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Here We Are
The city council passed a few resolutions the other day and one of them allowed for licensed electricians to do the final inspection on their own work, the practical end result of that being electricians now have new reasons to ignore your calls. Or the two city inspectors can now say no I think your electrician is handling that and the electrician will say no I already filed for you down at City Hall, you will need to wait on one of the two inspectors. I have friends and family Uptown so I'm not exactly suffering. I can take hot showers and do laundry, watch a little bad football and commune with humans inside of structures with gas and electric service, surrounded by structures with gas and electric service. And little or no debris in the streets and only an occasional blue tarped roof to remind you of the fact that there may have been a storm that passed through here sometime recently.
Then I cut across town along Louisiana Ave. all the way to Broad St. Take a right and across the Broad St. Bridge and a right on Iberville and I'm back to my quiet little neighborhood. Along the way their is spotty business openings--one Rally's burger joint, a carwash, and two or three corner stores, one of which, and I kid you not, doesn't sell beer. Because of some damn religious platform I am told. But those businesses are all there is along the Louisiana Ave. route and I'll clock it for you someday but we're talking about a four mile swath, more or less. Some stoplights that didn't work a month ago are working now but for the most part the route back to Mid-City is temporary stop signs at intersections or an occasional flashing yellow (which nobody understands and those intersections would be better off with nothing.) Speaking of nothing, if you coming down Iberville there is a missing stop sign at the Dorgenois corner so you better stop or the rare passing worker vehicle will broadside you.
I don't really live in Mid-City. I am on the downtown side of Broad by a couple of blocks. It is sort of a no man's land. Even before the flood. Vacant lots aplenty, parking lots, commercial buildings and ramshackle housing. When the master planners start using phrases like "infill development" to describe the future of my neighborhood, I can only say--yeah, I hear ya.
I told you previously about the Port-a-toilet with the Katrina insignia, DB(dead body)X 3, which was sitting at a corner along Claiborne Ave, near the Superdome exit ramp, and that toilet has been moved and is now partnered with two others in the neutral ground of Louisiana Ave., across from the Rhodes funeral home, which no longer has coffins in the debris pile out front.
Holy shit, my electrician called me back. He said he'd already been part of the do-it-yourself inspection process (which he may have already told me and I just didn't get) and that my property was inspected and filed, but that wouldn't mean diddly squat shit until they reconnect that fuse to the transformer in front of my house. I've made calls, talked to Entergy workers on the street, emailed Entergy, and...
I get mad sometimes, I'm not going to pretend otherwise.
One other thing. On my recent trip to Texas people kept saying I had no idea so much of New Orleans was still dysfunctional. Well, word up, mthrfkrs. Don't take the profanity personal. Just me acting out. Getting rid of the madness. I am totally cool, totally happy, totally chill, except when I'm not.
I'm going to leave you with this. Over in EditorBville, up lakeside Iberville from me a few blocks, in true Mid-City, EditorB and wife Xy are living full time in the top floor of their house, which is powered up, but surrounded by darkness at night, except for the two nearby houses also partially powered up, and full of representatives from the new Mexican work force, and they got a new fridge delivered the other day, EditorB and Xy did. They weren't home when the guy came by the first time and had to make numerous calls to figure out what was up. But the guy came back and delivered it and when EditorB signed the paperwork he noticed a scribbled note on the bill which the delivery guy had written to explain to his higher ups why he didn't make the delivery the first time. What he wrote was not out of slackness or carelessness but simply a genuine observation.
"Entire Block Abandoned."