Brian,

I had a brief amount of time to talk w/ Travis at the IPTW. Assuming 
that is who you reference.
I was too tired this morning to put together a report for BP... and my 
first e-mail of the day informed me that a friend has terminal prostate 
cancer.

I would say the event was an outstanding success and dysfunctional all 
at the same time on many levels. I will leave off reports on the 
dysfunctional.
The residents that we interfaced with were incredible folks.
After spending this morning working on recovery of my senses I did have 
an opportunity to start in the late afternoon working through the 
digital vids we collected.
Want to get to the task while it is still fresh.

I will say now that it is certainly difficult to stage an event 
involving neighborhood in a neighborhood where a majority of the 
residents have not as yet been able to return.
The site of the main tent was on Army Corp of Engineers land up next to 
the levee w/ the Mississippi & Industrial Canal behind us. They were 
present and provided levee tours.
We had 4 neighborhood houses that we did work on... out of hundreds 
possible and out of 25 that had been initially reviewed on-the-ground.
It was all asses & elbows.

Magnitude is not a large enough word. My brother came over frm Houston, 
where there is a lot of resentment for the NO folks that do not go home. 
We drove north of Holy Cross to the area of Lower 9 where the industrial 
canal breached. I had been there in December. Though the place is 
cleaned up it seems not much changed for 14 months since Katrina. Jim  
got to see firsthand why they do not go home so quickly.

I feel that there has to be a comparison to the Oakies for the displaced 
and that in the flush of the event the politicians made their cut and in 
quick time the event and the victims w/out clout or resources are pretty 
much forgot as we move onto the next newsworthy crisis.

Talking w/ the lawyers, I was the token contractor on a panel of 3 
lawyers (one w/the Board of Contractors, the guys that license the 
contractors in LA), we only had one resident attend our session... 
nevertheless I caught on that a significant amount of non-documented day 
labor w/ fly-by-night unlicensed contractors are running rampant. They 
take on as much work as they can get, take deposits etc. then as they 
get more profitable contracts from the next desperate homeowner they 
abandon the ealier less-profitable work. I also heard that folks are 
getting hit w/ theives coming in and walking off w/ architectural 
details. Very very few houses are resided in... though there do seem to 
be a small number... the impression is that they are hiding in their own 
houses lest at night they get preyed upon. National Guard was present... 
and I was told that they bring everything out at night. We walked 
around, moved around freely and there were no reported muggings. Rumor 
was that the crime had dropped once the govt/ had cleared out the crack 
heads. That may sound harsh... but it is no more harsh than what I wld 
have to say for my own neighborhood on LI if we were similarly hit  by 
unpleasant weather. Lots of no people around but you can hear the birds 
singing in the trees.

][<en

Brian Robinson wrote:

>Anybody got a report from IPTW? I had a former student tell me he had a great
>time but was discouraged by the magnitude of the task of recovery in NOLA.
>
>I will be leaving for Pittsburgh in the AM. 
>
>Brian
>

--
To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
<http://listserv.icors.org/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>