YatBazaar's mission is to bring New Orleanians together in an on-line community to discuss/chat/argue/plan/dream/socialize. In short, it's a NOLA neighborhood!

YatPundit Podcast - Sacred Heart Sunday
(cross-posted to BOSHbook.com)

"Sacred Heart Sunday" at YatPundit Podcast - Introducing the segments we'll be doing on the book: Brothers of the Sacred Heart in New Orleans. Of course, we end up talking mostly about basketball, as you'd expect the day after BMHS wins state.
Here's the link to the podcasts:
http://yatpundit.com/music/YatPundit/podcasts
Click on the file for today's date.

Brother Martin High - LHSAA 5A State Basketball Champs!
(crossposted to BOSHbook.com)

The 1969-1970 State Championship BMHS team, who went 36-0.

YatPundit Podcast - Streetcar Saturday
(cross-posted to CanalStreetcar.com)

Streetcar Saturday, a day late. I planned on posting the podcast from Armstrong, but Delta messed me up. My flight to Detroit left on "C" concourse, not the usual Delta "D," which means I didn't have access to the Delta SkyClub (and their T-Mobile HotSpot). LANOIA says they have free wi-fi, but it's a disaster. That will be a forthcoming YatTravel rant, trust me.

MSY-DTW-AMS-HEL
A twitter friend asked if I was repeating old SAC launch codes when I posted that yesterday. That's airport shorthand for:
New Orleans to Detroit to Amsterdam to Helsinki
And that's exactly what I did. I'll post the full trip report to YatTravel, of course.
And what a day to be trapped in flying tubes of metal! My old school wins the state basketball championship, but more on that in a bit.

YatPundit Podcast - TGIF!

Boiled Crawfish, travel through MSY, and other Friday-like subjects. Coming to you from the CC's Community Coffeehouse on Esplanade Ave.
http://yatpundit.com/music/YatPundit/podcasts
Click on the file for today's date.

Odds and Ends

The gym at St. Aloysius, on Esplanade and N. Rampart, one of the photos in my new book, which will drop on 12-April
Just a few things...
For those of you unfamiliar with how I organize my blogging, I've got a bunch of things going on:
Food: at http://food.yatpundit.com - most recent are reviews of Parkway Bakery, Crescent City Steakhouse, and a podcast about Crescent City.
Travel: at http://travel.yatpundit.com
Streetcars: at http://canalstreetcar.com, but we're also reviving the New Orleans Street Railway Association at http://nosra.org now that we're in the countdown to saying buh-bye to SeeRay. CanalStreetCar (dot com) will be for advocacy and opinion, NOSRA dot org will be for education and history (since it's a non-profit entity).
Brothers of the Sacred Heart: My latest book, out on 12-April, is another "Images of America" book entitled Brothers of the Sacred Heart in New Orleans. The site http://BOSHbook.com is for photos and commentary on the four schools documented in the book, St. Aloysius, Cor Jesu, St. Stanislaus, and Brother Martin High. Even if you (or someone in your family) didn't attend a Brothers' school, there's lots of great NOLA history here.
Enjoy!

YatPundit Podcast: Tech Thursday - Why Google Fiber will pass NOLA by

Today's YatPundit Podcast deals with why Google Fiber will pass New Orleans by.
It can be summed up in three simple words:
Return On Investment.
http://yatpundit.com/music/YatPundit/podcasts
Click on the file for today's date.

Analyzing the New Orleans District A City Council Race
Two interesting articles on the aftermath of the very ugly race for the District A City Council seat in New Orleans. First is Mike Bayham's "autopsy" of Jay Batt's failed campaign to regain his seat. Mr. Bayham points out that Republicans in Lakeview simply did not come out for Batt, costing him the election. Bayham blames this on Batt's campaign strategy:
Batt failed to effectively play the Republican card with GOP voters despite his solid cred in this area, having played a major role in Joseph Cao’s defeat of Democratic Congressman Bill Jefferson and being the lone councilman who actively opposed Kathleen Blanco’s bid for governor in 2003.
Two things here: First, Cao's win over Dollar Bill Jefferson wasn't representative of anything but a rejection of a now-convicted federal felon while he was under indictment. If Mr. Batt gave Mr. Cao good political advice, that's great, but it's not a big feather in his cap. Second, Cao is NOT highly regarded by local Republicans because of his yea vote for the Democratic party's healthcare reform bill in the House of Representatives. Reminding the GOP base of Cao would be counterproductive.
The other big point that Bayham misses (and I commented about on his blog) is the fact that Lakeview wants nothing to do with Jay Batt. To them, he's an Uptown guy who abandoned them in the immediate aftermath of the storm. That's why the "Anybody But Batt" movement grew legs and gained traction. It's important to remember that Lakeview Republicans are the people who put the lie to fundigelical talking points about the storm. When crazy preachers were pointing to New Orleans and saying the floods were God's way of purging the country of the Godless Homos, they failed to note that the 17th Street Canal breach had its greatest impact on the hardest of hardcore white-bread, Republican neighborhoods in Orleans Parish. These people were unhappy enough with him to elect a Democrat in 2006 because she (Shelly Midura) was from Lakeview, and had more in common with them than Batt. Four years and an expensive media/Internet campaign did little to rehabilitate Batt's image.
A final note on Bayham's article--his recounting of poll-watching activities on election day are an object lesson in the need for feet-on-the-ground for any campaign on election day.
Donze's article in Da Paper leads with Teh Dramah of two candidates who can't stand each other, but it's the hard numbers to put the race into perspective:
Not surprisingly, Guidry dominated Batt in every way, winning 71 of 89 precincts.
She received about 87 percent of the African-American vote and 56 percent of the non-black vote, according to an analysis by University of New Orleans political scientist Ed Chervenak.
The review of key precincts also shows that Guidry got 44 percent of the Republican vote and 93 percent of the ballots cast by Democrats and independents. Chervenak said Guidry crushed Batt in Mid-City precincts and more than held her own Uptown and in Lakeview. Batt won only the precincts in the Audubon Park and university areas and a handful of Lakeview precincts, his political base.
Batt actually lost support between the primary and the runoff, Basically, the more he spent, and the harder his print/TV/Internet campaign pushed, the more people left his cause.
One final thought: For all that Karl Rove did to remove Democrats from the state of Louisiana post-storm, the city still has a Democrat for mayor and no Republicans on the City Council, even from District A.

YatPundit Podcast - Politics Wednesday

Politics Wednesday for March 10th - NOLA Mayor, Kenner Mayor (Kenna, bra), and some Florida politics for dessert.
http://yatpundit.com/music/YatPundit/podcasts - click on today's date

YatPundit Podcast - Twitter Tuesday!
It's Twitter Tuesday at YatPundit Podcast. Today I explain why I say on my Twitter bio: "Not a social media expert. Have real job" while working with Greta on Yatmedia.
http://yatpundit.com/content and look for today's date.





