Joe's is Closed

Joe'sCozy Corner is closed. It's taken me a while from the day the announcement was made, to believe it. Joe Glasper owned this bar and our renovation home. In 2004, he went to jail for shooting a man who insisted on selling beer illegally outside the bar. Here's a link to a nice history of Joe's: http://www.southernspaces.org/contents/2004/spitzer/1.htm

Joe owned our renovation project, he died in jail right before we went to the act of sale. It was in the middle of Jazz Fest. I went to Joe's jazz funeral, when they came through and they brought his casket in the bar. Then I went out Jazz Fest where I heard performers on stage acknowledging the loss of someone who had been a leader and good neighbor in Treme.

Much later that night, after that funeral, there were shots fired and someone was killed. Of course the neighbors caught flack from the hoodlums, accusing the neighbors of calling the cops. This rationale makes residents kinda crazy. Yep, we're the bad guys. We ain't the ones in the street shooting people. Unfortunately, Joe's had become one of the bad hot spots around the corner and while it used to be an institution, drugs and violence have taken it away. Now they have dismantled the shoe-shine stand out front and things are pretty quiet. It was Kermit Ruffins' favorite place.

Things change.

Check out the news about the incident that landed Joe in jail: http://www.bayoubuzz.com/articles.aspx?aid=1533
This is a link to Nick Spitzer's first hand account. It's good.
http://www.southernspaces.org/contents/2004/spitzer/1.htm
Having trouble locating the story about the shooting post-jazz funeral but I will keep trying.
Stay tuned !