YatPundit's blog

Maybe the judge was the target. After all, Giffords may have been a Dem, but she was hardly a liberal. She was in Palin's "crosshairs" mainly because GOP knew they had a shot at reclaiming the seat. Giffords won election in 2006, ousting a retiring Republican. She's pro-gun and voted against the Pelosi-led majority regularly. There are bigger, more interesting liberal fish to assassinate.

Federal judges, on the other hand, hear cases ranging from civil rights to murder. Organized crime, drugs, corporate liability, you name it, a federal district judge is involved. This could be more about Judge Roll than Rep. Giffords.

But the shooter was a crazed 22-year old, you say! Is that all he was? Local law enforcement isn't totally convinced yet:

[Pima County, Ariz. Sheriff Clarence] Dupnik declined to name the suspect, but said he "has kind of a troubled past -- I can tell you that -- and we are not convinced he acted alone."

Officials have a photograph of a second "person of interest," a 50-year-old white male, Dupnik said. "We have an individual we are actively in pursuit of, but I cannot tell you who he is at this point," the sheriff said.

No doubt one or more people with cases befoe Judge Roll got a bit of a reprieve yesterday, thanks to this shooter. There may be more to this than meets the eye.

The Young Fellaz Brass Band (link is to their facebook page), playing in front of Walgreens on Canal. You've gotta hear their new CD, The Assassination of American Pop (LMF link).

It doesn't have to be Carnival Time to hear a brass band on the streets of New Orleans, but brass bands sure make Carnival sweeter...

and be sure to check out the new Hubig's King Cake!

Wishing everyone a fun-filled and celebratory Twelfth Day of Christmas and a blessed Epiphany for all you New Orleans catlicks out there.  It's King's day, the feast of the Magi.

Oh yeah, and that means it's Carnival Time:

What a fantastic bal masque invitation! This is an invite to the ball of the Twelfth Night Revelers, the second-oldest Carnival krewe. (Comus is first, with the School of Design one year younger.) This invitation is in the @LAStateMuseum collection.  Click here for a larger view of the image.

For more on Twelfth Night, check out my NOLA History article for GoNOLA.com today.

More on king cakes later in the season, of course.

Most importantly, my self-imposed ban on Mardi Gras music most of the year is lifted from today until Ash Wednesday!

The pilates studio brouhaha continues. This week, a flyer was circulated in the residential areas behind the Magazine Street of the building now under construction:

This flyer entreats the reader to "Protect The Neighborhood" - which begs the question, What is the "neighborhood" and its boundaries?

The pin is pushed in at Whole Foods, 5600 Magazine.  The supermarket is on the river side of the block, the old Arabella Station streetcar/bus barn.  Romney's Pilates is under construction at 5601 Magazine, across the street on the lake side.  Residents in the area bounded by Nashville, Chestnut, Octavia, and Patton, are already significantly impacted by the lack of off-street parking at WFM and other businesses.  A business with 10 simultaneous customers and 5-10 employees will further strain the parking situation and the patience of those living in the general vicinity of the 5600 block of Magazine.

Still, many who live Uptown say this business will be good "for the neighborhood."  Clearly they define "the neighborhood" as something larger than the boundaries above.

If you ask someone who lives in Metairie or on the West Bank to define the "Uptown" neighborhood, you'll get boundaries that range from River Road to the Crescent City connection, with the River as the lower boundary, then maybe S. Claiborne Ave (or even blocks further towards the lake) as the upper boundary.  Someone living in Carrollton will define things more narrowly, as will someone who lives in the Lower Garden District.

The GNOCDC breaks this part of the city down thusly:

Notice that Magazine Street is the boundary between "neighborhoods."  It's the "tracks" in the old saying "wrong side of the tracks," originally separating the wealthy folks of the Garden District from those less fortunate who lived in the Irish Channel, as the city expanded westward, so did this boundary. Romney is building on the "rich" side (towards the lake), one of the reasons the facility is arousing so much ire. Nobody likes a lot of cars parking up their street, blocking their driveways, and generally creating disturbances, and people who paid a premium for their homes like it even less.

Here's the comment from the Uptown Messenger discussion that hits this home:

What is also galling is that the people she had sign papers vouching for her bunker are mostly her relatives or those who don’t live within a mile of the site.

The "she" above is Romney. Is a one mile radius from this site a reasonable definition of its neighborhood? That depends. If you're the neighbors, the four blocks by four blocks I outlined above is the "neighborhood." If you're the business, you want to attract customers from the "Uptown," "Audubon" and "East Carrollton" sections of the GNOCDC map above.

Here's the catch: While the person living on Audubon Place, or maybe even Webster, considers themselves "part of the neighborhood," therefore entitled to an opinion on the disposition of this property, anybody outside that four block by four block area is likely driving their car to the pilates studio. At that point, it doesn't matter if you're coming from Kenner or LaPlace, you're looking for a place to park the vehicle. The Audubon Place patron of the pilates studio is just as much the problem now, obstructing the immediate neighborhood.

Customers who park on-the-street versus residents who don't want their homes to become part of a retail parking lot. Surely there's room for compromise. In this case, however, the retail property owner and her developers have pre-empted the discussion by going ahead with construction. Now the Mayor's office and the City Council will be forced with issuing not merely a "stop work" order, but essentially a tear-down of the oversized facility. Telling Romney to tear her building down is a move so anti-business that it's not likely it will happen.

It may be too late for those living near the 5600 block of Magazine to stop this development, but its tale should be a cautionary one to nearby residents.

There's a brouhaha over an exercise studio being built on Magazine Street:

Romney Pilates, currently located on Magazine near Amelia, is planning to move farther uptown to a new site across from the Whole Foods supermarket. Construction has already begun, but the design of the new building has drawn the interest of several neighborhood groups.

Uptown Messenger praises the design of the building, shown here in the company's request for a zoning adjustment:

The design isn't all that much to write home about.  It reminds me of a public school building-institutional architecture gone awry.   It's also HUGE for the lake side of Magazine.  It's also missing a very important element: off-street parking.  It's the parking situation that's got the project jammed up with a stop-work order.  The city calculated that this facility needs 14 parking spots, and the owners are willing to provide four.  Of course, at least one, if not two, of those off-street spots will have to be desingated handicappped, for ADA compliance.  That leaves a reality of only two or three spots for an exercise studio.  From a comment in the Uptown Messenger post:

Alternately, let’s discuss this from a logical standpoint, relocating a business that requires 20 parking spaces where there were already NONE available to current home owners or retail costumers, is beyond reason.

Romney KNOWS her mat classes have 10 spaces, her reformer classes up to 6, plus 7-8 employees.

So, 10 customers and 7 employees in three spots? Don't think so.

But here's the problem with the attitude of the opposition. From another commenter:

The construction of this new pilates studio destroys the integrity & charm of this neighborhood and would actually become an eyesore. While there is something to be said for rebuilding New Orleans, the “rebuilding” should respect the historical charm of such a cultural place. Parking is at best minimal in this neighborhood. The construction of such a monstrosity will make the parking situation even worse.

The "charm" of that particular block of Magazine is a bit dubious. We're talking right across from Arabella Station, which was an open-air streetcar barn for decades and is now a supermarket. Invoking "historical charm" after you've let Whole Foods on the block is a stretch nobody's going to buy.

That said, the parking is still a serious problem. Serious enough for the city to order Romney to stop work on the project:

Uptown Messenger photo

Let's face it, this is one ugly-ass building, but it's in an ugly-ass block. The almost-total lack of off-street parking is a legitimate issue.

Another legitimate issue is Romney's flouting of the law. Surely her developers knew that four parking spaces would be way under code requirements, yet look at how far along the project is. This is typical of law-breakers, asking for forgiveness rather than permission. And who is asking for forgiveness? People who will profit from the developpment. Who opposes? Neighbors who will be directly impacted by having to look at this ugly-ass building from their homes.

I don't know if Whole Foods has sufficient parking in the back of the old Arabella Station property for themselves, but, if they do, it seems to me that a business like this exercise studio could've leased spaces from them. They're complementary businesses-no doubt exercise customers and WFM shoppers overlap. With assurance that Romney's customers could park off-street at WFM, perhaps this could have been avoided.

Romney opted for a different path-start construction, then cry foul in the zoning adjustment process because the building is a fait accompli. The project's opposition plays right into this strategy. From yet another Uptown Messenger commenter:

The Romney Pilates Center is going up on a formerly empty, rubbish-filled lot next to a house that should have been a tear-down. How charming is this area?

The same commenter cites perceived positive impact from other controversial Uptown developments in recent years as well.

Not all in opposition are off-focus, however:

What is also galling is that the people she had sign papers vouching for her bunker are mostly her relatives or those who don’t live within a mile of the site.

No polite words for the Audubon Place resident who thought it would be an asset to OUR area, but certainly not her own. Pure selfishness run amuck.

I highly recommended Safire Pilates studio, they don’t disparage the neighbors. I received an email from Romney herself, whereby several times, she insulted the neighbors who expressed concern. Concern for the area in which I was born and raised does not make me or my neighbors” disgruntled” or “sulky”.

This pretty much sums it up. People who don't live near a building better suited for Veterans Blvd. near Lakeside Mall support developing it on Magazine Street.

If those in opposition to this project want to derail it, their best bet is to use the practical arguments, not the block's "charm" or lack thereof.

Mr. Bingle is always happy to spread Christmas cheer, even if he's been relegated from his lofty perch on Canal Street to hawking cookbooks in #themetrys.

Two great stories in Da Paper this morning- @JeffDuncanTP's about Saints players getting the chance after games to let their kids run around on the floor of Da Dome is adorable.  For those of you who can't go a day without something more substantive, @MikeScottTP talks about Oscars and Hollywood South.  Yes, it's entertainment writing, but it's also an important biz for the city these days.

Happy Christmas and a blessed Yuletide to everyone!

Caroling in the Square - shot by Laura Bergerol.

Happy Christmas and a Blessed Yule to everyone.

Including you, Brida. :-)

Jan Moller from Da Paper has a good analysis of Piyush "Bobby" Jindal's chances when he stands for re-election in ten months (primary election date). As of today, it's not looking good for Democrats:

"Jindal has raised such a tremendous load of money. He spent the last three years essentially fundraising," said Joshua Stockley, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Louisiana-Monroe who closely follows state politics. "I think personally it would be a waste of time or resources for anybody to run against him at this point."

This is the most ironic aspect of Piyush's first term. He's developed a big warchest which will only get bigger as he tests the national waters. This makes him more than a bit formidable, but it also means he really hasn't done squat for the state he purports to lead. Jindal's record is a hot mess, murky ethics waters, bad leadership on education, helicopter trips to campaign on Sundays, and the hits keep coming. Still, it's about the money, and about the Republican majority in the state.

What can Democats do about this? In the short-run, not much, unless a wealthy Democrat steps up, opens his/her personal wallet, and goes after Piyush on the issues. Even then, they'll likely fall short. What's necessary is to re-build the party's base in the state. Moller hits this point out the park:

For Democrats who decide to pass on the governor's race there are still several down-ballot statewide races to consider. While the governor is at the top of the ticket, voters also will be choosing a lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, agriculture commissioner, insurance commissioner and treasurer. All but one of those offices are now held by Republicans. Every seat in the state House and Senate also will be up for grabs, and Lapeyrolerie said the party will pay particular attention to capturing the seats held by the Democrats who recently switched to the GOP.

We had a popular Dem LtGov (Landrieu), but he's got a more important job for now. Developing a new generation of Dem state reps and senators is going to take time, effort, and lots of money, but it's not impossible. Well, maybe in Jefferson and St. Tammany parishes, but otherwise, it's important.

Democrats in the big three metro areas (NOLA, Baton Rouge, Shreveport) need to stretch their influence a bit and get involved with th party apparatus in other parishes. Identify some municipal and parish politicians who want to run for state office, and build things back. Dems took big hits post-storm, but wallowing in that misery is so 2005. Time to dust ourselves off and follow the national lead-take on the tea party and get good Democrats in office.

For all we do some really stupid things with public education in the State of Louisiana, at least we don't teach creationism:

Louisiana’s top school board Tuesday approved a group of high school science textbooks despite complaints that they do a poor job of describing evolution.

The books technically won approval in a committee of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

The 6-1 vote put a majority of the panel on record for the textbooks, which means final approval Thursday before the full board is all but certain.

It appears that our religious nutjobs aren't as far along as in some states, like Kansas:

She said the dispute before BESE stemmed from criticism of the textbooks waged by the Louisiana Family Forum, which she said is pushing creationism — the view that life began 6,000 years ago in a process described in the Bible’s Book of Genesis.

Gene Mills, president of the Family Forum, urged BESE to reject the textbooks, which he called biased, or delay final action for a year.

In other states (notably TX and KS), pro-creationism forces come to such meetings armed with textbooks they want adopted. Fortunately, all our nutjobs do is come to complain.

Apologies and thanks to @CowenInstitute - when I saw your tweet about this, I thought BESE had actually approved creationist books.

no, that wasn't a typo in the title.  I did mean to say "morons," not "mormons." 

This article is even worse than some of the hipsters from Seattle who argued NOLA shouldn't be rebuilt. I found this paragraph particularly offensive:

The interesting thing about going back five years after the havoc wreaked by Katrina was that everyone we spoke to including our drivers, our friends in the organization we went to speak for, people in the restaurants and at the mall claimed that Katrina was the best thing that ever happened to them!

My comment to the publication on their website:

"people in the restaurants and at the mall claimed that Katrina was the best thing that ever happened to them!"

I'm trying to sort out how the storm was a "best thing." We had to cut out the walls of our (modest, suburban) home to 4' high. We lost every possession we owned to either flood waters or the mold that grew in the three weeks we were gone from the city. My firstborn was a senior in high school in 2005-2006. He had to attend classes for the first half of his senior year in Baton Rouge, 90mi away.

Having been to Salt Lake City, I thank all the gods that ever were that the majority of the residents of that city are not the insensitive morons you two appear to be. I would never wish you lose all your possessions in a natural disaster, but it would be interesting to see how you enjoy the experience.

This is what happens when white-bread morons hang out in suburbia with other white-bread morons and talk about other peoples' problems. Stupid suburbanites are pretty much beyond hope when it comes to convincing them that their world view is distorted.

The editors of the Desert News who allowed this to be published, on the other hand, are supposed professionals. They can go fuck themselves.