orleans we can barely look back. Around the rest of the country, Katrina is a historical term now. In some ways we in New Orleans still see the storm in present tense, although certainly it fades as time moves on. But really, if you are in New Mexico, or Connecticut, or Maine or Montana, do you care about Katrina now? No. To you, the Danziger Bridge could just as easily be a place in a fiction novel as it could a real blood-soaked crossing in Louisiana. I do not anticipate a high profile for the trial outside of Louisiana, but at the same time, I know that if the accused cops walk free, the racial implications for the whole country could be dire. Stay tuned.

NEW ORLEANS: AFTERGLOW

To understand how monumental the Saints Super Bowl victory was Sunday night, you have to truly “get it” that this was not really about football. This was about many New Orleanians taking their first full breath in five years, and experiencing that much-elusive feeling of joy that has been sorely missing in one of the most joyous cities on earth. When Tracy Porter intercepted the pass from Colts quarterback Peyton Manning and immediately pushed the score to 31-17, Hurricane Katrina finally took its rightful place in the history of New Orleans. Until that moment, we all still saw Katrina in present tense. Today we do not.

The night before the Super Bowl, less than an hour after the polls closed, LA Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu claimed victory in the New Orleans mayoral race. That once and for all informed us that the Ray Nagin era is thankfully over. We voters made one of the city’s biggest mistakes ever when we allowed Nagin a second term. During the second term, Nagin accomplished virtually nothing and progress in rebuilding our city almost came to a halt. Landrieu not only has a reputation as an aggressive leader, but he also has connections to Washington, and a sister who is a U.S. Senator. To say we are hopeful is an understatement.

I have lived in New Orleans for 25 years, and I feel confident in saying that life here is unique in the United States. There is a sense of community here that almost makes us feel separate from the rest of the South, in a good way. It is not a perfect place. The racial divide here is all pervasive, and it certainly holds us back from being as powerful a city as we could be. The poverty rate is an embarrassment for rich and poor alike here, and it holds individual citizens back from being who they could be in the world. The crime has been extreme for the last decade, and it does cause us to look over our shoulders a bit more than we would like. Still, if you asked those racially angry or outrageously poor or somewhat fearful citizens what they feel for the city, they will always use the word “love.” We love this place in a deep way. And we rarely leave for long. I tried to leave once in 1989, but I was back by 1991. I longed for it the whole time I was gone. New Orleans has a way of getting under your skin, and if you’re like me, and you were not fortunate enough to be born here, before you know it you’ve been here for a quarter of a century.

Within 10 minutes of the Saints Super Bowl victory, I was on Bourbon Street, along with tens of thousands of others. There was no violence; there was no racial divide; it didn’t matter what your socio-economic status was; there was just sheer, unadulterated joy. Brass bands seemed to appear out of nowhere; people made up extemporaneous raps about the Saints; drag queens posed under streetlights; bikers danced with each other; strangers hugged and kissed; out-of-towners were dazzled, locals were unified as a real community and we all knew it was a moment unlike any other. New Orleans was back on the map, and every single one of us who stayed after the 2005 hurricanes knew that we helped put it there.

If you live in New Orleans, keep your head held high. If you’re anywhere other than New Orleans, come on down and see what all the fuss is really about.

NEW ORLEANS: The Fastest Growing Forgotten City in the U.S.

Seven weeks after Hurricane Katrina, upon returning from exile, a friend of mine took me to see the edge of Lake Pontchartrain. It is where old, established New Orleans seafood restaurants were located. “Let’s go to the lakefront and eat some crawfish,” was part of the easy local lexicon. A long line of old clapboard buildings lined the lakefront, along with a couple that had been built more recently – meaning sometime in the last 40 years or so. You could get lucky and grab a table outside and spend the evening talking and drinking and eating Louisiana seafood. You could watch the sun set on the lake, or watercraft buzzing by. Sometimes people would drive their boats right up to the restaurant, disembark and have dinner. It was a lovely part of the city.

When my friend took me to see it after the storm (below, right), there was no trace whatsoever of anything that had been there. Not an intact board or rooftop, not one recognizeable thing. I lost my bearings for a few moments, actually not being able to figure out exactly where I was. It was a barren space that just looked out over the water. All traces of the ‘forget your troubles’ kind of a place this used to be were eradicated. Of all the post-Katrina moments I have had, that may have been one of the most devastating. Standing there taking it in I was struck by the fully unwelcome silence of the place. Standing in the exact spot where the old restaurants had been, my friend and I looked at each other and quietly we knew this was one of those ‘you had to be there moments.’ Nobody who isn’t here is going to understand how this feels.

Fast forward almost four years later: It Is July 1, 2009 and the U.S. Census bureau reports New Orleans is the fastest growing city in the United States. Last year alone, the population in New Orleans grew by 8.2 percent. We have about 311, 000 people now. That is, however, down from approximately 484,000 in the 2000 census. Still, I can report that New Orleans feels more like itself, finally. The population no longer feels sparse, as it did for the first couple of years after the storm.

The city looks better, but if you get out into some of the outlying areas, such as New Orleans East and the Lower 9th Ward, things are still rough. In some places, not a lot of progress has been made. The much ballyhooed “Musician’s Village,” (left) a housing development for local musicians, spearheaded by Harry Connick, Jr., is a sight to behold. Amazing. But spitting distance from there, for years after Katrina, was the graveyard for all the New Orleans Police Department vehicles killed by the floods. You can see some new housing developments in New Orleans East, but the Lake Forest Plaza Shopping Mall, once a commercial hub, was virtually destroyed by the hurricane and the subsequent flooding. It sits as a giant reminder of nature’s wrath.

In the Lower 9th, Brad Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation is doing a phenomenal job in raising money and building highly innovative, storm-resistant homes. But a stone’s throw from the development you can drive down streets in the Lower 9th that look like Katrina hit yesterday. The grass may be higher, but the devastation remains visible. If you have been here before, the devastation tells a sad story. Part of a house remains that was built a century ago, and across the street are the remains of the home of the first house’s descendents. Just down the street might be a pile of rubble that once housed the grandchildren. This was a community that had rich family heritage. There was no great wealth here; no one boasts of a U.S. President hailing from the lower 9th, but there is important cultural history here, just the same. So why, four years later, is it all still crumbling foundations, waist high weeds and nothing but memories?

Recent reports indicate there are approximately 3,800 vacant properties in the lower 9th. If you are not in New Orleans, what you do not know is that you can walk right up to some of the smashed houses, look in the windows and still see dishes in the sink from August 29, 2005, or clothes hanging neatly in closets – the door may be torn off but the garments are still there, waiting. The homeowners are still spread far and wide from Texas to Maine, Virginia to California. Those who are back often live on blocks where theirs is the only inhabited house. It is not uncommon to see residents whose houses show signs of repairs that were started, but then stopped. Often that has much to do with contractors who took their money and ran, without completing the job. An over-taxed, under-financed District Attorney’s office in Orleans Parish has countless such cases waiting to be settled.

Elsewhere in the city, the Army Corps of Engineers came forward recently to admit that it is running behind on 13 levee repair projects. Some of these projects were not due to be completed until 2011, but now may take even a couple of years longer. That is, unless we have a Katrina-like storm that decimates even more of the existing levee system. The government allocated $15 billion to repair the levees, but that figure was tied to a repair schedule the Corps can no longer meet. If the levee repairs cost more than originally anticipated, no one knows from where the additional funding will come.

Meanwhile, earlier this year, Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) reported that much of the money allocated for repairs throughout the Gulf Coast region was tied up in red tape. FEMA promised $5.8 billion to repair roads, schools, libraries, sewer systems and other infrastructure, but a good portion of the rebuilding has yet to begin. Meanwhile, the facilities that should have been repaired by now continue to rot. How long do government officials think an old school building or library with all of the windows blown out (above, left) can sit idle before it is not longer repairable? Or, perhaps that is the wrong question. Maybe the real question is, Do government officials think about the Gulf Coast and/or New Orleans anymore? Or are we yesterday’s news?

The answer depends on your location. If you are anywhere outside of the Gulf Coast, Hurricane Katrina is history. However, those of us who live in New Orleans, or the surrounding areas, see Katrina in present tense. A Katrina-like catastrophe could happen in Anytown, USA. Maybe even your town. And once it does, be aware that you will ultimately be out there on your own – even if you live in the “fastest growing city in the United States.”

THE GATHERING CLOUDS OVER VATICAN CITY

Until this month, the biggest recent news out of the Vatican was that Pope Benedict XVI (below, left) was stepping up – way up – to the digital age, by starting his own YouTube channel. That caused passing interest among the world’s population, but nothing even close to international reaction to two later announcements:

First came news that the Pope is bringing disgraced Bishop Richard Williamson back into the church. Williamson, who had been consecrated as a bishop without the approval of the Vatican, was excommunicated in 1988. The current Pope refers to this reversal of his predecessor’s decision as “rehabilitation.” Williamson is most known for his assertion that the holocaust has been blown way out of proportion, that six million Jews did not die, and that there were no gas chambers in the German concentration camps.

Increasingly liberal columnist Christopher Buckley wrote a good piece on this debacle this week. As you read it, you will have an opportunity to click through to another piece by Buckley about his in-person visit to Auschwitz. Buckley’s account of visiting the infamous death camp is more than riveting. Further, it is all the evidence needed to cause one to wonder what Pope Benedict’s motivation could possibly be for readmitting Williamson to the church. And if all of that were not enough to outrage an otherwise compassionate populous, an interview Williamson granted Swedish TV in November of last year should do the trick – especially the part where Williams posits that the buildings we always thought were gas chambers could not have served that purpose since their chimneys were not high enough. Yes, he honestly said that. See for yourself:



The Pope lifted Williamson’s excommunication on January 21. Immediately there was a worldwide uproar, especially when the video you just viewed found wide distribution. On January 30, Williamson, probably fearing the Pope might rethink his unfortunate reversal, wrote a public letter to Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos, apologizing for his “imprudent remarks” on Swedish TV. By the end of the week, the Pope was issuing statements reassuring naysayers that the Vatican does not support holocaust deniers. Except apparently, Richard Williamson. It remains to be seen how the Pope and his minions will handle this international public relations disaster. Stay tuned.

Just as the groundswell of outrage was making itself heard about Williamson came news that Pope Benedict had installed Father Gerhard Maria Wagner (below, right) as Bishop in the Austrian city of Lenz. Wagner’s name will ring an off-key bell with some readers, particularly those in New Orleans. Back in 2005, Wagner publicly stated that Hurricane Katrina was the direct result of “spiritual pollution,” and that God was exacting retribution on a city with “the best brothels and the prettiest prostitutes.” As evidence of the widespread debauchery that New Orleans represents, he pointed out that the hurricane destroyed abortion clinics and nightclubs. He did not, however, mention the churches, hospitals, hospices, homeless shelters, nursing homes or schools for the disabled that were also under water. He failed to include the elderly citizens who washed away in the storm because they were too weak or too poor to escape. And, of course, he neglected to mention the good citizens who were found dead, weeks, even months after the storm, in the attics of their homes, where they sought refuge from the merciless rising waters. “The conditions of immorality in this city are indescribable,” Wagner said at the time. As it turned out, the real and sole issue of immorality during Katrina was the level of poverty that demanded some citizens stay behind and perish. Wagner, of course did not understand that -- because he wasn't here.

Wagner’s ascent to Bishop of Lenz was strictly an executive decision from the Pope. Reportedly, Pope Benedict did not confer with any of the reigning clerics in Lenz.

News reports about Williamson and Wagner routinely refer to these Papal decisions as signs of increasing “conservatism” from the Vatican. More importantly, such moves are truly signals of intolerance. By supporting and promoting a revisionist priest who denies the holocaust, and another whose judgmental and disrespectful comments condemn the entire population of a U.S. city, the Pope sets an example of dogmatism and arrogance that contributes nothing to the greater good. Catholics, Jews and the good citizens of New Orleans deserve so much better.