Dixie Notes

It’s actually kinda funny to see how well the whole thing has been orchestrated. You see, there’s plenty of housing here, and no residents were even living in the projects that are being demolished. A month or so ago, all these homeless people started showing up out of nowhere from Texas and the Northeast and setting up camp in front of City Hall. New Orleans never has had a bad homeless problem like some other cities, because there’s a ton of social programs and shelters. Then, a month later, protesters started showing up protesting the demolition of the projects, saying it’s cruel to tear them down when we have all these homeless people. Most of them are people from outside the area that are just here to get their protestor bona fides.

I don’t know who’s behind all this, but they’re pretty well-organized and cynical, whoever they are. I figure there’s some political stuff going on behind the scenes, New Orleans is a pawn in some national organization’s efforts, and this is an attempt to force one side’s hand in whatever negotiation is happening. If I took the time to dig through the New Orleans blog network I could probably figure it out, but I’ll bet the people controlling it are based in DC. I wish someone in California would start chopping down some owl habitat or something so they’ll take their army with them to lay siege to some other poor town.

Look at this video. Sooner or later, one of the protestors will bait the police, who only have training handling drunk and happy crowds, into using excessive force, and we’ll have a full scale riot on our hands, just like LA.

Will we ever know the outcome of the negotiation or even the parties at the table?

From the TP:

Either way, Swacker said, the population is large enough to make residential recycling in the New Orleans area possible again.

“The markets are there. The markets are very healthy. It’s just a question of building from the ground up that whole line of business,” Swacker said. “We’re very anxious to get it back up.”
…
The commission sees three possibilities for a regional approach to recycling, said Kara Mattini Renne, a planner at the commission. The first would be to hire a contractor to pick up and later sell the materials, therefore defraying the cost for taxpayers. A slightly more expensive approach for residents would be to hire a collector who would share the revenue from the sale of recyclable items with the governments. The third option would be to award two contracts, one for a hauler and another for a processing company, in a manner similar to Jefferson’s contracts with collector Waste Management and processor Allied Waste before the storm.

I’ve been waiting for this, as it’s a sign to me of recovery and improved quality of life. Certainly no one could fault them for not dealing with this until the major waste issues caused by Katrina were dealt with, but maybe it’s time? Phoenix Recycling, the people we pay $15/month to occasionally pick up our stuff, would be interested in being a contractor, but as a contractor, they’d probably want more volume. One good way to generate volume would be to make it mandatory, and this wouldn’t be that big of a burden, because you’d only have to have a separate container for everything plastic or glass. It’d reduce the burden on the landfills, too, which could only be a good thing now.