New Orleans Can Thrive

The Kitchens, Food & Cooks of the Occupy Movement | The Kitchn

2012-01-27T13:02:00.002-06:00

Those of us in New Orleans have already experienced the food magic in tent cities and public spaces. Throughout the fall of 2005 and most of 2006, we found our social interaction and healthy food through the hundreds of volunteers that came and fed us. Those kitchens, run by Rainbow community members, Deadheads, community organizers and faith-based communities were warm and welcoming and ultimately were shut down when no longer needed in that area. Those folks then moved on to the next necessary place. When I saw Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Oakland, I was taken back to those parks and public spaces we used and could remember so clearly how important they were to our healing.
Thank you to those grassroots kitchens as they continue to offer health and rejuvenation for those in the trenches.

The Kitchens, Food & Cooks of the Occupy Movement | The Kitchen

New Orleans Lyceum

2012-01-25T16:07:00.000-06:00

Lyceum Announcements

Friday, January 27th, 7:30. Parker Church. 1130 Nashville

Spirituality in Film – something completely different – a scientology science fiction film!

Battlefield Earth

Battlefield Earth Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 (2000) PG-13
In the year 2000, an alien race known as the Psychlos devastated Earth and turned it into a wasteland. In the year 3000, the aliens -- led by the horrific Terl (John Travolta) -- still hold the surviving human population hostage and have forced Earthlings into slavery. But when human Johnny Goodboy Tyler (Barry Pepper) discovers the aliens' major weakness and leads the final fight for Earth's survival, the parasitic Psychlos are in for a shock.
This film is supposed to have all kinds of Scientology messages in it; lets see if we can find them.
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Philosophy Café
New Orleans Lyceum Philo Café for Saturday, January 28, 2012 at Fairgrinds Coffeehouse, 3133 Ponce de Leon, 10:30 to 12:00. Attachment and Authenticity. Can authentic attachment be distinguished from inauthentic attachment? Was Laura Wingfield's attachment to her glass menagerie authentic? A case study: Daily NK - Harsh Punishments for Poor Mourning
Elements of Human Authenticity, by B.G. Yacobi « Philosophy to go

Saturday January 28th, 3:00. The Corner Muse Café 1381 Magazine st.

A New Creativity Group! Open Studio – playing with creativity together.

We are taking a break from the Muses (we have 4 more to do) and we will resume these at some point.. We have decided to create a space for creativity at the Corner Muse Cafe 1381 Magazine on January 28th at 3:00. This is time to share in our creative projects together. Bring your materials and lets do art and creative projects together - really accessing the muses which we have evoked. Kids are welcome because they are our inspiration for pure imagination! This is to be called an Open Studio and we will work on various creative projects together from 3:00 to 5:00 in this wonderful environment that Vanessa creates for us.

Monday, January 31st, 7:30. 1412 Euterpe St

Hegel Reading Group

This is the beginning of a challenging group reading of Hegel’s Science of Logic. We will struggle together with this difficult text which is absolutely worth it. Don’t confuse this with the Encyclopedia logic which was written in 1830. The Science of Logic was written in 1812, 1813 and 1816 and begins with the chapter entitled “Being.” The work is available on line and used, so google it.

Thursday, February 2nd, 12:30.

INTERCULTURAL CONVERSATION
Thursday, February 2, 12:30-1:45
Loyola University Campus - The Octavia Room
On 2nd floor of the Danna Center (Loyola's student center)

TOPIC: CREDIBILITY
How do we choose whom and what to believe?
How do gender, class, ethnicity affect this?

Bring a brown bag lunch and join us! Coffee and tea will be provided.

Participants will come from Angola, China, Japan, Korea, Mexico,
Nicaragua, Panama, Poland, Spain, the United States, Turkey, and Vietnam.

DIRECTIONS: The Danna Center (Loyola's student center) is in the center of
the Loyola University campus. Enter the Danna Center from the front (the
side nearest to St. Charles Avenue, or the river side of the building),
ascend the stairs to the second floor, take the first hall to your left,
and you will see the Octavia Room on your right.

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Thursday, February 2nd, 7:30. 1412 Euterpe St

Existentialism in the Healing Professions

We will be finishing Paul Tillich’s Courage to Be

We will shift to Gestalt Therapy for our next meeting (March 1st) and will be reading and discussing:

Gestalt Therapy Integrated: Contours of Theory & Practice
by Erving Polster, Miriam Polster

IF you want to learn about Gestalt Therapy and the human potential movement come join our group.

Friday, February 3rd, 7:30. 1412 Euterpe St. Philocafe

The Trickster. Can truths be taught through lies and deceptions? Does the ends justify the means in spiritual growth. What should be the constraints on gurus and shamans who might deceive in order to enlighten. We’ll look at the mad wisdom of people like Gurdieff and Don Juan in the Carlos Castaneda books.

CamelToe Steppers

2012-01-24T15:17:00.000-06:00

No explanation needed I hope. Happy Carnival 2012.

Biking by demographic

2012-01-04T09:51:00.002-06:00

via

Click on the map to see it larger. Not surprisingly, men outnumber women in biking, although the difference is smaller in New Orleans than in other urban places.

Crescent calm

2011-12-26T13:44:00.000-06:00

Maybe another reason people in New Orleans are happy?

"If you are depressed you are living in the past. If you are anxious you are living in the future. If you are at peace you are living in the present." - Lao Tzu.

Welcome, finally.

2011-12-21T08:01:00.006-06:00

In my piece of the movement, I work with small-scaled farmers and activists interested in supporting those producers by creating places for them to meet which, in their own time allows citizens to come to a shared understanding of food in their region. And lucky me, I get to do that while living in New Orleans, where true connections are commonplace.

However, since 2005 and the federal levee breaks, it has been demoralizing to meet some of those who have traveled here to "help" repair our region. Not only in the food part of the movement, although that has been troublesome as well since those sad days. Honestly, the entire region has been an experiment for others to make their mark and throw their ideas in the mix. Carpetbags full of promises and well-meaning, unspecified rhetoric.

At first, (people from away is what is meant by "they" and "them" here) came with hard work on their brain and very little judgement, probably because there was so much to do in those days. Everywhere you went, there were homes to clean and people to comfort so we accepted the tens of thousands of visitors coming each month. Ultimately most of them came, did amazing work and then went back. That seemed part of their typology; they were not looking for answers or a new place, as much as they believed in community and sharing. We appreciated them, we truly did. We found a few fellow citizens.

After the first wave, came the system people. These folks had answers they told us, and rattled off loads of ideas that could help us. Some came with money and others came with media access and others just came with energy. We gamely tried to go along with the ideas, to understand how they could work in an informal city like New Orleans in a region that has almost no political muscle or any expertise, having been exploited for its entire history.
Or they had completely thought through ideas or projects that didn't allow local interference and at the end, fell apart because of their stubbornness in accepting help or ideas from locals.

What I can say 5 years after those people started coming is: very little has been accomplished by them. Very few new ideas have stuck or been expanded. The new ideas that are still here were handed back to locals almost immediately after founding and honestly, are still struggling. Part of the issue was that the money and access went with those system people who came for a few years. It didn't stay and had no intention of staying here. Nor did they.
Or even worse, are those people who trade on the cultural strengths of our place and then come to believe they own them. That they can tell others about them or employ them to make money for themselves. They are the hardest to rid - we may suffer with some of these for a longer time, but at least it seems they are not multiplying anymore.

So it seems that wave is just about over. And now comes one that may be the one we had hoped for, and could merge with ours: the few who come to live here with us, like us.

Although we have known it for generations, New Orleans is a special place that takes special people to commit to. There is broken infrastructure surrounding us that allows us to use "lagalou" which Peter Berg explained in an earlier post on this site:
"The difference between lagalou and purely functional infrastructures is inestimable. Infrastructures are efficient but alienating and inner-directed, like the sound of a recorded voice instead of a real person. Lagalou is assimilating and outer- directed, always involving other people and their lives."
Read his whole piece if you have time:
http://neworleanscanthrive.blogspot.com/2006/09/lagalou.html

So lagalou is about people's own alternative methods that they create in order to work, live, play, travel and communicate. To have them or use them, you have to trust people. To do that, you have to believe in the people that you live among. To do that, you have to see the paralysis of relying on federal infrastructure.
Those coming now seem to believe more in lagalou, then in charity or in that federal infrastructure. They are quietly coming in and just showing up at regular things and meeting people everywhere. Taking the time to learn and listen, rather than preach and promise.

My friends Jean and Libby number among this group. One has visited 5 times in one year, the other 3 times. Both are living with appropriate scale and connections already, back in Vermont. Both are serving others in their work by facilitating connections and will continue to work like that for their entire life. And both are thinking of moving here.
I know they will add to our city because I watch how they move through it when they come. How they have made friends on their own and asked loads of questions so they can begin to understand the connections and how they work. How they travel mostly by foot and stay in the neighborhood that they want to spend time in for that visit, therefore learning about another small piece. And quite importantly, how they graciously accept offers of sharing from locals without throwing money or skepticism back at us. (And that is harder for people from away than it seems.)

I welcome them just as I welcomed people like George and Budd and how people welcomed me over 30 years ago. Because I know they are not here to extract or to impose, but to live and to share.

And maybe they will be part of the 3rd wave which keeps cresting over us for the next decade at least. And let's hope the others are over and have gone back out to the American sea.

Choosing us over them

2011-12-18T11:41:00.006-06:00

My back and forth with the produce folks at our shiny new food coop. It starts with the excerpt that the produce team wrote on their website recently:

Hey, so here's the jams with the produce department. Our goal is to make the department all Organic, local and affordable. I'm sure you can imagine there are some challenges to that. First thing is, how do we define "affordable" and affordable to who? Then there are issues with distribution and access to Organic produce. As of now, we can only get Organic produce delivered to us once a week and as far as getting Organic local produce, well that's a whole 'nother issue.

Me and my Produce Team have been looking for farms to buy from for almost 2 months and though we've found some great ones, there just aren't that many in the Gulf South. Alot of farmers I've spoken with tell me that it's hard for them to buy what they need to become an Organic farm (like organic fertilizers, pest controls and such). On top of that, there are the fees and paperwork that come along with getting Organic certification.

So we're having to decide whether to buy Organic produce that's grown all over the US, shipped to North Carolina and then to us, or to buy local produce that may be grown using harmful chemicals. Tricky.

Then there's the affordability issue. We have to choose between Organic - which costs more - and local or conventional produce that's definitely grown using harmful chemicals, coated in petroleum based waxes and may be from a farm or company that exploits its workers but is less expensive than Organic. What would you choose; what's more affordable big picture; what's our responsibility as a co-op to our community? I honestly want your feedback because these are huge issues that will impact us all on many levels here at the NOFC.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

>>My first response to the above posting:

I just read the article by the produce manager about produce and the issues with local organic, which I find appalling in its ignorance of local food issues. I am a founding member of this food coop and have worked for a decade with the local farmers and now work with communities across the nation on establishing healthy local communities through vibrant public markets. I have spent hours upon hours connecting NOLA FC members to farmers and other food activists who have explained the food system over and over again to new coop organizers. The article was a painful reminder of how some activists can talk about the values of the new world they want, but cannot take the time to understand how it will work or to understand the barriers that exist in leaving the old one. I almost don't know where to begin with my disappointment in the lack of empathy about farming issues that are present here and what organic means, good and bad. This is exactly what I feared would happen to this all so shiny store- all hat and no cattle-organic or otherwise.
>>
>>
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Her response to me:

>> Hi Dar, I don't believe we've met yet and I hope that next time you're here in the
coop you'll introduce yourself to me and maybe we can chat about this a little bit. Face to face communication is so much better for me. I have a hard time getting my tone across in written word. I just wanted you to know that I'm hearing your concerns and assure you that the message in my note in the e-letter was not about creating a new world and leaving the old one. I think I have some awareness of the many issues with the food system, but you are right in the fact that I'm ignorant to the specific issue here in New Orleans having only been here a couple months. And that was actually the message i was trying to send in my article. I want to learn from folks here and share what I've learned in my 11 years working in natural foods retail, on farms and with farmers/farmworkers.
So please come on in anytime and say hi and join us in January when we have our produce discussion.Hope to meet you soon,

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Me again:

we have not met and as much as I want to continue to give my time to the Food Coop to meet another generation of participants, I hope instead you spend your time to meet and sit and listen and travel to farmers and fishers and activists on the ground to see how this region is unique and requires some dedication and patience to understand.
When a 7 day a week grocery store gets support from its low income neighbors to open, it needs to be very sure what it is offering and that it can actually meet those promises. Healthy and affordable have been the chief words used by the NOFC with local a close third, and yet, it seems the research to make those a reality was simply not carried forward to the present day. In such a rush to open a shiny new store, it seems to me from your email and from my two shopping trips to the store that the first principle is being followed closely, but the second two are less
important. The work to build a food system is painstaking and often painful and as we know, any choice one makes requires giving something else up.
In this case, choosing to support and build a local food economy to get support from your neighbors means giving up is the talk that breezily says in an email to its shoppers "though we've found some great ones, there just aren't that many in the Gulf South"
If the written word is not your best way to communicate, then I suggest you hand those updates off to someone else pretty soon. Language like that will alienate the great farmers that I know are in the Gulf South and are waiting to see if the NOFC is worth investing their hard work in. And that you help all of us involved in growing part-time great farmers and fishers into full-time ones and work alongside us to help all of them recover the dignity and respect that they are owed.
I do wish you well. I hope you can take the time to do what others have done over the last 20 years - learn about and then help to remove the barriers to a fully functioning alternative food economy.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

and another attempt by me to be clear:

listen.
I know that last email came across with some arrogance and coldness (which will not surprise those who know me) and although my anger is still quite alive, I do want to help you understand.
But my feeling is (from my own many years in community organizing, retail design and management) that the energy already emanating from the NOFC is one of hurry hurry and impatience over the barriers that prevent the store from doing all that it WANTS to to.

But just because you want something to be, doesn't make it so. And the lack of empathy and education in that email told me that you have already CHOSEN corporate organic over sustainable local as the defining trait, even though any quick research in the region would have told you that organic here has some history and yes some promise and that local isn't found on a website for stores to easily do their buying.
and wherever you are from (and I don't necessarily mean that as a finger pointing, because I also came here from somewhere else back then too) wherever you are from may have a very different regional food system, where the organic and local are not that different and farms can be found in areas that you can easily drive to from your urban city and the farming extension agents are progressive etc.and farmers selling to stores is a well trod path that makes them a living and maybe even some of these farmers are in the urban area.

That may be the case there. I get that. But when you seem to bring that with you without edit and when you talk about local when you are really talking about corporate organic, it troubles and angers me and others.

And some of my anger comes from the fact that those barriers have been there and were communicated to those involved in planning. That is expressly why a new large storefront seem foolhardy to some of us and why we wanted to build long term buying clubs and small pop up storefronts to begin. And if some go ahead and build a full-sized storefront, then that means adding barriers to the NOFC's success to achieve the values of local and sustainable; you are adding barriers, not the farmers who you will keep puzzling over and telling the members that we just can't find them, not understanding that maybe your own scale and process is what is keeping the full-time ones away and the part-time ones from selling at all at a wholesale price.

and so, thanks for inviting me to your store to talk about produce, but there is not a person in this city that can properly do that for you at a meeting. There is not a shortcut to adding the NOFC to the EARLY work that has been done in the region on growing regional food. It will require some patience and sensitivity and that at this point in NOFC history is all I and others are looking for.

The Empathic Civilization

2011-12-17T08:50:00.001-06:00

Posted once again since it's such a great video. I hope you can take the time to watch and then share.

Overpass-over and out? Or Overhyped?

2011-12-09T12:57:00.004-06:00

The Lens reported today that the long-delayed study of whether to dismantle the overpass running above Claiborne has begun. The article gives citizen input that is both positive and negative to the plan.
The first conversation I had about this ended in an online argument with someone that I would have assumed would have welcomed the concrete to come down. Her beef was that it was a waste of money in a city desperate to cover its costs already. My argument is that it is federal money devoted to transportation studies (and would not have come our way to say, fix our sewers) and that other similar cities that have went ahead and taken down these federal leviathons, have benefited from renewed community at the human level.
Add to that increasing the commuter's time on our city streets will lead to more street level services offered in an area that needs small businesses and I'm more than for it, I will argue with any of you, anytime on the subject. Try me.

On the OTHER hand, it is quite likely that the city will screw up this study and therefore also muck up the teardown or repairs, depending on the result of the study. But, that's the banana republic we live in, fellow citizens...

The Lens

Homeless family in housing protest hoping to avoid ’a predicament’

2011-12-07T09:20:00.000-06:00

Showing how Occupy's visibility can expand this revolution:

Homeless family in housing protest hoping to avoid ’a predicament’

Beads for the Chief

2011-12-06T16:23:00.001-06:00

Another Kickstarter to support:

To thrive, it's got to have oysters

2011-12-05T10:16:00.003-06:00

take a look at this video and back this project if it appeals to you:

Charity Hospital reminder

2011-12-04T11:07:00.006-06:00

Roberta Brandes Gratz, writer, critic and regional supporter has written many articles clarifying the battle for New Orleans between citizens and bureaucrats. This article on Charity Hospital was written in the spring for The Nation and should be spread widely, as the destruction of lower MidCity continues in defiance of what the citizens want-the reopening of the existing Charity Hospital on Tulane Ave.
Instead of reopening the solid street level structure, a money making scheme for developers (as Gratz points out about the new development) as "the design of the complex calls for closing all the streets, erasing the street grid and minimizing pedestrian access, all adding up to a fortress-like campus. Only about one-third of the new LSU site is needed for the hospital complex; the rest is for six city blocks of suburban-style surface parking, temporary green space and future speculative development by LSU, which will compete with existing commercial space in the core, much of which is already vacant."

We're not done yet folks. Let's remind ourselves and our officials that we still need a hospital and the one that already exists will do just fine.

The Nation

December 2 "Bodies Upon the Gears" Savio Speech Anniversary

2011-12-02T11:23:00.003-06:00

Said at Berkeley during the Free Speech Movement 47 years ago. I wish it wasn't still true...

"There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part; you can't even passively take part, and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!"Savio's moral clarity, his eloquence, and his democratic style of leadership inspired thousands of fellow Berkeley students to protest university regulations which severely limited political speech and activity on campus. The non-violent campaign culminated in the largest mass arrest in American history, drew widespread faculty support, and resulted in a revision of university rules to permit political speech and organising. This significant advance for student freedom rapidly spread to countless other colleges and universities across the country.Savio

Solnit on Occupy (aka The American Fall)

2011-11-30T09:25:00.001-06:00

"...this is a revolt, among other things, against the confinement of decision-making to a thoroughly corrupted and corporate-money-laced electoral sphere and against the pitfalls of leaders. And it represents the return in a new form of the best of the post-9/11 moment....

Right now everyone is trying to figure out what happens next and quite a few self-appointed outside advisors are telling the Occupy movement exactly what to do (without all the bother of attending general assemblies and engaging in the process of working out ideas together). So far, the Occupy instigators and Occupy insiders have been doing a brilliant job of improvising a way that civil society can move forward into the unimaginable.

As for me, the grounds of my hope have always been that history is wilder than our imagination of it and that the unexpected shows up far more regularly than we ever dream. A year ago, no one imagined an Arab Spring, and no one imagined this American Fall -- even the people who began planning for it this summer. We don’t know what’s coming next, and that’s the good news. My advice is just of the most general sort: Dream big. Occupy your hopes. Talk to strangers. Live in public. Don’t stop now."

Read more

38 miles to bridge

2011-11-26T17:51:00.008-06:00

That 38 miles across the lake sometimes breezes by, and often, especially lately, drags. This month that 38 miles seems like it takes hours and adds anxiety at every mile marker.
Maybe because this month also means taking all of my personal items to Mandabita, for a 4 month spell to get my family house up to date. it is taking me away from my MidCity life. It is separating me from friends that don't completely understand my choice. And from a life that was paper thin in parts, but was my own creation, under my own direction.
In a year of amazing transitions, this isn't even the biggest one. But it feels monumental in my 47 year personal scrapbook, because family has never figured very large in my day to day life. To be honest, I fear the nuclear family. Mine was anything but..
I have a classic blue collar family, with generational struggles that are kept private. Maybe a few stories told in response to direct questions, but blue collar people have little time to reflect, to gather and reminisce about successes or triumphs. Moving constantly means few family mementos are kept. I have lost just about everything I own 3 times in my life: once to parents divorce, once to a weak man, and once to the Corps of Engineers. So, my own history will be mostly vague to anyone looking for me in years ahead.
Add to that, my tiny family has lost 4 of its 9 members in the last 8 years. Bad health and bad luck are also often hallmarks of my class, of my time. Those four, incidentally, all members who lived here, in New Orleans. 6 of the 9 of those I call family lived here. That leaves 2 here.
So the loss of my small rented apartment in MidCity is not much on the scale. I don't even like the apartment that much, but love the street. My neighbors ( Robbie, Rosie and Daisy,Radell, Tim and Taryn, Mr. Henry, Jonas, Moe and Stephanie and family) are pretty damn great. And even Lou, pain in the ass Lou.)
But leave I must.
Because once again being a blue collar girl means taking it on yourself, helping those left.. We can't imagine asking for help; why would we? Who could help?
And if someone could, how could we get organized enough to have them help?
So, I go.
I take my leave of another apartment, with at least 30, probably well over 40 really in my life already of these apartment packings. I drive away, believing I'll be back, to resume something close to the same life I left. I believe that, but also believe as much that I can never return to the same life-well, more truly, I know that I have never returned to the same life, I don't know if I could have, I just never have.
And I like so much about this one, things I'm afraid I'll lose.
But leave I must.
And yes. There are some upsides to it. Peace among the pine trees. Room for Maddie the Cartoon Dog to run wildly, comically at me, zooming to the left or right at the very last moment while I laugh every time. The morning walk with coffee cup down the drive, looking at overnight markings and things I missed the day before. Making a meal in the kitchen that has every tool needed and a view of the woods over the sink. Finding my grandparents stash of letters from my dutiful mother, where she gamely put on her grown up face at age 25, 27, 29 while clearly overwhelmed at finding herself with 3 kids each a year apart over a thousand miles from home, with a strange husband who seems to either have the worst bad luck ever (even for a blue collar guy) or be a bullshit artist. (In the end, it turned out, it was both.)
Having calm, good conversations with my newly widowed, clearly sad mother through texts where she actually uses LOL.
That my mother trusts me to do this move to get the house in better order.
Asking friends to help me over there and some finding their way to do it.
Gaining some perspective on the last 2 generations. Seeing my own history among my grandparents papers; my report cards, my very precocious letters to them, remembering my brother and sister as children: Rick, so formal and yet silly, Angel, calm and courteous. Their letters and report cards reflect the 2 with whom I shared a great, great deal from birth to 13 or so. Then, the family broke in a million pieces (well 4) and we really went our separate ways, never to come back together as one, but knowing we always could count on each other as needed.
So, I piece some of it together there, in the house my grandfather built and my mother's husband rebuilt after Katrina. I accept the gift from the family and yet know that in taking it, I risk losing part of my identity, my created reality.
I just try to remember, it's only one winter and only 38 miles back.

Recycled everything

2011-11-20T06:00:00.001-06:00

Satsuma season here, in more ways than one.

2011-10-29T11:45:00.017-05:00

Crisp fall weather (yes we get it here too) means citrus season. The Jesuits brought citrus to the area known today as Plaquemines Parish. Satsumas (a sweet, easy to peel seedless mandarin) is a local favorite that does not ship too well and so its success is very much due to the farmers markets and roadside stands of the area.
Starting out as more green than orange and a bit tart in taste in late September, they sweeten when they become all orange by the end of October. In my mind, the arrival of satsumas kick off the one of the best seasons here in Southeastern La when citrus, seafood, mirlitons and greens are available.

Satsuma (3218 Dauphine) is now also a favorite restaurant in the city; Peter and Cassi Dymond took over Coffea (from founder Gwen who can now be found at the New Orleans Food Coop) and transformed an excellent "third place" to a first class restaurant as well. Foraging from farmers markets, farms, neighborhood yards and by comparing ideas with their fellow chefs in town, the menu is often changing but always healthy, tasty and exciting. Cassi seems to handle more of the inventory and staff managing, while Peter is seen doing the buying and foraging, although they both handle whatever comes up and clearly communicate and plan ahead of time, so the drama is invisible, which is unusual in small restaurants. They constantly evaluate and adapt as needed which keeps the place lively and interesting, like so many innovative small businesses.

The care that these two have taken to build their menu is also seen in how they built their staff. Everyone is courteous and warm and take the time to stop and have a chat, no matter how long the list of to-dos. Katie and Will are my two favorites, but the entire staff has the potential to be added to that list.
When I'm low on energy, I go there. When I have visitors to impress about the quality of life in New Orleans, I go there. When I want to have some good chat and see people, I go there.
Breakfast has been my time to visit, but now that they have added dinner from Wednesday to Sunday, I expect to be a frequent visitor at that time too. I had the honor to be invited to their sneak preview of the dinner menu this week and can vouch for another great addition. Prices will be between 10 and 14 dollars for entrees and is BYOB. BYA (bring your appetite) too.

Chicken breast

flank steak salad

Lafitte Greenway Community Meetings

2011-10-28T14:47:00.000-05:00

Revolution of the Mind by the dBs

2011-10-19T08:14:00.006-05:00

"buying a chevrolet is not a revolutionary act"

Opposition to St. Claude Healing Center

2011-10-14T17:52:00.002-05:00

The Cult of Convenience -- the Mall on St. Claude excerpt:

Your life is so difficult, so demanding. The dues you've paid as a bohemian transplant roughing it in the wilds of downtown New Orleans are immense... people calling for accountability, using the term gentrification, those are just guilt peddlers. Guilt is so last-century. You don't even consider yourself white, really, not deep down.

The gaudily, perpetually brightly lit, thunderously air-conditioned, aromatherapized, McDonaldland-Massacre-paintjob Mall on St. Claude is there. What's done is done. It's there, and my lord, is it convenient! Plus now, if the people hanging around Hank's annoy you or get in your face, you'll have a safe place to run to... thanks to Pres Kabacoff, who created it for that very reason.

Nolaanarcha

Goodbye Fair Grinds owners and thank you

2011-10-14T11:03:00.007-05:00

Today is the end of an era. A neighborhood era, and one of my personal eras too.
The day of the sale of the Fair Grinds Coffeehouse has come.

I remember when I met Robert and Elizabeth, sitting outside the empty shell of what we had started calling "the nacho cheese and stale donut place" which inhabited the building before they bought it. The True Brew that had been there a few years before had found new owners after it had closed and those owners had quickly devolved it to the point where the owners simply taped a donut box to the window to show the type of products they carried.
Needless to say, I had stopped going.
When I walked by and Robert said hello I stopped to talk and started a conversation with the two of them that has continued for over 10 years now. They explained patiently what they had probably explained at least 20 times that night-that they had bought the building and wanted to know what the neighbors wanted to put in there. (long story made short, neighbors overwhelmingly wanted a good coffeehouse.)
I bonded quickly with Robert over 3rd places and social cohesion strategies and politics then later with Elizabeth over books and people watching and history. Their love of their adopted city was profound, anyone could see that. They had traveled widely and experienced much and loved to share what they knew. Those things became the next bonding.

When it opened, I was there that day, ordering Morrocan mint tea which had been recommended by Elizabeth. I knew this was a special place. I did not know that day however, how much it would come to define my neighborhood and my personal circle.
The evolution of my taste for good coffee and tea began that first day and continues with the baristas to this day. Baristas like Jordan and Lawrence (among many others) who also defined the place in their time with their wit and knowledge. Now, I have Lee and Eric to continue the tradition with more names to come...
I actually did some work for the place in the early days, doing data entry for Elizabeth and I really enjoyed it. Would have loved to have stayed on doing it, but my full-time job began to take over and so I became only a customer and a friend.
I made many friends through the place and had a larger number of friendly interactions with neighbors. I watched some drama unfold and saw some losses be absorbed by people while there. Katrina was a bad milestone for all of us here, but for people in MidCity we had a respite and a place to gather your emotions or supplies or people to go back and finish the cleaning. I am sure the entire downtown owes Fair Grinds thanks for recovery. When you can find support nearby, you move more quickly to a positive result.
Over the years, I worried about my friends who were working every available minute and using all of their resources to build their business. I worried about their health and the future of a social justice business model in a corporate world. I still worry, but am glad to see the next owners were attracted to the mission rather than just the profit part of the business. That tells me (and hopefully tells Robert and Elizabeth) that their work will continue.
The number of neighborhood projects, business ideas, national and international movements that have been directly supported there cannot be counted. It's too lengthy. The number of people who made a true connection can also not be counted. It multiplied past everyday numbers years ago..
I can remember so many moments now that I have shared because of that first one that evening 10 years ago when I stopped to talk to 2 people on a bench. I thank them for all of them and look forward to sharing new ones with them as fellow customers and friends.
Thank you Robert and Elizabeth.

Rising From Ruins

2011-10-09T20:59:00.004-05:00

Even though I'm in this documentary, I have not watched it. Actually, maybe that's why. I watched some of it today, and noticed a lot of subtext I was glad to see. I think I'll ask people to see this when they ask me to explain New Orleans post Katrina. However, its a bit long on anecdotal stories and short on overall analysis, but still really useful and amazing to see the city only a few years after the devastation.
Some things I thought while I was watching:
Pres Kabacoff trying to explain his flawed Walmart project is priceless.
Blakely seems like he is totally over his head and loopy (on his bike with his group without helmets by the way.)
Sad to see the Viet Village farm project.
The farmers markets look great if I say so myself...Poppy looks crazy in that hat though...
Naomi Klein was pretty good.
Freakin Nagin and his "mother of all storms" b.s. about Hurricane Gustav comes across exactly as he is.
Sadly, many of those projects have not been finished.
Hardware store people are always grumpy.

indieflix

Next American City » Buzz » Generation Y and New Orleans

2011-10-09T08:56:00.001-05:00

Reading this, I remember reading what Gary Groesch said about New Orleans right before he died:

"If you want to be a frontline soldier on environmental protection, social justice or environmental racism, come to Louisiana." .... Gary Groesch, activist, in a speech to LEAN.

Next American City » Buzz » Generation Y and New Orleans

lost architectural rules...

2011-10-08T17:07:00.001-05:00