Sunday Safari

Monday. Rainy. I am looking at the paperwork for our Fiduciary Agreement with CityWorks, I also mowed the grass before it started raining. My list today includes e-mailing my FEMA Debris and Demo contact to get some properties removed from their demo list because they don't meet the proper criteria. Donna Addkison couldn't seem to give the Housing and Human Needs Committee a straight answer about taking care of this last week. So I am doing research on the properties, pulling the seams. The list given to us from the city had Army Corps spelled, "Army Core". I am fortunate because I get to do this while at home, making beef tips, answering random e-mails from readers and drinkin a Fresca.

N.O. housing efforts are criticized;Council members say gutting order failing

Yesterday, I spent half the day with R., our young Squandered Heritage contributor. Sunday mornings are the best days for photo safaris because there are a lot less people pulling up behind you while you are stopped in the middle of the street staring at stuff.

I set R. up with a camera at Christmas and he started taking photos a couple months later. K. and I got him onto Flickr and then he was rolling. K. got him set up to post, she's the editor, and now R. goes out and gets the photos faster than I can read the damn lists! He's enthusiastic, or maybe he's just bored. His contribution has been a big help lately as K. and I have been doing a lot more 'other' stuff. R. is funny, he knows a lot of random shit. He knows about the churches in the city, which is helpful to me, because this has been a blind spot in my knowledge. R. is always excited about anything "Antebellum" on our architecture tour. He is always asking me what I think other people or committee THINK about things . . . I explain that this is kinda hard to do but you can often guess. . . or just ask them.

R. and I explored some really bad areas in town that R. was amazed by, due to the fact that they are almost wastelands but people are living there, in their FEMA trailers. We wanted to evaluate these areas together and just checked on some 'situations' around town to see the latest developments. We saw Leo at the Culvert, who was another topic at the Housing and Human Needs committee meeting on Thursday. R. was properly freaked by Leo. But you can drive through on Magazine, well, you could on Sunday. Another thing on our safari agenda was to get some photos of addresses where Jazz Musicians used to live, we're making a new blog dedicated to that. We'll see how it goes.

At two points on our safari, we got stuck by the trains. We saw a guy walk up to and climb over the connectors between two cars, so he could cross the tracks while that train was moving through at a snail's pace. We laughed because the guy did this while talking on his cell phone. R. tells me about a giant molasses disaster that happened once in Boston. It so happens that my sister's job is shipping molasses by train/boat.

Part of the deal for this week's field trip was that R. had to get that Flickr organized because it's really easy for the photo situation to get out of control. R. says I am a drill sergeant.



R.'s Flickr