Ed Batista

Lest We Forget

One year ago today, on August 23rd, 2005, Hurricane Katrina formed over the Bahamas.

New Orleans still needs your help--please give to the charity of your choice at Network for Good's Katrina page.

Tyler Cowen on New Orleans

Kudos to Slate for Tyler Cowen's outstanding series of "Dispatches" on New Orleans.  Cowen, an econ prof at George Mason and co-author at Marginal Revolution, provides some refreshingly candid analysis of the city's post-Katrina challenges.  From Tuesday's piece:

Since so many homes were destroyed, the natural inclination is to build safer or perhaps impregnable structures. But that is the wrong response. No one should or will rebuild or insure expensive homes on vulnerable ground...

Instead, the city should help create cheap housing by reducing legal restrictions on building quality, building safety, and required insurance... Once the current ruined structures are razed, governmental authorities should make it possible for entrepreneurs to put up less-expensive buildings. Many of these will be serviceable, but not all will be pretty. We could call them structures with expected lives of less than 50 years. Or we could call them shacks.

What is the advantage of turning wrecked wards into shantytowns? The choice is between cheap real estate or abandonment. The land will not sustain high-rent, high-quality real estate... If various levels of government try to mandate higher values than the land will support, the private sector will simply withdraw its participation, leaving nothing behind.

...Reducing building restrictions so developers can put up cheap housing quickly is probably the best way to jump-start recovery. For starters, cheap housing might be one means of inducing migrants—many of them Latino immigrants—who have come to the city for temporary construction jobs to stay. And as low-cost laborers settle in the city, they'll boost economic activity and pay taxes, thereby attracting corporations, service suppliers, and entrepreneurial small businesses. It would be fitting if New Orleans were rebuilt, both physically and culturally, by Latin and Caribbean immigrants. After all, the city has long been influenced by Hispanic and Caribbean settlers...

From Wednesday's entry:

The city has so far been ambivalent about the influx of new [Latino] workers. But New Orleans should embrace its new residents, since Latinos will drive the city's structural and cultural renewal and help New Orleans claim a future for itself...

In October, Mayor Ray Nagin asked, "How do I ensure that New Orleans is not overrun by Mexican workers?" The answer: Do not rebuild.

And from today:

In the realm of higher education, the cultural renewal of New Orleans is well under way. Unlike the city itself, New Orleans' universities are almost back to normal, with some creative adjustment...

So why have the universities done so much better than the city as a whole? First, the universities were never wracked by extreme corruption and bad governance. They have continued to pursue success and avoided getting snarled up in questions about who is really in charge. New Orleans must deal with politically divided federal, state, and local governments, but the universities have clear administrative chains of command, starting with their boards and presidents.

The more definite lines of accountability and authority lead to clearer priorities. The universities are focusing on what economists call their comparative advantages—the things they do better than other institutions...

The city, by contrast, has no sense of what must go and no vision of success. No leaders have articulated a vision for the city that balances the myriad competing local interests. The buck stops nowhere and many officials and citizens seem to wait for Washington to solve every problem. For any specific difficulty, the mayor blames Michael Brown, who blames Secretary Chertoff, who blames Gov. Blanco, who blames President Bush. Nobody is held accountable for failure to lead or failure to enforce the law and protect property rights. And as in any patronage system, a suggestion to cut failing programs is usually dead on arrival. The city sees spending money and delivering contracts to constituents (read: interest groups) as an end in itself....

Cowen's vision is both encouraging and depressing; the former because he proposes some innovative but concrete steps the city could take to revitalize itself, and the latter because his portrayal of the city's governing culture suggests that it's unlikely that such measures will actually be implemented.

Sigh.

Gary Giddins on Jazz and New Orleans

I recently stumbled across Jerry Jazz Musician, a site with an odd name and a clunky design but outstanding writing on "jazz and American civilization."  They just published a brilliant interview with jazz critic and scholar Gary Giddins on "the beginnings of jazz in the city of New Orleans, its prominent figures, and what needs to be done to properly market jazz in a city that has contributed so much toward shaping the soul of America."

It's a long piece, the bulk of which is devoted to the history of jazz in New Orleans.  Giddins is knowledgeable and opinionated, and the interview has inspired me to check out some of his books.  (I recognized him as a talking head from Ken Burns' Jazz, but haven't read anything by him.)  But it's not just a series of reflections about the past; Giddins concludes with some pointed comments about jazz's role in contemporary culture, and our collective failure to support it as a living, breathing art form.  Talking shortly after Hurricane Katrina in October 2005, he's somber about the prospects of one of America's greatest contributions to the world, and I think it's worth quoting at length:

Jerry Jazz Musician: In 1987, Congress passed Resolution 57, which designated jazz as a "rare and valuable national American treasure," "to which," the U.S. Senate added, "we should devote our attention, support and resources to make certain it is preserved, understood and promulgated." In light of all the other governmental needs at this time, do you have faith that any resources will be devoted to ensuring the success of this resolution?

Gary Giddins: That jazz will be preserved in New Orleans? No faith whatsoever. Maybe someone will be able to divert some funds toward opening a small club or producing a concert, but beyond that, nothing will happen. What they have to do is look to Nashville or Cleveland's rock and roll museum or EMP in Seattle as templates. They have to build a real honest-to-god auditorium with broadcasting facilities so music performed there is heard on national radio, and a museum with a library and archive and hall of fame. That way, jazz and New Orleans will become a magnet for people all over the South and, by extension, the country, to come and spend their vacations in New Orleans, "The City of Jazz." Jeez, we have two rock and roll museums, but we don't have one for jazz? The only jazz museum I am aware of now is in Kansas City, and while it is nice, it is a tiny place with no national impact. Because it is in the black area of town, the Chamber of Commerce didn't bother putting it on its tourist route so even Midwesterners don't know it exists. Not to have an equivalent of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame or the Experience Music Project [is] just fucking painful.

...I don't understand why the Experience Music Project is so rockcentric. I mean, why do we keep drawing this artificial line in the sand? When I was there they were doing a terrific blues and r&b thing and half the people presented in the display were jazz figures, though I suspect that visitors to the museum didn't necessarily know that. These were musicians like Joe Turner and boogie woogie players who straddled both jazz and r&b. Rock and roll and jazz have a lot in common. I mean, every time Eric Clapton improvises a blues chorus, what the hell is he doing? You can hear it as a different approach -- not jazz per se -- but that's a question of style.  He is still improvising twelve-bar choruses on the same harmonies and structure as Louis and Bird and Miles and Sonny and on and on. It's not really an idiomatic issue.

Jerry Jazz Musician: And it is not a racial issue because most of the big figures of r&b and rock and roll were either black or influenced by black musicians.

Gary Giddins: It is not at all racial, just ignorant. That is all it is. Jazz scares the shit out of people. In the 1960s, it was possible to listen to records and read books and feel that you understood the history of jazz because there were only forty years of it on records. Now there is twice as much and it is ten times more intricate. People have a hard enough time trying to figure out Miles and Monk and Ornette -- [Jelly Roll] Morton is like the other side of the moon --and when they do examine an earlier period they pick up a couple of figures to learn about, a little Armstrong, a little Ellington. But they will never hear Red Allen or Chu Berry or even Roy Eldridge, because we no longer have a jazz culture. We are more likely to learn about jazz in school, which turns a pleasurable, exciting pursuit into homework. It's one thing to put on "Struttin' With Some Barbecue" and wonder, "Hey, who is the clarinetist?" You look at the CD and see it's a guy named Johnny Dodds. It's another thing to listen to it in fear of a quiz for which you have to memorize the names of the players. I'm not saying anything can be done about this; what doesn't end up in the classroom is often thrown out altogether. But when jazz becomes an obligation instead of pure pleasure, it's lost its magic. The most pleasurable of cities, New Orleans, ought to be resurrected as a gateway to jazz.

Listening to jazz is one of my greatest pleasures in life, and I think it's an indescribable loss for our culture that it's fading from public prominence.  My wife recently learned that one of her co-workers is related to Dizzy Gillespie and had known a number of jazz musicians growing up, and she was thrilled to talk about it with him.  Sadly, he was surprised she was even interested, because in his experience few people our age--I'm 38, she's 37--even care about jazz.  Sigh.

One final note: The poster above of Louis Armstrong and His All-Stars is from the Louisiana State Museum Jazz Collection, which has a nice page on the Museum's website (although the links to their audio clips and old radio broadcasts are broken) and is located physically at the Old Mint, 400 Esplanade Avenue in New Orleans.  I've visited the jazz collection as well as the Museum's Mardi Gras exhibit at the Presbytere in Jackson Square, and I highly recommend them both, but unfortunately they're still closed because of Hurricane Katrina.  As the unnamed Jerry Jazz Musician interviewer notes at the beginning of the Giddins piece, "We have heard so much about the losses associated with Hurricane Katrina in terms of dollars and human lives--justifiably so--but what seems to have been forgotten is the cultural devastation it caused."  Sadly true.

tags: jazz new orleans gary giddins jerry jazz musician katrina louisiana state museum

Gold Digger

I first learned who Kanye West was as a result of Hurricane Katrina.  (Unless you're a rap fan [in which case you already knew who he was] or were living under a rock in September [in which case your TV reception wasn't too good], the same may well be true for you--West made waves when he called out President Bush on a telethon for Katrina relief, his candor apparently making his co-presenter Mike Myers fairly uncomfortable:

West: I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family, it says, "They're looting." You see a white family, it says, "They're looking for food." And, you know, it's been five days [waiting for federal help] because most of the people are black. And even for me to complain about it, I would be a hypocrite because I've tried to turn away from the TV because it's too hard to watch. I've even been shopping before even giving a donation, so now I'm calling my business manager right now to see what is the biggest amount I can give, and just to imagine if I was down there, and those are my people down there. So anybody out there that wants to do anything that we can help -- with the way America is set up to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off, as slow as possible. I mean, the Red Cross is doing everything they can. We already realize a lot of people that could help are at war right now, fighting another way -- and they've given them permission to go down and shoot us!

Myers: And subtle, but in many ways even more profoundly devastating, is the lasting damage to the survivors' will to rebuild and remain in the area. The destruction of the spirit of the people of southern Louisiana and Mississippi may end up being the most tragic loss of all.

West: George Bush doesn't care about black people!

Myers: Please call . . .

I had mixed feelings when I heard about this (I didn't see it on TV.)  OTOH, even as I blamed the entrenched corruption, ineffective leadership, and general lassitude in New Orleans and Louisiana for contributing to the disaster, it was hard not to feel that the Federal relief effort would have been more effective had the victims been, say, wealthy, white Republicans.  But OTOH, I think it's absurd to accuse Bush of personally dragging his feet because Katrina's victims were black.  I ultimately just got sick of the opportunistic finger-pointing and didn't pay any attention to West after the controversy played itself out, because I'm not I wasn't a rap fan.

It's not that I didn't appreciate rap as a genre--guitars, turntables; strokes, folks--but I'd just never heard a rap song that made me want to play it again.  Until West turned up on last week's rerun of an October episode of Saturday Night Live and performed his hit "Gold Digger."

Odd enough that I happened to catch SNL--I haven't watched that show regularly for 10 years or more, and that rerun was the first one I've seen in a year or two.  But even odder (to me, anyway) was that I loved "Gold Digger."  It just grabbed me, and I had to hear it again.  (Of course, since the song's been on the charts for months now, it's clear that I've spent much of 2005 under a rock myself.)

Listen for yourself: Here's the clean, radio-friendly version, and here's the video.  You can get the unexpurgated version at the iTunes store, but I'm sort of partial to the radio version--something about the syncopation of the "broke...broke" euphemism in the refrain.

(Which raises an interesting issue: The original refrain is "Now I ain't sayin' she a gold digger, but she ain't messin' wit' no broke niggaz."  The radio version substitutes "broke...broke" because apparently rappers aren't allowed to say "niggaz" on the airwaves.  A major step forward in race relations; thank you, FCC.)

So now I'm a rap fan.  Should be interesting to see how this affects my Last.fm charts.

More on Recovery 2.0

As noted below, I was lucky enough to sit in on a session at Web 2.0 last night organized by Jeff Jarvis and Greg Burton on Recovery 2.0, i.e. working to prevent future Katrinas through better disaster planning, preparedness and response.  One of the primary exercises we went through was coming up with a list of characteristics disaster systems should have--and which were often seen to be lacking on the Gulf Coast.

I think it's important to keep in mind, as Jeff noted, that there's no one single IT here--we're not talking about building an uber-system, some sort of Ultimate Defense Against Bad Things Happening.  We know that's not realistic--or even desirable, thinking about what fun the laws of unintended consequences would have with such a venture.

What we're talking about is 1) building a network of loosely joined people and initiatives who care and who want to take action (and a great place to start is the Recovery 2.0 wiki), and 2) working to insure that all the systems involved in helping people prepare, survive and recover from disasters benefit from the lessons that Katrina taught us (in short, insuring that Katrina's victims did not die or suffer in vain.)

So here's my copy of the list we brainstormed.  As someone pointed out, it's contradictory.  (Do we contradict ourselves?  Very well then, we contradict ourselves.)  And without last evening's discussion as context, it's somewhat cryptic, but I still think it's interesting:

Recovery 2.0

The highlight of Web 2.0 today was actually a very low-key, low-tech session on "Recovery 2.0," i.e. working to prevent future Katrinas through better disaster planning, preparedness and response.  Jeff Jarvis led the session, having raised the call to arms in a recent post and arranged for the space with the Web 2.0 organizers, and we had a great turnout, given the competition (free booze at any of a number of sponsored events) and the timeslot (6pm after a long day of conferencing).  Even some bigshots like Michael Powell and Craig Newmark showed up.

We introduced ourselves (a very valuable community-building experience, even if it does entice some people who really should know better into talking at great length about their Special Story),  brainstormed a list of characteristics that any Recovery 2.0 initiatives should have, and agreed to keep working together at the Recovery 2.0 wiki.  A good meeting--focused but inclusive, open-minded but with a tangible outcome, and it ended on time!  Kudos to Jeff and Greg Burton for pulling it together--I'm excited about the next steps.

recovery2

Katrina Online Resources

NOLA.com, the Times-Picayune's outstanding website.

NOLA Post-Katrina Wiki.

Network for Good's Hurricane Relief page.

Instapundit's ongoing list of Katrina-related charities.

The Truth Laid Bear's Blog for Relief Page, where you can log your contributions and recommend charities.

Blogs

The Interdictor, a guy who's been keeping his Internet company up and running in downtown New Orleans throughout the entire storm and post-flooding madness.  He's also running a streaming webcam, with a view of what appears to be St. Charles Avenue in the CBD.

Auryn, a nurse who lives in LaPlace and rode out Katrina at her hospital in New Orleans.

CobaltGreen, a TV producer and filmmaker who's lived in New Orleans for the past five years.

Brendan Loy, a second-year law student at Notre Dame.

New Orleans MetroBlog, a group blog.

Eyes on Katrina, by the Biloxi Sun-Herald.

Kaye Trammel's Hurricane Update, by an LSU professor.

Josh Britton, a student at LSU.

GulfSails, by a guy in the River Ridge area just west of New Orleans (ZIP code 70123).

Ernie the Attorney, by a New Orleans lawyer.

Katrinacane, a Live Journal group blog.

Polimom Says..., a blogger who's also launched a  Katrina resources site at Polimom.com.

WWLTV's blog and home page.

Other Resources

Interactive Katrina Information Map that allows users to add informative updates to a Google map of the Gulf Coast.

PRNewswire's Roundup of Katrina blogs, articles and related sites (which tipped me off to most of the blogs above.)

Alex Hessler's New Orleans flood damage map, which he created from a range of sources.

NY Times' interactive map of New Orleans.

Cultural South Update, from the American Association of Museums.a

Greater New Orleans Community Data Center, with extensive maps and demographic information on Orleans and surrounding parishes.

Aerial Photos

NOAA's entire post-Katrina Gulf Coast photo index, including the New Orleans photo index.  Most detailed shots I've seen, but it's a little tough getting oriented, because the photos haven't been rotated to correspond with the map.

Here's the eastern half of the French Quarter, and part of Faubourg Marigny.  (The circular-patterned park at the top is Jackson Square.)

Here's the Convention Center (top right) and Harrah's (top left).

Here's the Superdome.

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Hurricane Katrina Update

Things have gotten much worse in New Orleans since my post below.  There's nothing we can do from San Francisco to ease the suffering in Lousiana, but giving what we can will speed the recovery.  My wife and I have given $400 to the American National Red Cross, $300 to Second Harvest of Greater New Orleans, $200 to the Touro Infirmary, and $100 to the Charity Hospital of Lousiana at New Orleans.  We've also contributed $40 to Network for Good, the fantastic nonprofit online donation service we're using, to help keep their own systems up and running.

We hope you'll join us in doing what you can to help.  Click on the links above, or go to Network for Good's Hurricane Relief page to find more organizations that are helping Katrina's victims get back on their feet.

Hurricane Katrina Relief Efforts

Although it could have been much worse, Hurricane Katrina has passed through southern Louisiana leaving a trail of wreckage in its wake.  New Orleans is a very special place to me, and I'm encouraging people to visit Network for Good's page on Hurricane Relief Efforts, where you'll find numerous ways to help the people who are now putting the city back together.

I just donated $100 each to the American National Red Cross, Charity Hospital of Lousiana at New Orleans, and Second Harvest of Greater New Orleans.  I also gave $15 to Network for Good themselves, to help support their efforts to make online giving easier and more secure.

UPDATE: Although the storm itself didn't cause as much damage in New Orleans as was expected, the aftermath has been terrible and continues to get worse.  The levees have burst, pumps aren't working because there's no electricity, and the floodwaters are continuing to rise.  If you can help, click on the links above.

new orleans hurricane katrina

NOLA

Can I just say how much I wish I were in New Orleans right now?  Earlier tonight I was driving home and heard some blues-y buskers on a corner, and just now a car drove past my apartment with something funky coming through the open windows, and I was just hit with this urge to be in the Quarter, or perhaps the Marigny, hearing music from all directions, the air so moist and thick you can part it with your hands, the finest food on God's green earth, and a go-cup just for the hell of it.  God damn, San Francisco's perfectly nice, but sometimes I feel like I'm just not in the right place, you know?