“Plenty of cities carry their sports teams though a tough season; it’s a rare thing when a sports team carries a city through tough times."
President Obama continued
“Look, I’m a Bears fan. I’m not going to lie, but this was a big win for the country—not just New Orleans—because five years ago this team played its entire season on the road. It didn’t have a home field. The Superdome has been ruined by Hurricane Katrina. The heartbreaking tragedies that unfolded there when it was used as a shelter from that terrible storm lingered all too fresh in a lot of people’s minds. And back then, people didn’t even know if the team was coming back. People didn’t know if the city was coming back. Not only did the team come back, it took its city’s hands and helped its city back on its feet. This team took the hopes and the dreams of a shattered city and placed them squarely on its shoulders.”
Mayor Mitch Landrieu just marked his 100 days in office. As promised before the election, he is moving forward to correct the disaster created by the previous administration. He has cooperated with a federal investigation of the NOPD. His appointment of Ronal Serpas as NOPD Chief showed a positive change in a department that has been plagued with corruption. He continues to push BP to provide $75 million to the city over a three year period to finance an advertising campaign to recover from the oil disaster. On Wednesday, his administration announced the return of a recycling program for residents. Residents can drop most recyclables including cardboard and plastic bottles at 2829 Elysian Fields Avenue between 8 a.m. – 1 p.m. starting this Saturday. Glass recycling is not available, but is projected to be added in the future.
NPR featured a story on New Orleans this week. “Five Years Later, The Big Easy Pushes Forward” by Alan Greenblatt. http://npr.org/templates/story According to Mr. Greenblatt,
“New Orleans has become a magnet for educated newcomers, attracting mostly younger professionals in areas such as law, teaching and the arts. The city has attracted hundreds of teachers from out of town, as well as young professionals who are buying up condos in its warehouse district – turning it into their playland on Friday nights.”Tom Piazza, author of Why New Orleans Matters published in 2005, is quoted
“I don’t think there are many places in the country where you could have drowned 80% of the city and have it more full of restaurants, more full of music and home to the Super Bowl Champs.”
One of my favorite non-profits, www.evacuteer.org was recently featured on Cooper Anderson on CNN. This group recruits and trains volunteers who will mobilize in the event of an evacuation to move the thousands of stranded New Orleanians without transportation to safety. Robert Fogerty of Dear New Orleans is driving force behind this much needed entity. Fleurty Girl continues to produce cute, creative, historical shirts with “yatitude.” Owner Lauren Thom is also civic minded about the city she loves. Her shop offers a Rescue Me shirt where 100% of net proceeds go to the Audubon Institute Louisiana Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle Rescue Program. The NOLA>Hurricane shirt is available and $5.00 from each shirt is donated to the Safe City; Strong City campaign to support evacuteer.org. There is also a wonderful quote from Chris Rose available on a shirt where $2.00 from each sale goes to support evacuteer.com. This week Lauren read that the Algiers Food Bank was closing its doors due to shortage of food donations. She posted on her Facebook page a plea for people to drop non-perishable items at her shops. Within days, she was able to deliver enough food to keep the doors open. Now that is one amazing woman..You go Lauren! Her stores are located at 8611 Oak St. and 3117 Magazine St. and you can check her out at http://fleurtygirl.net .
In closing, I want to share an amazing description I read this week on Facebook. This was written by Kristine Rizzuto:
“In any other city in any other place, he would have passed through our lives without so much as a not, but here we celebrate the dirty, the not quite right, and the downright insane. We can find the beauty in a broken down house and the wisdom in an old soul. May we never forget that these are the things, and the people, that make us what we are here. And the next time you pass someone on the street, someone you may never have spoken to in a different place, remember; You are here, in our place, and it’s ok to talk to strangers.”
Peace
