b.rox

Some days I feel pretty gloomy about the way things are going in my little area of Mid-City.
But on other days I feel much more optimistic. Today is one of those better days.
For one thing, Charles is coming back. ACORN gutted his house today, and he’s doing right by Road Home. He’s going to [...]

If only he’d stopped with his prepared remarks — “and justice for all!” But no… He had to go off script at the end. All I could think about was how this speech would play to the nation, if indeed this gets any national media attention. Up until the end I thought it probably played [...]

Kudos to Silence Is Violence for letting people know about Nagin’s State of the City address tomorrow. [Wednesday, May 30, 6:30pm, Nat'l D-Day Museum]

They’ve finally started work on the house next door to ours, which has been an eyesore for years. They’ve decided to renovate rather than demolish. If they demolished, they probably wouldn’t be able to rebuild according to modern codes and zoning, because of the extremely small lot.

First step: Remove the contents from the upstairs rooms [...]

I got a call a couple weeks ago from Tavis Smiley’s people. They wanted me to promote a television show on my blog. I’ve heard about this as the latest marketing trend, and I’m not sure what to think of it. On the one hand, I like to preserve this space as a place to [...]

Yesterday’s Boogaloo was a screaming success, with something like 10,000 attendees. (Charlie London has posted a video.) Today the bayou saw more action. After weeks of rumors and postponements, the Indians came back to the bayou. We were too busy staining doors to actually check it out, but it did my heart good to see [...]

I saw something this morning, after I’d opened my eyes but before I put on my glasses. In my blurry vision, it looked like a mouse had just crept into our bedroom and taken up refuge behind the vacuum cleaner.
I put on my glasses, and discovered it was not a mouse but a small rat. [...]

Today the Times-Picayune is running the 20th story in their series on the renovation of our home. If you can score the print version, there’s a fun picture of Xy on our front porch.

I remember last year at this time, I was skeptical. What kind of screwed-up, misplaced priorities do my neighbors have, planning a festival when we have so many serious issues to deal with?
But since then I’ve come to my senses. Festivals are a great way to build community. Now more than ever, we need to [...]

I’m not certain, but it seems to me there is a dearth of summer camps and similar activities for youth in New Orleans as the school year draws to a close. The Urban League is providing a summer camp at Xy’s school, but that’s across the river in Algiers.
That’s why Xavier University’s “Mardi Gras Indian [...]

I mentioned a couple weeks back a falling out with a friend. I’m happy to report that we’ve made amends. Last night we got together for a few drinks at Finn McCool’s. I can’t even describe how much better I feel.

I wish I’d had a day of rest upon returning to New Orleans, but of course I didn’t. Sunday morning started off with the third annual hike of the Lafitte Corridor.
We began with a dozen people and finished with seventeen.

Click the picture to view a set of 20 wild and wacky pictures from along [...]

The leadership program, which was offered through Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, was intensive. But at the end of each twelve hour day, I was both exhausted and energized.

The pedagogy was like nothing I’ve seen before. The faculty worked to create and enact the very ideas we were discussing. It was somewhat mind-boggling. The theme [...]

This was my first trip outside New Orleans since we returned from our evacuation some 17 months ago. I joked that I would have been happy sitting in a cardboard box, just knowing that I was out of the disaster zone. The stress of being in New Orleans was really starting to get to me, [...]

Funny, I started this weblog with the notion of recording a true journal of my real life. But as I’ve gained a readership and some people (however few) are actually paying attention to what I write here, I find myself more constrained. Case in point: I’ve just gotten back to New Orleans after a week-long [...]

Imagine picking up a newspaper and scanning through all the stories on the front page and finding no reference whatsoever to Katrina, no reference to the Federal Flood, no reference to the so-called recovery.
Somewhere on the planet there are places where the newspaper is full of other stories.
I wonder what that’s like.

Jerry Falwell’s passing today gives me pause to reflect. Twenty-odd years ago I was fascinated by Falwell. I got on his mailing list and joined his organization by sending in a donation of one penny. I got a membership card which I shrink-wrapped and still have today. Believe it: I’m a card-carrying member of the [...]

I passed by PJ & Andrea’s old house in Broadmoor to see if it had been demolished yet. I was surprised to see roofers at work.

It’s sad that PJ & Andrea aren’t here, but I’ve had a year and half or so to get used to that fact. They recently bought a house in Indianapolis [...]

I remarked to Xy a couple weeks ago that I didn’t know who our State Senator was, and then a few days later we got a glossy, full-color mailer that answered the question. Our State Senator, Edwin Murray, wants our feedback on what to do with the Louisiana budget surplus. The mailing includes a postage-paid [...]

It’s not even hurricane season yet, and already we’re looking at Andrea?
…EARLY-SEASON SUBTROPICAL STORM FORMS OFF THE SOUTHEAST U.S. COAST…
I’ve never even heard of a subtropical storm before.
With all apologies to my friends named Andrea — I don’t like the looks of this at all. It doesn’t bode well for the season to come. I [...]