NOLA

Allison photo of the Magnolia Housing Project, 1958 (NOPL)

One of the interesting story lines of the HBO series Treme deals with the issue of housing in post-storm New Orleans. The city shut down all of its housing projects in the wake of the storm, creating an uproar as thousands of New Orleanians had no home to which to return.

In the show, Albert Lambreaux (that's pronounced "Al-bear" for those of you not from NOLA) is a carpenter and skilled craftsman whose house in the Gentilly neighborhood of the city was totally submerged. He's living in a barroom in Treme owned by a friend/acquaintance, making his way through the post-storm landscape. Lambreaux (who is played by actor Clarke Peters) is also the Big Chief of the Guardians of the Flame, one of the city's Mardi Gras Indian tribes. The Guardians of the Flame are fictional, but the writers are very accurate in their depiction of the Indians. One of Albert's primary concerns is getting his people back home. He demands action from the city leaders on re-opening the projects and eventually stages a sit-in at the Calliope projects. That incident generates a number of plot complications that make Treme good television, but it also illustrates the frustration many folks feel to this day.

CJ Peete Project, June, 2006, appoximately 5 months after Lambreaux's fictional occupation of the Calliope

The Housing Authority of New Orleans administers the projects. Like all-too-many government or quasi-governmental agencies in NOLA, it was rife with corruption, corruption that was often ignored because there was so little profit in the first place. After the storm, with so many black folks literally packed up and shipped out of state, Karl Rove, the lead strategist for the Bush administration on Gulf Coast recovery, saw this as an opportunity to move Louisiana solidly in the red column. (David Vitter's likely re-election to the US Senate this year is testament to the success of Rove's work.)

Affordable housing units are being re-built at some of the project sites. Will they be enough? Experts say no, creating problems in the service-industry and skilled labor pools. People don't want to leave the metro area, but living in the suburbs while trying to work downtown is difficult on a low income.

Just ask Treme musician Antoine Batiste.

NOPSI 625 during the 1929 transit strike. The car appears to be on Canal Street, in front of Canal Station at N. White St. The car was extensively vandalized, which means the photo was likely taken between 5-July-1929 and 15-July-1929. The photo is from the Franck studios, who were regularly retained by NOPSI lawyers for shooting traffic accidents and such.

Contract negotiations with the five-year old corporation formed to consolidate electric and transit service in the city, New Orleans Public Service, Incorporated (NOPSI), broke down at the end of June, 1929. The union walked on July 1st. On July 5th, NOPSI tried to break the strike by resuming operations with management and non-union labor operating the streetcars. This resulted in various incidents of vandalism across town, as well as one streetcar being overturned and burned on Canal Street.

The 1929 strike is generally regarded as the birth of the New Orleans "po-boy" sandwich. To show solidarity with the striking motormen and conductors, Martin Brothers Restaurant on St. Claude Avenue offered free sandwiches to the strikers. They took whole loaves of New Orleans French bread, filled them with fried potatoes and roast beef gravy. It was the kind of a sandwich even a "poor boy" could afford.

The union and NOPSI settled the strike by October, 1929, but it seriously damaged the company's reputation, and ridership never got back to the levels of the "golden age" of 1910-1928.

Happy Fourth of July, NOLA Style:

"Go Fourth On The River" shots from last year, courtesy of Laura Bergerol. If you don't know Laura and her work, take the time to go visit her site. Good stuff from a good person!